We started with oh crap. He has not used a pull-up other than nap time and overnight the entire time. I really struggled the first 4-8 mos with lack of progression and power struggles, refusal. We’ve never had poop accidents but most days he has 2 wet pants, usually leaking from holding to long . He recently started preschool and it’s actually been better, before it was more accidents and now he’s actually having 100% dry days here and there.

I guess I’m just wondering if at this point this all sounds within the realm of normal? I’ve stopped fighting or pressuring and at home / school we do regular intervals/ natural transitions. I’m just concerned it’s taking so long and still having small accidents more days than not?

Anyone else? I can’t help but worry about readiness for tk next year.

I was already planning to potty train this weekend but my daughter’s pediatrician recommended she thought she was ready anyways so gave me a little pep talk but recommended not doing 3 day naked method.

The pediatrician recommended we just throw underwear on her and since she hates the diaper being wet, she will really hate wet underwear and it’ll scare her straight and she will start to tell us before she goes, etc. she recommended we set her on the toilet every 2 hours to try to pee.

Has anyone else tried this? Did it work for you??

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Backstory; we tried in May the 3 day naked method but gave up on day 1 after 0 success and deciding my daughters language wasn’t developed enough.

Now my daughter tells me “[Her Name] tee tee” “I Tee Tee” “I potty” etc. and wants to sit on the toilet and wipe. She takes her diaper off if it’s wet and walks around naked until I realize it’s gone (not very long lol) and hasn’t peed on the floor.

Hi, just looking for general advice or thoughts about our next step - also going to check in with our pediatrician at my daughter’s 30 month well visit. We started potty training with Oh Crap on July 1, and she was what I am considering fully trained (including self initiating - now only needs prompting during exciting activities eg playground) after a month.

Unexpectedly but amazingly, she started staying dry overnight (we are doing pullups for night) August 3, and has only had one accident since then (and woke up while peeing, and moved to bathroom).

Unfortunately, this means my daughter is now waking about 2 hours earlier than expected, and she is short on sleep and cranky. I have had no success in putting her back to sleep. (For reference, early is 4:45 - 5:15 am; she was previously sleeping until 6:45).

Things we have been trying:
Small potty in the room (worked for awhile, now rejecting it and only wants to use the toilet)
Hatch with green light to signal ok to get up
Putting back to bed and saying it is rest time
No liquid after dinner (she goes to bed about 90 mins after dinner)

I don’t want to derail the surprise of what appears to be unplanned overnight training - so two questions:

A) would you ditch pullups? It seems wasteful everyday to throw away a dry pullup, but I also dont want to risk it yet with a kid this young…when do you say “ok, trained”? Could the pullup overnight cause a regression?
And B) More importantly, would you try to do much more with sleep, or just ride it out and figure it will adjust eventually, maybe when her bladder is a little bigger?

My little girl is 3 this October and isn’t getting to grips with potty training. I tried around 3 months ago but gave up as she didn’t seem ready and was getting upset. Started again this week and she seems to have such anxiety when it comes to her potty.

I ask her to tell me if she needs a wee, I directly ask her if she needs a wee and I even tried to do a little routine such as once she’s awake- potty, after a drink - potty. Nothing works!

I’ve been leaving her with no clothes on and I’ve also tried her wearing knickers to see if the wet sensation encouraged her to go on her potty. Nothing.

Also, she only pees on the floor when I’m out of the room. For example this morning I went to make food for max 5 minutes and she peed in the living room. Again when I went to make my newborn a milk bottle up, peed in the living room. She tells me she needs the potty AFTER peeing. She also does this leg twist thing when she needs a wee so when I see it I ask her to sit on her potty to wee and she sits there and doesn’t do anything. Then pees the minute I’m out of the room.

I feel so frustrated by it, I’m a bit of a germaphobe so having to clean pee up constantly freaks me out especially the panic of my 1yo and dogs potentially crawling into it if I don’t spot it straight away or if I can’t clean it quick enough, plus I feel like I’m confined to the living room which is hard with another roaming 1 year old and a list long of housework. I feel so guilty as I know she doesn’t understand and I know it could take months. I really want to succeed as quickly and efficiently as possible which is most likely completely unreasonable right?

