Potty training with underwear?

[Coubies123]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone has had success of potty training their child using underwear from day 1?

We are looking to potty train over the bank holiday weekend (as I imagine many others will be!) which gives us 4 days before she returns to nursery. Our daughter is 26 months and has been using the potty, but not consistently for a couple of months now.

Whilst at home, the vast majority of the time she asks to go to the potty when she needs to poop, but it is much less frequent for pees. She is however very comfortable to go and has also started (infrequently) using the toilet/potty at nursery, grandparents house and even once in a public toilet - but these have all been for no2s!

We are planning on following the Oh Crap! Potty training method however this strongly advises against using underwear for the first few blocks, instead it suggest that the child first, masters the sensation naked from the waist down, then with with trousers/shorts but no underwear before introducing that a couple of weeks down the line. However we don't have the luxuary of time as she will need to have underwear for nursery.

I just wondered if anyone had tried a similar method but either using underwear from day 1, or introducing this in block 2, at the same time as trousers/shorts?

TIA.

Does she definitely need underwear for nursery? Ours didn't mind trousers with no underwear for a few weeks. Either way, I suspect that the no-underwear method will be quicker, and you've only got four days, soin your place I'd probably go with that and introduce pants if you have to in block 2.

DS was in pants only from just over 2 years. Surely they need to feel when they’re wet?

The theory behind no underwear is to do with muscle memory and that they feel too similar to nappies, therefore they are more likely to just go as they have been so used to doing this up until now.

@BarnacleBeasley I will double check with another member of staff re: their policy and if it is a definite no then I think you are probably right about introducing in block 2. Thank you 😊

with both of mine we just went straight into pants/knickers. With my son I think it helped because he was most put out when he went in his pants and realised that he had done a wee on Spider-Man. After that he seemed much more eager to go in his pot so that the hulk didn’t suffer the same fate.

Just insist to nursery that you’re following a method that specifies no underwear and explain that he’ll probably have more accidents (which they’ll have to deal with) if he wears it.

We are also potty training with the same method this weekend… good luck!

Our nursery said that we were the first family they'd come across to use the oh crap method (a fair few years ago now) and it took them by surprise but they supported the process and commando stage. By the time we did the same with our second they said almost all families were using the method and it was the one they recommended to other parents. So definitely check. I was so impressed with the method and so glad we used it.

Yeah I did something very similar with all mine around that age. Just decided it was time to get on with it and started carrying a bag full of lots of spare pants, socks and trackie bottoms plus a plastic bag and wet wipes wherever we went for a while. For the first couple of days there were a lot of accidents. After about 10 days we were completely done.

For nursery, I let them know we were starting training, and made sure they had plenty of extra changes. I told them if it was a nuisance they could put them back in nappies and I would deal with it at home, but actually they were incredibly supportive - obviously they are very used to the process and very educated about encouraging kids towards using the toilet independently.

I used a method that required ditching the diapers. It worked brilliantly.

There was some prep and priming in advance (talking about using the loo, demonstrating with a doll that could 'pee', practicing dropping everything when the doll needed to pee and running g to the loo, with accompanying narration). Then the start day began, and the diapers were never used again, day or night.

The point of getting rid of the diapers was to establish the clear expectation that the u derwear was to be kept dry (there were freque t checks that the underwear was still dry), to avoid confusing the child, and to make sure the child was responsible for all aspects of progress, including putting wet undies in the laundry basket and helping to wipe up any accidents - if the undies were wet, taking them off, putting them in the laundry basket, getting dry ones on again were all cause for high fives

It came from a book called Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, by authors Azrin and Fox. It took longer than a day, but it was a really well thought out method.

Thanks so much everyone. Pleasantly surprised, I checked with nursery and whilst they prefer underwear to be worn, her key worker said she’s happy for us to do what works best for us and they will support that and give it a go too 🙌🏼