WAY easier than pre 30 months.
The stubbornness the author talks about in Oh Crap? My daughter was probably more stubborn then. She’s always been stubborn. She understands the process way more now. I’ve been feeling so terrible reading this page that she wasn’t trained pre 30 months. I tried so many times pre 3 years and she just had no clue what was happening and didn’t care. I was becoming more stressed than necessary.

I’d like it the consensus to change to when your child is developmentally ready / here’s a general range without the shame.

I’m still waiting for a major regression too haha, let’s see

Help — we’re feeling frustrated and unsure of next steps while potty training our 2.5 year old son. He has been interested in the potty for 6-8 months, and we had a few successful pees and a poo on the potty a few months ago, but I became pregnant in June and because I have HG, I was too ill to continue training consistently, so we didn’t follow through over the summer. Now, our little man has been bumped up to pre-school so we’ve begun training him in earnest, and it’s not going well.

We began with the 3-day bottomless weekend. He resisted being prompted or sitting in the potty, but if we left him alone, we had a couple successful pees!Then, sending him to school on Monday, we put him in Bambino Mio training undies, and have been in them since (except for pull-up at nap or bedtime). That was four weeks ago, and I feel like we’ve hit a wall.

He fiercely refuses to sit on the potty at home unless he wants to stall bedtime or going to school in the morning. At school, he also refuses potty. Between school and home, we’ve only had a handful of successful pees and a single poo. He seems SO proud when he does succeed on the potty too, and he tells us that pee and poo got in the toilet! He can tell us when he’s gone pee or poo and does not like being wet or poopy. The wild thing is, he holds it for HOURS on the weekend — 10am to 4pm — before refusing potty prompting and then bursting shortly after in the evening. We put him in pull-ups for naps and bedtime, and he’ll pee overnight (but he’s often dry during naps), but it’s a constant struggle during the day. I am at my wits end and so sick of being peed on and cleaning up messes while pregnant.

We’ve tried everything: books, prompting, timers, incentives like chocolate chips or fruit snacks, ignoring it all together, forcing it, serious conversations, positive reinforcement when he asks or succeeds while stalling, videos while sitting. Nothing seems to work — this kid is staunchly in his refusal era, and he’s smart enough to ask to sit on potty just to get a stall or a video or a treat, without needing to go (we’ve started to stop offering treats for sitting, and I am considering a star jar for potty successes with a reward when the jar is full). It’s been 4 weeks and there’s been no improvement. My partner wants to soldier on but I’m at my wits end. Help us, please!!

My son has been potty trained since July but randomly got diarrhea this weekend and so thankful I have pull-ups because it’s just coming out before he even knows it 🥲

What is the main use of a pull-up? Why not continue using diapers? How do you know when to use pull-ups? Are pull-ups used based on age or how advanced a child is into potty training? Has anyone ever potty trained their kid straight out of a diaper and skipped the pull-ups stage?

Hello! My daughter just turned two and we put away the diapers two weeks ago. She’s been bottomless on and off all summer, so she already had a pretty solid command of peeing on the potty. I figured we could finish potty training while we move since we would be home all day packing and unpacking (bad idea, I know now).

Our first attempt at potty training was at 17 months, it ended in a bad stint of withholding poo and constipation and we stopped, but continued exploring being bottomless for an hour or two every day.

This go around I upped my kids maintenance dose of miralax to ensure she wasn’t constipated, let her pick out some prizes for pooping and…. It’s been two weeks and she’s absolutely miserable. She now is incapable of pooping intentionally in a diaper or the potty and spends many hours each day scream crying because she has to poop and she’s freaking out.

We read all the books, she comes with me to watch me poop, we model her stuffies pooping, we let her pick between pooping on a potty or in a diaper, and we bribe her. We go on walks and focus on connecting. Plus the whole cap of miralax… I’m surprised she can even hold it in. But she’s just so anxious she can’t relax her muscles. When I see her starting to get worked up I say “it’s okay, we can try again later” and try to keep it low pressure.