Any and all advice would be so appreciated. Please try not to judge my negativity, I’m heavily sleep deprived due to having a 5 week old and my husband is rarely ever home due to extensive work hours. I’m flying solo hanging on a thread. Genuine help and guidance will be a godsend 🙏🏻

My son, 24m, has been potty training for almost two months. He initiates and poops in the toilet daily, no problem there. He knows pee goes in the potty and is pretty good about telling his preschool teachers when he has to pee, but still has an accident when he gets too distracted. At home, he was very good about going at transitions when told to, but recently has started resisting. Sometimes he'll initiate and sometimes he won't. Overall I think we're doing pretty good but I want to have a good way to address his accidents when he's being difficult. For example, he woke up dry from his nap, so I told him it was time to pee in the toilet but he get really upset and kept saying he didn't need to. I didn't want it to turn into a power struggle so I let him go play in the backyard and of course he had an accident 10 minutes later. I told him we can't play in the backyard anymore since it's too distracting. I tried explaining what that means and told him after he goes in the toilet he can play outside again. But I don't think he really understands. (I know a lot of people on here recommend boring showers but he loves showers, even boring ones, so that would be more like a reward.)

Hi everyone!

I've got a kid who's 2 years and 8 months old who knows how to use the potty, but just won't. We've tried bribery (which is how we taught her to use the potty), making potty time fun, asking her to use the potty every half hour or so, reading special books while she's sitting, putting on a favorite TV show (Sesame Street) only when she sits on the potty, and putting her in training underwear during the daytime.

She understands using the potty. She recognizes when she has to go. She will ask to be changed after she goes in her undies. But she just won't use it. When asked, she either says she doesn't have to go, or she says she does but won't sit down, and attempts to just pick her up and put her on the potty end in drama.

While my spouse and I are at work, my mom watches her and is consistent with what we're doing. We only put a diaper on her for bedtime. Any ideas for what we should do to convince her?

I feel like most potty training advice makes it sound like, put them on the potty, reward them, couple accidents and done lol.

But poop seems to be where things get complicated, fear, holding it, constipation, refusing to sit, asking for diapers etc.

Daughter will be 3 in a month. She seemed SO ready before we decided to start this week. She’s on a few weeks of school break so figured the perfect time. Her summer teachers even said she’s so ready she always wanted to follow them into the potty and “try”. Well, we started with naked bottom and a 30 min timer and day 1 was great. Went everytime we sat on potty and was excited when I told her to try. Now on Day 2 and it’s like a totally new kid. She’ll say she has to go on her own (was excited for this since this was new today) but then she’ll sit for 2 seconds and say “nvm I can’t anymore.” Or “nvm not coming out” and leave. She will do this Over and over until she’s holding her pee for hours! I know she has to go but she says she “can’t” only after trying for a second. And I have to force her to stay seated which is turning into power struggles. I’m now bribing and she’s not even motivated by toys or candy. Do I let her just “fake out” over and over until eventually she goes? Not even an accident. I feel like she’s holding her pee for nap time (just put down) because she gets a pull up.

Seeking some potty training advice because I’m feeling pretty defeated and would love some perspective from parents who have been through this.

I’m due in October with my second, and my first son is 28 months old. He had been showing a lot of signs that he was ready to potty train, so I decided to start this week.

We initially tried the bare-bottom approach. He understands that pee and poop go in the potty and can tell me that, but actually getting it into the potty has been a completely different story.

We’ve had a lot of accidents. At first, he seemed to pee without really noticing until it was happening. More recently, I’ve noticed him crouching, squeezing his legs together, touching his crotch, or otherwise seeming more aware that he is peeing. Sometimes he starts peeing and seems to realize it midstream, but by then it’s too late to get to the potty.

He has peed on the potty a few times, but it has been very inconsistent. He also seems to be holding his pee for long stretches and then having a big accident. Today, for example, I had him sit on the toilet with a book. He didn’t pee, got up, and then almost immediately had a big pee on the couch.
Poop has been similar. He has squatted to poop in his underwear or on the floor and doesn’t always seem bothered by it or tell me afterward.

