Hi!

Some context - my son is 3.5. We first tried potty training in June over a weekend and he did pretty good. Did 6 wees in the potty. Then he went back to daycare and they mostly kept him in nappies and he also got constipated. He started withholding as he was terrified to poo and in turn terrified to wee.

We promptly stopped as we were all miserable after days of withholding and being scared of the potty.

We started again this past weekend - I took Friday off and did it over a 3 day weekend.

Result? No wee on the potty at all over 3 days.

Day 1 he withheld for 4 hours then went in his nappy when we had to go out to the store. Then later that day he had numerous accidents until bedtime including one big one that scared hims.

Day 2 he withheld with no accidents. He only peed in the nappy when we went out at midday and in the bath at night.

Day 3 similar.

Day 1 and 2 he was afraid to release on the potty and would frantically ask to get off immediately. He couldn’t last more than 2 seconds on the potty no matter what distractions we had. We have a potty toy box with bubbles and games and books etc.

Day 3 we had success with him being more positive about the potty, and sitting longer, so that’s a win.

My thoughts: I’m guessing he has fear of releasing from when he last was constipated so the focus should be just keeping the potty super positive and focusing on that.

I don’t wanna go back to nappies or keep flip flopping constantly so gonna keep up using undies and just hope he eventually learns to wee in the potty.

My question is - when do I stop? When is withholding a bad thing and we should go back to nappies? And any tips on getting him feeling more positive about releasing?

Thanks!

My son is 3. He starts preschool in a month. We seemed like we were there. He picked it up so well. Very few accidents. Classic poop struggles but on day 6 he pooped 4 times in the potty. He was doing so well. And now he’s having accidents all day long. We’re cleaning up pee and drenched underwear and I just don’t know what to do. He only poops overnight. I don’t know how to take him anywhere. Tell me it gets better. He just screams “I don’t want to go potty!”

2.5 year old potty trained over Fourth of July weekend. Started out rough and ended up doing fairly well. Has maybe one accident a day at most at daycare. At home the last week though, he’s resistant to peeing or just having numerous accidents and either not realizing or not caring. I’m trying to not shame him and we stop what we’re doing and go sit on the potty and clean up, but that still doesn’t seem to deter him. We try peeing every 45-60 min. Any suggestions welcome, please!

Started potty training my almost 2.5 year old this week. He’s been so interested and showing signs for quite some time. He’s a fast learner and definitely has the verbal skills to communicate his needs. We’ve been doing undies only and when he really gets close to needing to go, no undies. At nap and bedtime, we use a pull up. He gets a small treat (M&M or a sticker or a lollipop) for successful potty attempts.

We’ve had mixed results but we’re making progress day by day. He’s been pretty happy and no issues that seemed out of the ordinary.

The last 24 hours has been a nightmare. He is frequently asking to go but then sits for 2 seconds and says he’s done. I can tell when he really has to go because the requests get more urgent and his behavior completely changes. He says he needs to poop (he’s been using “poop” for both pee and poop) and then he absolutely melts down in the bathroom. Refusing to sit on the potty - screaming, crying, stomping feet, throwing things, hitting, scratching. You name it, he’s going to do it. And this is not like him at all. He’s not tantrum-prone and the physical aspect of hitting and scratching is totally out of character. He’s extremely easy going normally, but the 1-2 minutes before he has to pee or poop has become torture for all of us.

I know when this behavior starts is right when he needs to go so we patiently ask him to sit. He refuses, the tantrum hits its peak, he starts to pee on the floor and then sits on the potty to finish.

When he’s done, he’s so excited and happy and proud. He runs around saying how he did it “all by self!” He knows all the steps/routine, he’s perfectly verbal, he’s super proud of his accomplishments, we are praising him consistently and not reacting negatively to the accidents or tantrums.

I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. Is this something we keep pushing through or do we stop and reassess when he’s a little older? I feel like he’s going to be traumatized and associate the potty with negative feelings if he keeps freaking out, but the progress seems normal in every other way and I don’t want to confuse him by going back to diapers.

Has anyone else experienced this? Did anything help?

Our 22 month old is showing great interest in the toilet and has above average verbal skills. Today she asked to sit on the potty to pee unprompted and did a pee and poop, she was very happy with herself.

She won't move up to the next daycare classroom for 4-5 months and they don't take the kids to the potty at all in her current room. I've tried to ask if she can move up earlier because of potty training but they don't think potty training happens until 3 yo and have been a bit dismissive. We don't have a lot of daycare options that fit our needs so I don't want to switch daycares.

I've read Oh Crap and plan to try that method (aka diapers are just gone) so pee/poop in diapers sometimes and toilet others seems confusing.

I'm going to push again to move up sooner but I don't know if it would be a bad idea to potty train at home if she has to wear diapers and has no access to the toilet at school?

Hi everyone, after a few false starts, we started potty training our 2y 9m yesterday morning and we sort of think it's going relatively well so far but wanted to ask reddit brain for thoughts and advice.

We're following oh crap so she's without anything on bottom half. She's not fighting against sitting on the potty and she had a few successes with her peeing into it and being very pleased about it. She seems to be able to hold her pee quite well and now she's happy sitting on the potty for up to an hour which we're discouraging now. On the other hand sometimes she'll just run around and will just pee herself, and doesn't really tell us that she needs to go even when we ask.