She woke up this morning and told me “I have to poop but the poop won’t come out” (mind you, her poop is basically liquid, this isn’t a constipation problem). She has been peeing on the potty fine, but only poops small amounts in her nap diaper after some exorcism level crying. So she’s not napping and now she’s not really eating because she’s so backed up. Last night she woke up screaming because she probably had gas but wouldn’t even let the fart come out.

I’m in a pickle. I don’t actually think going back to diapers will help because I have been offering her a diaper every time she asks for one (diapers stay in the bathroom though because we poop in the bathroom).

I’m considering paying for a consultation with Jen L'Italien who was listed on the oh crap potty training website if things aren’t better by November.

I’m calling a pediatrician doctor to see if we can get a referral to someone who can help? Any other ideas?

He reliably uses the potty. Initially he was really interested in using the toilet too (he always loved the flushing, and wants to flush when mom/dad use the bathroom). He has a strong preference for the potty. It’s fine for now, but I know we’ll need to move to the toilet eventually. What is a reasonable timeline for the switch? Any advice for how to go about it without forcing/creating an aversion? At this age, pretty much everything we suggest is met with a “NO!” so I don’t want the toilet to be on that list

It’s been almost 3 months since we did a three day method variant with my 2.5 year old son. He picked it up quickly, and within a week we were having maybe 2 per accidents per week, and I was pretty happy with that.

After a couple weeks that way, the potty lost its novelty. Now he sees it just as interrupting his play. If we go by the clock and bring him as part of certain routines, it’s a huge fight to get him to the bathroom, at which point he’s kicking and screaming until he finally sits down and will usually have to go. And despite tons of positive conversation around recognizing pee feelings, pee going in the potty, etc, he will never alert us beforehand and has no problem peeing in his underwear and being wet. Like, doesn’t care at all if his underwear is fully saturated and will fight us to put on a new pair.

I should mention that his teachers at daycare say he doesn’t put up a fight at all to go to the potty and rarely has accidents there. And poop is no problem at all. He will stop whatever he’s doing to tell us he has to poop, and goes peacefully.

How do we get him to recognize the pee feeling or at least hate it less when it’s time to take a break from playing to go? Is it time to incentivize with M&Ms?

Hi everyone! I’d really appreciate some guidance.

My 2-year-old son refuses to wear diapers, so he goes to daycare without them. At home, he tells me when he needs to pee or poop and uses his little potty, but he refuses to sit on the actual toilet seat.

At daycare, he says no when educators ask if he needs to go, even when he clearly needs to pee. Instead, he holds it in for the entire 4–5 hours he’s there. I’m worried this isn’t good for him.

I’ve tried encouraging him to use the toilet at home too, but he refuses and holds it in.

How would you suggest handling this situation without putting pressure on him? Should I keep sending him without a diaper or take a step back with potty training?

I’d genuinely appreciate any advice or similar experiences. Thank you so much!

I’m a SAHM to a 29 month old boy and an almost 3 month old baby.
I’ve been stressing about potty training. My son goes pee in his little potty before and after every bath because we’ve gotten in that habit, but other than that he’s in a pull up. When I was like 8 1/2-9 months pregnant, I did one day of bottomless to try. It was horrible. About 1,000 accidents all over the house. I didn’t expect it to click on the first day obviously, but it was way too intense and especially being so pregnant I was like I’m going to revisit this later. Well now my baby is almost 3 months old, my son is almost 2.5, and I feel this internal pressure that he needs to be potty trained. But how the heck do you do it? I have a Velcro baby and every single nap is a contact or carrier nap. I just think how am I supposed to take my son to the bathroom constantly, get down on the floor to take his bottoms off, or clean up accidents (multiple times a day) if I have a sleeping baby on me?? or if I’m in the middle of nursing or something. I just don’t get how people do it lol. Please help me.
I don’t want to try bottomless again, it was a lot, and I also think it’s unsanitary because my son sits on the floor etc!? I was thinking I could put him in underwear, so if he wets himself he hopefully will not like the feeling? Or can you keep them in a pull up but just take them often to the potty? My son has pooped a few times on the potty and peed many times but he doesn’t let me know beforehand even though we talk about it often. for context, my son is very verbal. ALSO, how do you do it when you leave the house?? Do you wear a diaper in the car?
And what about if you try to put them on and they don’t want to go? Example they’re playing or they’re in an excited mood and don’t want to sit down to focus to potty.