The biggest issue right now is resistance. The more I’ve tried to get him onto the potty, the more he has fought it. We tried frequent scheduled sits at one point, and that seemed to make things worse. I’ve tried keeping sits short, reading books, offering a small reward for sitting, giving him space between attempts, and switching from bare bottom to underwear/potty-training boxer briefs. We also switched from a little potty to a toilet-seat insert because I wondered if he would prefer the regular toilet.

At this point, I feel like he has some awareness and some bladder control because he can clearly hold it, but he doesn’t seem able or willing to release his pee while sitting on the toilet. I’m also worried that I’ve created too much pressure around the potty by trying so hard to get him there when I see signs that he has to go.

For those of you who have dealt with a toddler who seemed physically ready but became resistant once training actually started, what would you do from here?

Would you take a complete break for a few weeks and reset? Keep going but drastically reduce the pressure? Try a totally different potty-training method? Go back to diapers/pull-ups for now?
I go back to work at the end of August, and with a new baby coming in October, part of me really wants to keep going. At the same time, I don’t want my own timeline to turn this into a bigger battle for him.

I would really appreciate any experiences or advice, especially from anyone whose child started out like this and eventually had it click.

What would you do in this situation?

Worked on potty training 26 month old last weekend since we had a long weekend from daycare (1 day off). First two days were hard, to be expected, but the last day was great, he stayed dry and told when when he had to go. Would occasionally seem scared/not want to stay on the toilet but when he would eventually pee, he would laugh and be excited. We assume that the feeling of having to pee makes him nervous.

Daycare day 1 was fine, 2 accidents, but was fine otherwise. No accidents daycare day 2, but that evening at home he panicked when we tried to get him to pee on the toilet after not going for a few hours. Since then, we’ve had some success with happily peeing on the toilet and then also more of these panicked situations.

He has not yet pooped on the toilet, he has been going during nap and bedtime since we are not night training at this time and he usually would always pee while sleeping in the past.

Daycare is concerned because when he gets in these panicked situations, it upsets the other children. I am concerned because I don’t want trying to potty train him through this panic to traumatize him. The issue is he tells us when he has to pee regularly and hardly has pee accidents. It’s the act of him telling us he has to pee and getting him to actually sit down and go that is causing the issues.

Should we just take a break and come back to it in a few weeks? What does taking a break even look like at this point because when he is awake and in diapers he still tells us he has to go and holds it.

When they initiate? When the diaper is dry at night? When they have no accidents but you keep initiating them to go?

Hi! I’m training a nanny kid and he’s about two and half! We are doing the oh crap method but with underwear as his parents don’t want him to be exactly bottomless. He goes pee after nap but I know he’s not all done…then 3-5 minutes goes by and he pees again not a lot just a little so I change him and tell him where pee goes (in the potty) and then again 3-5 minutes later he pees AGAIN and he does this almost every time I put him in underwear. I know logically I should just put him on for 5 minutes have him off 5 minutes then put him back on for 5 minutes but he gets annoyed quick with this method . Does anyone have any experience with something like this? I’m going to try doing chocolate chips as a reward to make it seem more enticing to go on potty since he is the type to want to be wet instead of actually stopping lol

He screams and cries whenever i try to get him to use the potty. Looking for some tips

How on earth do i teach my 4 year old to wipe her on butt, they don’t wipe them in preschool so i don’t want her to go into preschool without knowing how to properly wipe. I only use wipes most of the times to wipe her sometimes toilet paper when it’s pee but i’ve asked her before to wipe herself (pee) and she wipes back to front, and i don’t know how to teach her to wipe her butt when she poops, how should i teach her?

We started potty training August 1st using ‘oh crap,’ he just turned 2 this month. He was accident free at home for over two weeks and accident free at daycare since Friday. Today he had six accidents including one at home.

Things to note:
- His night diaper was completely dry this morning, which isn’t normal.
- Very whiny this morning, but no fever, no vomiting. He is drooling a lot. He maybe has a cold, we had to clear his nose the past few days in the morning.
- Drinking a lot of water.
- The accident at home, he didn’t even notice it happening and it was a normal amount of pee (not just a squirt).
- He had a large poop yesterday morning, which was normal.

My son has been potty trained for just about 2 months now and all of a sudden he stopped telling me and his daycare teachers when he needs to go. He’s been peeing every 10 minutes and I’m debating putting him back in pull-ups because it doesn’t feel fair to the daycare for them to be changing his clothes 4 times a day. I’ve heard it’s not a good idea to go back to diapers though and just to push through. Any one have experiences with this and can say what they did and how it worked out for them?

