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Potty training

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

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Original poster

This is horrendous

31 replies

fattytoadboy · 03/05/2025 17:40

Tried potty training my now 3 year 2 month old when she was about 2.5, it didn’t work, she had lots of accidents and seemed upset about using the potty or toilet so we decided to leave it. Started again yesterday and it’s much the same.

Constant trips back and forth to the toilet where she doesn’t do anything but then wees herself. Getting upset when asked to sit on toilet. We haven’t left the house on a glorious bank holiday Saturday and feel like we’ve made no progress and everyone is upset and frustrated. At this age I’m conscious we should stick at it but also worrying she’s still not ready. What do I do?!

OP posts:

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SilverButton · 04/05/2025 09:09

At three years two months I would definitely persevere. Some children are easier than others but IMO some children are never really "ready" (not in the sense of asking to wear pants and then hardly ever having an accident) and you just have to carry on. My DS had lots of accidents and hardly any successes for the first 6-8 days before something clicked.

MissyB1 · 04/05/2025 09:10

fattytoadboy · 04/05/2025 08:38

I don’t think it’s a lack of resilience although I will admit I’ve struggled the past few days. It’s more the doubt in my mind that maybe we should have left it until she was ready and that by forcing it we are making it a bigger ordeal for us all.

She has done one wee on the toilet going into day 3. Everything else has been an accident and she hasn’t even done a poo yet which makes me think she could be withholding. I know she’s at the older end of ‘normal’ as most people have it cracked before two and I don’t intend to give up. It’s just harder than I expected.

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Some kids will never be "ready" they just can't be bothered! That's why parents have to make the decision to train them and just persevere. At her age it's important to crack on now, it takes weeks rather than days for most kids, so resign yourself to lots of changes of clothes!

Puffykins · 04/05/2025 10:00

I don't know if this is an actual method, but with both my DCs we built it up slowly - a couple of hours no nappy at home, then put the nappy back on to go out (but would get to a loo if we could/ if they asked) - and we built it up from there. Prob took about 10 days for each child - less for DD as she was determined and has the constitution of a camel. DS needed a bit of bribery. I think he got a single smartie every time he successfully used the potty/ loo (both of them switched to a loo pretty quickly which they preferred to a potty.) Good luck!

Moveoverdarlin · 04/05/2025 10:06

This weather is ideal for potty training, so is a bank holiday. You can get it done in these next two days. Ditch the potty. Don’t have her in knickers. Every time she says she needs a wee, hold her hand and run with her to the loo, say quick quick, when she does it, give her a chocolate button (or whatever snack of preference) if she misses say never mind.

Keep running, holding her hand, stressing the urgency to get to the toilet, keep rewarding with chocolate. Keep the knickers off for now. And dedicate this weekend to doing it.

Wesley43 · 05/05/2025 20:04

Keep going! I wrote a similar thread two weeks ago over the Easter weekend. We had made zero progress in 4 days and I was ready to give up.

A few people on the thread told me to keep going and they were right! After another two days of holding at nursery, DD (who is already 3.5y) finally did a wee at nursery the next day and that was it! She's done all her wees on the potty or toilet since, no issues or accidents at all.

She was scared, like yours, and completely refusing to sit on anything. She just had to get through it once and then she was fine. She's now really excited about being a big girl!

I'd tried and given up a couple of times before and it definitely made things worse for us as she'd started to think it was optional.

Just think if you give up now, you'll have to go through another weekend like this one (possibly worse) next time your try.

Good luck!

tellmesomethingtrue · 05/05/2025 22:28

She’s not ready. Leave it a few months. Why the rush?

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