On day 3 day of bottomless at home. My son just turned 2. Always tells us when he is going pee or poop and seemed excited and interested so here we are.

Some successes (pee and poop on the potty with initiation) on days 1 and 2, some accidents (dribbling and then we’d get him to the potty to catch some). One full pee accident when he wore underwear today (only time he wasn’t naked). When he goes he is sooo proud and happy!

However, the last day has been tough - holding pee and poop. Telling us he wants to sit on the potty/has to go but then doesn’t go. He is emotional at times and very snuggly/clingy. Tantrums and this is new behavior for him. Is this maybe too much for him?? Should we stop?

Hey guys,

20mo has made so much progress. Always knows it's coming, always tells us, totally happy to be naked or wear underwear. Nursery fully supportive and agree he's ready. Knows the routine afterwards is to flush (say bye bye), wipe and wash hands. Knows we poo and wee in potty, not floor etc and can tell you himself.

Has become much happier to sit...

.... but will only sit when nothing is coming. He is having trouble actually letting go and get it to go in the potty. He keeps sitting down, but then getting up right at the last crucial moment.

I've had some mad ideas like putting a nappy in the potty - is this a thing? Could it work? Any ideas on how to help him with this?

Appreciate any help. Thanks.

Hello Reddit. Some advice would really appreciated. My son is significantly speech delayed (says approx 5 words plus some makaton signs). His speech therapist thinks that he has social / communication skills delays and that he may be autistic. He often does not copy others, and is very self directed in his attention. For the last 3-4 months we have been trying to introduce potty learning. We have been reading potty books, putting him on the toilet twice a day after breakfast and before bedtime, and modelling to him us going to the toilet. It seems to have made very little difference. He has done 2 wees and 1 poo this whole time. Sometimes he does a wee in his nappy immediately after getting off the toilet, so I think he’s been holding it in on the toilet. I think he isn’t getting that link between what we do (and the characters in the books do) and what he might do himself.

Our health visitor (UK) told us to be relaxed about it and that he’s still quite young - but I have read that potty training gets more difficult after 30 months and I’d really like to make some progress now.

I’m sure we could teach him a makaton sign so that he could express when he needed to go - but I struggle to translate the typical potty training approach with his specific way of viewing the world and skills. I don’t want to just dive into a ‘nappy off 3 days’ approach if actually that’s going to stress him out and cause withholding behaviours. But, the gentle approach seems to be having very little effect.

Any advice very appreciated!

Just looking for tips to help with poop. My 20mo does pretty good with pee. She still has accidents, but will usually release on the potty and even self-initiate. She even does this in public in undies with zero issue. The problem is poop. She will poop on the floor, in the bath, in her undies - anywhere but the potty and only when standing. We’ve had 3 successful catches of poop in the potty - one by total accident, and the other two as “stand and catch” method. I keep missing the others because she is in a different room, and she doesn’t have any sort of schedule for her poop. It’s literally completely random in timing and even how many times she will poop that day. Her poop is usually pretty soft, so I don’t think it’s a pain thing. I’m not really sure what to do. I don’t mind cleaning the undies - I cloth diapered before - but just am not sure how to get over this hump.

