Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Potty training

Is your child ready for potty training at nursery? Here's the place for all your toilet training questions.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

day 4 and still a disaster

26 replies

MomBiz · 14/04/2025 12:18

We are on day 4 of potty training DS 2.9. It's a nightmare.
I genuinely thought he would fly it but man, was I wrong!!!!!

Day 1, after an awful morning/afternoon, in the evening he stared to get really excited about it. kept running to the potty, doing a few dribbles of wee in it and cheering for himself etc.
Since day 2, we've barely had a wee in the potty. I have to coax him onto the potty with my phone or something on the telly when I can tell he needs to go and then he will sit for 10 minutes and then do his wee on the floor 30 seconds after he gets off the potty.
He does seem to have a huge awareness of what he's doing and I'm trying to stay very calm and cool each time so he isn't getting a reaction from me and willl eventually get bored if that's the goal..... but almost finished day 4, we are nowhere closer than day 1 (further away in fact) I have a week off work now and I'm terrified we'll still be here when I have to go back.
He's almost 3 and starts montessori in Sept so I don't feel like pausing it and revisiting in a few months is an option!!!!

Has anyone been here? with no improvement after 4 days of consistent trying, will this get better????

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Sevenandahalf · 15/04/2025 15:21

BarnacleBeasley · 15/04/2025 14:06

I liked Oh Crap but I think it's most helpful to read the whole book (as it sounds like you have, OP) as the explanations about why her method is the way it is are probably the best bit. There's also a huge caveat about how you don't have to follow it to the letter because you know your child best. When we did it, for example, we did loads more build-up and pre-explanation than she recommends because we know DS1 doesn't like surprises. I think it might be worth another go for you @MomBiz because you did it with treats, which sounds like it's not been working for you, so if you were to follow the book you'd take a break then start again without.

It depends on what you think is motivating your DS. For me, the problem with bribes is that they kind of make going on the potty optional: if you want a chocolate button, you do a wee in the potty. Therefore if you don't want to wee in the potty, you can just choose not to have a chocolate button. My DS's mind totally works this way - last year he didn't like having suncream put on him. So he wouldn't even bother saying 'I don't want suncream', he would just announce 'I don't want to play outside'. Even though he loves playing outside. I imagine he would probably manage to convince himself he didn't even like chocolate buttons.

I agree with this about oh crap. The best bit about oh crap for me was the bit that points out that if your child can learn any other skill, you can potty train them. And not to announce it to everyone that you're doing it - and to dedicate time to it etc etc. my method is basically interval training, which isn't what oh crap author would agree with at all, but which worked great for my older dd!

Flip

1 2