I feel like I am losing my mind with potty training!
My toddler is 29 months old and has been giving signs for a while that he is ready for potty training so we thought we’d give it a go.
He has been running around commando since Thursday. On the first few days, I felt like there was progress… Every time he weed on the floor, I’d try and get him to the potty mid wee. I’ve lost track how many times I’ve said “you weed on the floor, wee should be in the potty!” I’d then clean it up and be done with it until the next time. We had a few wees in the potty and made a big deal out of it every time and praised him with lots of hi-5’s and flushed it away in the “big toilet”.
We are now on Day 6 and I am feeling really deflated. We are at a stage where he says “wee”, sprints over to the potty, sits on it for literally a second and then gets back up and wees absolutely everywhere! I try and encourage him to sit on the potty for a little longer, he won’t have any of it… And when I do manage it by reading books or other activities, we rarely get a wee… And then he gets up and wees on the floor!
He’s also had a few poos over the last 6 days, the first 2 I managed to catch into the potty (he poos standing up, not yet sat on the potty to do one) and we praised him loads and again, flushed it away in the big toilet. The last couple of days he has been quite constipated and has cried after the last two. You can tell before he goes that it is causing him stress and he is worried about going as he frantically runs back and forwards. I know constipation is common at the beginning but obviously this is adding to his resistance as well because I’m guessing it isn’t exactly comfortable going right now.
He’s resisting and I’m not quite sure why the setback. I have been as calm and patient as I can, tried everything to make it “fun”, maybe I’ve put him under too much pressure over the last few days… I think sometimes we don’t realise the pressure we put our little ones under. The fact he says wee and runs to the potty I know that he has made that connection but he hasn’t connected the dots with sitting there waiting for the wee yet. I am going to continue until Friday so that we’ve done a good full week and if no progress, I think it’s time to stop and come back to it again at another time.
I am not expecting anyone to find me a solution as I know every child is different but your own experiences are welcome and anyone that is in the same boat… I’d love to hear from you as I have cabin fever being stuck in the house for days, it will be nice to know I’m not alone!