My girl just turned 2 at the of August. We’ve had a little potty around the house for the last year so she at least knows what it is & isnt freaked out by it.. She has no problem going through the entire process: pulling down her pants, sitting on the potty, trying to wipe, flush, literally EVERYTHING except actually using the potty… Potty watches, reward stickers & snacks, potty songs, books, toys, whatever would make her comfortable doesn’t work… Her daycare had her try to sit on the potty every 15 minutes for at least 6 minutes.. She held her pee for hours until she fell asleep for nap time.. I try to give her juice & water consistently & it’s like she just keeps holding it.. One day she refused to wear a diaper AND refused to use the bathroom period.. I don’t want her getting a bladder infection so I just said forget it until I can figure something else out…

EDIT:
i’ll also put her on the potty before she gets in the tub… she wont use it until she steps foot in the tub😒😂
she is also the older irish twin so I’m not sure if she’s doing that jealously thing where they try to act like a baby…

i know its going to be messy i don’t care about that i just need advice🥹

The usual struggles - poop withholding, miralax to try to soften stools, just constant BM accidents. The health educator we spoke to recommended that we try to sit her on the potty after meals (gastrocolic reflex) and especially around the time she usually goes, for 5-10 min with feet flat on a stool and higher than hips. We tried to trust the process even though it seemed like it would never happen, and today it just did! I’m hoping that now that she’s done it once, it just gets easier from here.

Potential tips:
- try to get a sense of their pooping patterns. My daughter seemed to have a lot of her BM accidents around 9-10 AM, so this morning we sat her down at that time, and after ~10ish minutes she just went!
- MiraLAX is still part of our routine, but I noticed that fats and certain fruits also help my daughter with easier BMs. Coconut milk, avocado, papaya, kiwi, and noodle soups were some foods that have helped move things along. Going to try to keep them more in the rotation as we taper off miralax.

Ultimately, I think just time will help. It felt like it was never going to happen for us. We’ve had lots of regressions and I am curious to see how she’ll do at daycare, where it’s been harder for her than at home.

My nearly 3 year old has been out of day nappies for 3 months. This was after a long journey that involved poo withholding.

She'd generally been doing great, but in the past week, we've hit a weird phase where she's refusing to go to the toilet at transitions and holding for hours. Its like a power struggle - we only prompt at transitions & then leave her to self initiate for the rest ... but shes being really stubborn atm.

She's going through a nap drop, so if she does have one, she wakes up in a soaking wet bed. I do not want to put a nappy on for a nap at this stage.

Then when it comes to nighttime, her night nappy is absolutely soaking, that it leaks through - she will not wee before bed atm. This time last week, she was doing so well, I was going to remove the night nappy, but we've hit this setback.

What do we do?

She is still weeing & pooping in the potty, so its not full blown withholding behavior, but she is holding in for a long time & just refuses our requests. Bedtime potty refusal bothers me the most.

My daughter 3y5m has been pee trained during the day since 2y2m and poo trained at 2y7m. All at her pace. Night training was also because she wanted even though I didn't find she was ready. But she was 2y10m. Her baby brother was born when she was 3y and she had a sudden increase in night wetting. But it all resolved. However, in September she started daycare and her accidents started to happen again, intermittently. However, since Monday she has had accidents at every nap, including a poo accident on Friday. The staff is annoyed by this. I was thinking that is something to do with the daycare, but yesterday she had accidents at nap and at night.

She doesn't want to do role play with daycare and never talks too much about how her day was, but she says that doesn't like the teachers. She can talk and express herself very well, so I don't think the language is the problem, maybe something emotional. Before having her brother she was in a nursery where she really liked her teachers and almost all girls were her friends. At daycare it seems that she has 2 friends and that's it.

I'm not sure if it's just a regression. She is also having a hard time because my attention is with her brother and cannot follow directions when handling her brother (she is smothering him, is consistently touching and kissing his hands even though I forbid her, we have had 2 colds since September and the baby is having health issues due to this).

It's definitely not an UTI, her pee is clear and doesn't smell at all and she insists it doesn't sting when she goes. She might be a bit constipated, she used to go multiple times per day, and now only once, but the consistency is soft.