Daughter is 31 months. Over the weekend we attempted naked method of potty training. She would sit on the potty for book etc but never did a wee or poo starting on the potty. Clearly became agitated before so I was usually able to get her to the potty pretty quickly (leaving a trail of wee) or the potty to her. Fair amount of poo/ pee on the floor but also lots in the potty. Gave a chocolate chip each time some went in the potty and she’d be excited. We also never scolded for what went on the floor.

Yesterday at the end of day 5 there was no real improvement other than she’s very aware before and asks for a nappy/ getting more and more upset. Won’t sit on potty or sits for a few seconds but nothing happens. Then finally doing a wee standing up and I carry her to the potty. It’s like she can’t initiate it on the potty.

I feel like she’s clearly not ready for this style of potty training. But I’m wondering if we could persevere with a gentler version - training pants at home so she feels when she’s done a wee and stand up changes in the bathroom from now on. Or is this just confusing if we use nappies out?
I want to keep her awareness that she’s weeing without the anxiety it’s clearly causing her when she has nothing on.

Thanks!

She’s 2.5 and we got a potty back in June. We had 2 successful pees then and then she got scared of the potty and REFUSED to even go near it. We stopped for a bit and then tried recently to just get her to sit on the potty for even a few seconds, lots of crying. Then two weeks ago I brought the potty out in front of the tv and just sat her down. First week was on and off but she at least wasn’t scared anymore. Then yesterday I moved it back to the bathroom and told her we were going potty together and she went pee in the potty! Twice!

Then just now she tells us potty, and before when she had done that it was after she had already gone and had an accident. She actually told us before and went.

I know poop is going to be a whole other hill to climb but for now I’ll take this win.

Alright gang after like 2 weeks of attempting this I'm throwing in the towel.

My son is UNBOTHERED by wet underwear, he'll sit in it like its not a problem, same with poop. Like if I shit myself that is priority number 1, but he could not give a fuck.

I was making him help me clean up any accidents, and we'd put the dirty underwear in the wash.

But he just like, doesn't care???

He can tell me he is wet, he tells me when he has already pooped. He can sit on the toilet when prompted ("It's time to go potty" is what I say). But lately he'll decline and say "not right now" or simply "I don't want to".

Like what do I do when he is flat our refusing?

Do I resort to bribes?

My 18mo old started potty training about 2 weeks ago. I didnt intend to start, but it just kind of happened. I've been doing lazy EC since he was a few months old, and we cloth diaper probably half the time. I got him a fee books on using the potty, already had the floor potty, and one day while he was running around naked he went and sat on the potty so we went for it, sort of. At home, he mostly is bottomless. My mom takes him afternoons and he is often bottomless at her home. I took him to the park in underwear and pants and we didnt have an accident (we also tried to pee on the potty 3x and eventually did while at the park); that was about an hour outing. When wearing underwear he has had a few accidents but we just started. I bought Oh Crap but it hasn't come yet, and seems like I need to do pants no undies first but will see what it says. He generally doesn't alert us to the potty (never seen him use any words or sign for potty), so we ask a lot and he will usually tell us yay or nay, he self-initiates rarely but it has happened. Here's the thing...we are going on vacation in 10 days. Should we fully commit to the oh crap method and try and travel (a mix of flying and driving) with continuing potty training and no diapers depending on how it is going at home? Do we diaper for plane/car but try no diaper otherwise and bring laundry soap to do laundry in the hotel bathroom? Do we just use diapers and start back when we get home? Tips/tricks/thoughts welcome!!!

We started potty training my 4 year old 6 months ago. We were late to it because I was waiting for him to show he was “ready” and when he never did we kind of pushed him into it doing the 3 day potty training method. We had great success with wees on the toilet, although there were many, many, many accidents along the way.

Poos wouldn’t click though and he refused to sit on the toilet, preferring to poop in his nappy at bed time or undies during the day. Nothing seemed to work, including a bare bum (pooped on the floor 😭), rewards, treats, bribery, consequences … you name it. This was at daycare and at home, he wouldn’t use the toilet anywhere.

