Day 1 potty training

[gollyimholly]

I'm attempting to potty train my 2 year old daughter. Today is day 1. A lot of my friends from DD's baby club have been successful with the 3 day method. We've been talking to DD a lot about potty training a feel she's ready. We've had 4 accidents so far today and one successful trip to the toilet with no mess. She's having a very very late nap (our routine is a bit off at the moment as we've just come back from holiday).

I wanted to put a nappy on for nap time but DD said "no nappy mummy remember I'm a big girl". I don't want to confuse her so I left her knickers on for the nap but have laid down bed pads for her nap. The reason I'm especially concerned is most of DD's water intake happens during naptime and bedtime. This is because she uses a bottle of water to get to sleep. It used to be that she had a bottle of milk to sleep but she kept asked for more and more milk and it was an unhealthy amount which was causing weight gain - so I weaned her off by swapping the milk with water. Her nappies are usually incredibly heavy after naptime and bedtime and so I'm anticipating she will wet herself.

What do I do? Do I try wean her off her water bottle whilst potty training? She's been napping for about 20 mins now and no accidents but I'm sure it's coming. I read about a dream wee, where you gently take them to the potty for a wee mid-sleep. I did try that once she fell asleep but she just snoozed on the toilet so I took her off and took her back to bed.

Any advice appreciated x

How did it go? Just started potty training our son, so I’m no expert, but I’ve been following the ‘oh crap’ book, which a lot of people recommend. The author gives the option of either putting children in nappies for sleep to begin with or tacking everything at once and I’ve chosen the first option as it seemed more manageable. She just recommends saying something like ‘your nap is a long time and you might not wake up if you need to go, so you are going to wear a nappy. We’ll take it off at the end of the nap’ I said it quite firmly and my son did not object at all so far.
I know that when doing nap time/bedtime with no nappies, the book recommends restricting liquid before bed and also taking them to the potty initially twice during the night if I remember correctly. It seemed quite complicated to me so decided to just focus on no nappy when awake for now!

She also says somewhere that she doesn’t refer to anything on the floor as an accident in the very early stages as they are in the very early stages of learning and it’s inevitable. We definitely had a lot of wee on the floor on day one!

Hi @KatRee thanks for those tips. I haven't read the book but it sounds good! In the end she was able to wake up for her wee during her nap. I'm not sure if it was a fluke or if there's something there that she learned... For nighttime though we kept the nappy on. She does use her bottle of water for comfort so it's going to be a tricky one.

We also had lots of wee on the floor yesterday! I think we had about 5 wees on the floor and then annoyingly, 3 out of the 4 on the toilet projectiles out on to the floor out of the toilet! So although DD got lots of praise for making it to the toilet, she was a bit confused by the messiness of it.

She is also quite regular with her poos when in a nappy and will usually at least go once a day. There were a couple of instances where she said she was doing a poo but maybe the activity/excitement/nervousness of going to the toilet made the sensation go away. I gave her a screen a couple of the times to distract/relax her but it didn't work.

I think where she started her day off very relaxed and eager about the whole thing, it probably was my attitude that made her a bit apprehensive towards the end. For example, I did approach everything as gently as possible but I think I did hurry her to the toilet when she expressed she needed to go or I did want to deal with the cleaning (without involvement from DD) by myself. And I think that has introduced a small but present element of anxiety and uncertainty.

It’s a good book, but there is a lot of info in it- I found it quite overwhelming when I read it when we were thinking about potty training, but it’s proving useful now we are in the middle of it as I can just use it as a reference for issues - lots are covered!
Tomorrow will be one week since we ditched the nappies (daytime at least!) and today was the first day with no accidents! We’re sat my son in the toilet quite a few times, but he’s only managed to actually go in the potty so far.

My son also has a habit of drinking loads of water before bed - I think for him it’s because he’s reluctant to drink it during the day and then suddenly realises he’s actually thirsty at bedtime. Always a heavy nappy in the morning so I think night training will be a way off for us

Number of poos has reduced over here- he has managed some but I feel like he’s maybe withholding a bit and hope it doesn’t become a big issue. I find it so hard to stay chill sometimes- the other day he was playing and suddenly did his ooo face and I think I panicked i bit trying to get him to the potty, so hope I’ve not contributed to any anxiety. It’s just hard to be relaxed about poo getting everywhere!

How's the potty training going?
I bought the book - it's useful, thank you for the recommendation!

We are nearly three weeks in, mainly using the oh crap method. Honestly it’s been hard to follow it exactly, our little one hated being naked at home he wanted pants on. He also hates just sitting on the potty just because, so trying to get him to sit on it at regular intervals was impossible. But he quite quickly got the hang of telling us he needed to go, is just easily distracted and not always quick enough! But we have made progress and had some accident free days at the weekend. Try and stay positive, you’ve committed so keep going and it will get better! We are still doing nappies at night and at nap time - although if he falls asleep in the pram or car we don’t wake him up to change him.

I used that book for daytime, but found the nighttime advice overly complicated! I just kept my DD in pull-ups at night till she'd been dry for a month and then swapped to knickers after that. Only thing we did was encourage a wee before bed and as soon as she woke up. I think she potty trained at 2.5 and was dry at night at 3.5.

We're on day 7 and we're progressively getting better. No nappies for nap time but keeping nappies on at night time. DD isn't great at telling us she needs to go - sometimes she will say she needs a poo poo and other times she won't say anything. However, she's vastly improved at holding in wees (not so much poos) until she's on the toilet. And I'm not sure what the science is here but she's been dry through all bar one of her naps and will wake up and say she needs the toilet. We are also encouraging wees before naptime and bedtime and as soon as she wakes up @Lottie6712

Day 1: too many accidents to count
Day 2: started saying that she's doing a wee whilst doing a wee. Fewer accidents
Day 3: 3 poos all in the toilet and 4 accidents
Day 4: 2 accidents
Day 5: no accidents!
Day 6: couldnt hold in poo whilst getting to the toilet, otherwise no accidents
Day 7: wet herself during her nap otherwise no accidents

Sounds like you are making great progress and she’s doing so well! It’s a big adjustment for them. We are finding we often get several “I need a wee” requests in a short space of time and nothing comes out until about attempt 6, which is ok when it’s just us but at nursery can be difficult for them to manage. He also gets upset if he has to leave a toy behind at nursery to use the potty because he knows someone else will be playing with it by the time he gets back.

Have you had any sleep issues? We’ve had some very interrupted night sleep, not wanting to go to sleep or being able to stay asleep, which I think is all related to potty training. I hate the thought of him being upset or anxious about it but glad we have done it sooner rather later (2 years 2 months)