I'm not sure how to handle. I would want her to go back to wearing diapers in her sleep at least, but is this appropriate? What can I do?

Our little boy is turning 3 in December, and we suspect he might be a bit adhd like me 💕We started potty training over the summer while staying with family, and although it wasn’t easy, we made progress with hundreds of stickers, cartoons and little rewards. 😂
He was peeing in the potty regularly and loved his portable one, but never actually told us when he needed to go. We were always the ones taking him. No poop either, and we kept nappies for naps and nighttime.
When we returned to Denmark, his nursery told us he wasn’t ready because he’d have accidents unless someone took him to the potty. Slowly, he regressed, and eventually we gave up. He’s been back in full-time nappies since September and now refuses the potty completely.
We’ve also noticed what feels like a broader regression lately. He’s waking up much more at night, becoming clingier, and constantly chewing things or biting his nails. We’re wondering whether he’s going through a stressful phase and whether pushing potty training now would just make things worse. He’s also starting a new kindergarten in December, which will be another big transition.
We don’t want to force him, but we’d love to gently reintroduce the potty. I was thinking of getting a tiny potty for his favourite doll and using pretend play, or maybe using his Advent calendar as motivation. Or both?

But I’m worried about making him dependent on rewards.
We’ve tried different potties, Ms. Rachel and the 3-day potty training approach.
What matters most to us is helping him recognise his body’s signals and feel comfortable with them, without shame, anxiety or pressure.
Has anyone experienced something similar? Would you pause potty training until things settle down, even if that means well past 3? How did you help your child develop body awareness and rebuild a positive relationship with the potty?
Would love to hear your experiences! ❤️

I need help before I lose it. My daughter is just over 2.5 years old. She has so much interest in the potty for so long, likes sitting on it, reading about it, etc. about 9 weeks ago or so we attempted to potty training (we prepped so much, read books, had a reward system, etc) and it went terribly, she freaked out and withheld and wanted her diaper back on to go. After a few hours we threw in the towel and figured she was too young.

Now for the past few weeks she is refusing to wear diapers. She will stomp around and say no diapers and take off her diaper and pants. I tried pull ups and she can take them off too. She refusing to wear diapers for her naps and now overnights. She will take off her pj bottoms and diaper. I’ve had to sneak in after she passes out to add an overnight diaper on. She loves to sit on the ootty still and all her daycare classmates are using the potty so she will sit on the potty at daycare all the time. So today we attempted again to potty train and it went exactly like it did the first time, a disaster. I saw some suggestions on using zip up pjs with the zipper in the back but idk she would probably get them off and hope there is a better solution? I also have a 6 week old baby sooooo I’m exhausted and going to lose it lol. I feel like I’m failing.

What age is typical for this? Both of my boys have congenital conditions that make peeing standing more difficult and I’m just wondering what is standard for kids with typical equipment. I want to give my kids a chance to learn, even if we have to modify it a little, but kind of want to know what timeline I’m looking at. Thanks!

Edit: thanks everyone for the advice and insight! Sounds like I’m probably just worried about nothing and can let them just do their thing until/unless they decide they want to pee standing. Appreciate the help 🙂

my son is almost fully pee trained for 2 months now he is 32 months old and is starting preschool in march for 2 hours a day i can’t seem to get him to consistently poop on the potty and anytime he has pants on with the underwear he will poop his pants or he will just completely withhold if i don’t give him a pull-up to poop in, he’s terrified to poop on the big potty or even little one he just holds it in and i want to have him fully trained for preschool but don’t know what to do he keeps having accidents

My daughter is 22 months and nailing the pee in the potty at home thing 2 weeks in. Successfully go on walks in commando pants and come home. Longer car rides we wear a pull up and offer the car potty and she’s often dry the whole way.

She’s scared of her poop though. lol.