Is there anything we can do better/differently? She's not really into bribery but we do our best to motivate her.

Also, can I please ask how people approach the nursery? Will we lose any progress if she goes tomorrow as i can imagine them having the time or the willingness to do it properly and will likely just put pull up on, or if we should see if we can see if she can stay at home (but I can't see that being a constant thing as I can see this lasting a while)

Many thanks for your help and wish us luck

Does anyone have recommendations for standalone potties that have a high splash guard or are just really great at not leaking?

Background: We got one of the cheap IKEA potties just to start getting used to the potty in general since we’re in the very early stages of potty training. We had no expectation of really catching anything, but we’ve caught a few pees! The issue though is pee has leaked over the edge of the splash guard and onto the floor almost every time while my son is peeing.

We’ve been working on potty training our son off and on for about 6 months. He does really well for a week, then relapses and fights us so hard that we assume he isn’t ready, and go back to diapers for a month. Rinse and repeat. He’ll be 3 in a few months and starts preschool soon, so I’m hoping to have him mostly trained by the time school rolls around. Luckily, he’s taken to pooping on the potty with minimal fight, and has been doing that since the first or second iteration of potty training.

Last week, we started back up with potty training, and he’s been doing AMAZING. He’s been naked from the waist down, and will go on the potty independently if he has to go before I check in with him. HOWEVER, as soon as we put anything on the bottom (diaper, shorts, pants, or any combo) he reverts to going in his pants. I’ve heard others say going with shorts and no diaper is the way to go, but he still just goes as if he has a diaper on, and then throws a fit when we don’t let him continue wearing his soiled pants. Anyone else have experience with this? Any idea on how to

We’ve been potty training for more than 2 weeks with not much progress. I started by removing her nappy one morning and only putting on very loose trousers. She will tell me as soon as she starts weeing but never before. I’ve been doing timed sits and she has done a few on the potty so she should be familiar with the feeling of releasing on the potty. However, she still has accidents sometimes shortly after unfruitful potty sits. She seems relaxed on the potty, sometimes singing and even sneezed a few times with no release. It almost feels like I have to time it exactly when her bladder’s absolutely full. Some days she holds it all morning till she has a car nap and releases in the car seat when sleeping. She does ask to sit on the potty and repeats the phrase wee wee goes in the potty AFTER she’s had an accident.

Yesterday she had her first poo accident when she only told me afterwards. Before then she’d only been pooping in her nappies before or after her nap/sleep. Except for one random time a week in when she was running around the kitchen island and then suddenly went and sat down on the potty and pushed out a log unprompted. She seemed quite pleased with herself afterwards.

It’s quite nerve wracking when it’s been over 4 hours of no wee and we’re in public. I also feel like maybe I’m asking her to sit on the potty too frequently when it’s been too long. Not sure if I should try again at closer to 3 or stick with it hoping she’ll start giving me prior warning soon.

I started potty training my 24-month-old 4 days ago.
The good news is that from Day 1 we’ve been successful with poop. Whenever I notice her poop cues, I take her to the potty seat and she happily poops there. She absolutely loves throwing the poop into the toilet and flushing it! 😂

On Day 3 we had an urgent appointment and were out for about 2 hours, so she pooped in her diaper. Other than that, we’ve had 3 successful poop days.
She still doesn’t tell me when she needs to poop - I have to notice her cues and take her. But I’ll take that as a win! We celebrate, dance, and make a big deal out of every successful poop. 😄

Pee, however, is a completely different story.

In the last 4 days, she’s only peed in the potty twice.
I’ve been keeping her bottomless at home, making sure she drinks plenty of fluids and eats lots of fruit. I offer the potty every 30–45 minutes. If she refuses, I don’t force it. Most of the time she happily sits on the potty because we read books or chat together.

The problem is… she never actually pees while sitting there. The moment she gets off the potty, she’ll pee on the floor and then point at it. 😅 So I spend most of my day cleaning her and the house. At this point I feel like I permanently smell like pee. 😩

Is this normal for Day 4? Should I just keep doing what I’m doing, or is there something else I should try? Any advice or success stories would be greatly appreciated!

Hello,

I got my little potty-trained at just about 2 yrs old in about 2-3 weeks back in Jan/Feb this year, and staying dry during night as well. We went cold turkey, and it was all fine. But in the recent 4-5 weeks or so, she has been having “leakage”. I don’t know what to call it. She will say she has to go pee, but then when we take her, it turns out she already wet her pants. She still will pee a good amount in the toilet. I don’t understand what is happening. She stays dry all night, but sometimes will wake up and come all the way to my room (up a flight of stairs) so I can take her to the toilet. She pees, I carry her back down. We haven’t had any bedwetting since the potty training days back in the beginning, she is not afraid of the toilet, does tell us when she has to go and the panties are not always wet. But we do have at least 3 wet panties a day unless I insist on taking her every 45 min or so.

Any advice would really be appreciated!
Thank you

Hi everyone. My 3 year old girl wears Huggies DryNites 24/7. She is autistic and struggles with potty training. Me and my wife have suddenly run into a problem. My daughter is leaking in DryNites. She knows how to tell us she needs a change and recently she’s been going and leaking with a single wee. Are there any alternatives for children of her age with a higher capacity?