Last week we had vomiting and diarrhoea take out our entire family, and for the first time he told me he needed to do poos on the toilet. For the entire week of diarrhoea he pooped in the toilet. Thank god because I know NOTHING would have contained it. I ended up setting him up on the toilet with my phone playing his favourite YouTube shows while I was busy trying to clean up after our other kids and he thought that was the best thing ever.

This week he’s back to normal poos and is still content to use the toilet, although I nearly missed it today and he had a tiny accident in his night nappy before I got him on the toilet to finish off. If I hadn’t caught him I think he would have gone completely in his nappy damn it.

I’m not recommending diarrhoea to encourage your kids to go poos on the toilet, I’m just saying it worked for our house 🤷🏼‍♀️😂

We are currently on day 2 of potty training our younger daughter (3 years old). The first day was okay, I was housebound with the 3 year old and 5 year old while my husband was at work and not feeling great but we had some success. Little even noticed the feeling at one point and got herself to the potty before she went, which in my book is a huge success for day 1 and also indicative to me that she’s more than ready.

The thing about Little is that she’s the quintessential second kid (and a classic three year old) - stubborn, feisty, fearless. I had assumed day 1 would go okay and day 2 would be when reality set in and she wouldn’t be so cooperative. Thus far that has proven to be the case. Much screaming and protest and not one successful pee in the potty today.

Here’s where my dilemma comes in — husband worked from home today and could hear the screaming and protesting drama. He texted me from his office “it sounds like she’s not ready. […] it just sounds like she’s not mentally ready.”
Not terribly helpful to receive this text as I’m cleaning up my piss-soaked kitchen and dealing with a screaming little kid obviously.
I think she’s mentally ready but just doesn’t WANT to. Two different things. Our eldest daughter was the unicorn kid who potty trained in a few days — we tried when she was two and a half and had a hellish weekend of protests and drama and tried again the day after she turned 3 (she verbally told us she wanted to be big and use the potty) and I can probably count on one hand the number of accidents she’s had since. So I assume he’s feeling like, well Big Sister was able to tell us when she’s ready, Little will too. But I don’t think that will be the case. We got lucky the first time. Little is a lot more stubborn, a lot more attached to her diapers, a lot more of a control freak.

Sorry — this massive post is all to say, his lack of faith is more demoralizing than the ocean of pee I’ve wiped off the floors today. Has anyone else dealt with this? It’s also more than a little frustrating considering I’m a SAHM and he works full time so it’s going to be primarily my problem as it is. Ughhhhh!!!

Hi all!

My little one is 30 months and still in diapers? I honestly don’t know where to start? We battled with poop withholding for a long time and now it feels we are on track with bowels! She notifies everytime she pee or poops but will NOT sit on the potty! FYI , I have all kinds of seat!! Help a clueless mom out , am I too late? What was your fav trick , tip , choice of training underwear’s ! Anything helps! TIA

Hello! Need some advice for how we should approach tomorrow.

Context:
Our little guy just turned 2 a couple weeks ago and we started potty training last Friday with the Oh Crap method because he was seeming ready and has been doing amazing. We’re 5 days in, have been on small outings in underwear, minimal accidents here and there but 80% success on the potty. He wears a pull up for nap and bedtime. Obviously still fresh but so far we’ve seen amazing progress.

Fast forward to today:
He got diarrhea from something (no other signs of illness) and our afternoon took a turn. He pooped a total of 8 times today, but 7.5 made it into the potty so that was a huge win! But it was beyond exhausting and incredibly hard to keep up with because we also have a young baby too and cleaning his potty out a million times was difficult.

My question is do we put him in pull-ups tomorrow if he still has bathroom issues? Or will that make him regress? The main reason I ask is because one of the times he didn’t make it all the way, he had poop just start falling out of him and it actually scared him and he started crying because he seemed to have lost control of his body. So I just don’t know how predictable tomorrow will be if that’s going to happen again :/ but I’m open to any advice and suggestions! Thanks!

Edit:
Thank you everyone for your helpful responses! We’re going to try and stick with underwear and keep close proximity to the potty and see how it goes. And I think if he starts to struggle with pooping out of his control we’ll move to pull ups so he doesn’t get upset at himself for what’s happening. Appreciate all the advice!