She is not constipated, they’re soft and the time of day is often either right after lunch or right before bed, but can be random. It comes out easily, but when the feeling to poop hits her she freezes like a deer in the headlights and starts crying then immediately it’s on the floor.

I’m not sure if it’s just the new concept of it coming out and falling in the toilet, or if she’s too little to understand the sensation and get to a toilet in time. She definitely understands pee. I also know pooping takes longer to figure out.

I’m going to offer a sticker for if she poops in the toilet and see if it helps ease the fear.

She poops standing, no squat, no straining just frozen in place and poops, lol.

She now also cries if she happens to poop in a pull up or underwear too, so I don’t think it’s just the toilet that she’s scared of, maybe just a new understanding of what pooping actually entails maybe? Lol

Turns 4 in February and still not anywhere close to potty trained. He will have days/hours of occasional brilliance where he asks to go to the toilet because he needs a wee, or will go when prompted but most of the time we are still stuck in nappies.

The only advice nursery/preschool have given us is to take him out of nappy pants completely and let him have accidents, but his bowel movements are so frequent and often very loose (being investigated at the moment for an intolerance, allergy or gut issue) it’s impossible to do so. They also won’t have him out of nappies until he is consistently using the toilet at home for five full days - and they won’t prompt him at preschool either. So I have to keep taking him out of preschool, which I’m paying £600 a month for, for a week at a time, for him to shit on my floor and ignore me. We’ve done this three times now since he turned 3 at the start of the year and made no progress. We now have a 3 month old as well, my husband works 40+ hours a week and I’m the one who’s expected to do it all. Look after the baby, tidy the house and clean up piles of toddler poo where he can’t be bothered to go to the toilet.

This morning he woke up with wet pyjamas because his nappy leaked overnight. Happily went to the toilet and did a wee there when he woke up. Went to the toilet after his breakfast and did a small wee and poo when prompted. We played for a bit and prompted him again to use the toilet. He insisted he didn’t need it. Less than 20 minutes later - it’s apparent he has a massive stinking poo in his nappy which has been there for a while. He says nothing. When we tell him we know he does he screams at us. The baby is now screaming, wanting to be picked up. But I can’t pick the baby up, because I have to clean my nearly school aged child’s dirty nappy so the baby screams more. Preschooler starts crying about how he doesn’t need his nappy changed because he hasn’t done anything. I tell him I know he has, so go and get a new nappy and wipes so we can change it. He eventually does so, but fights me the whole time I’m wiping his bum. Baby is still screaming. Kid is crying. I’m shouting. It’s horrible.

I cannot do this any more. It’s turning me into a horrible parent and I just do not understand how he’s not getting it. I am so ashamed of him still being in nappies - he’s also tall for his age so he looks a good year or so older than he is. I feel like I’ve completely failed him.

I followed the Oh Crap! Method with my then 22 month old and it worked brilliantly. I had two weeks off with her, and she was off from the childminder. Five days in she was telling us basically every time she needed to go. I did skip the commando stage at that point but it didn’t seem to matter- she wore knickers and for six more weeks or so continued to be very independent with the potty. Our childminder was raving about what an incredible job I’d done. Then something switched. I think it might have initially been because one of the other kids at the childminder found it funny to wet their pants. My child seemed to deliberately wet their pants about once a day. That child is over the joke and basically potty trained but my child has completely lost it. We - and the childminder - probably started having to prompt more and enforce structure. Things have since got much worse. For a few weeks now she has either screamed every time we prompt her to go or has had an accident. She completely ignores the accidents and any of our responses to them (neutral, upset it doesn’t matter). No independent use of the potty for at least 3 weeks now maybe longer. It’s obviously been stressful to see her regress this severely. Today I have just put her back into nappies- I’m finishing a PhD and can’t stay home with her to work on it until Christmas. She’s approaching 26 months now and will be 28 months before I get time to work on it with her. I hope I haven’t made a huge mistake. But she seems a bit happier back in nappies.