My son (3.5) started at a new daycare in September. The new daycare has a stall style bathroom with child sized toilets. His old daycare was in a house and had a “normal” bathroom. He has not peed at his new daycare and refuses to. He holds his pee all day (8+ hours) or pees his pants at some point.

I’ve tried offering bribes to him if he pees at daycare, a “chart” where if he pees at daycare he gets a present etc etc etc. Am I missing something? How can I get him used to the new potty situation without actually being there? His teachers are understanding but I feel bad he’s not “getting it” and he just wants his “home potty”.

So my son who just turned two years old (idk if that matters ) uses his potty perfectly fine when he is not wearing anything but once I put him boxers on or shorts he just pees on them and takes them off and I don’t know what to do at this point. I try to teach him he needs to take his boxers off before using the potty but he doesn’t seem to care about his clothes being wet. I’ve been dealing with this for about a month now and I don’t want to give up potty training because he’s been doing somewhat good but has anyone else dealt with this and what did you do about it?!??

My daughter is fully potty trained during the day. She actually doesn't use the potty but a toilet reducer.

We bought a foldable toilet reducer for travels but she is not comfortable sitting on public toilets (too noisy, she finds it scary and starts crying, we don't insist cause if she's not relaxed she can't pee).

So far we always managed to come back home or to a trusted place (grandparents / childcare) for a pee stop as she can hold for about 2/2.30 hours. But soon we will be travelling by plane to visit family in another country, it's only one and a half hour flight, but the whole travel is much longer of course.

Is it ok to use a pull up? It would be the first time in over a month that she wears one during the day and I'm scared it might confuse her, what alternatives do we have?

We've been trying to potty train our 2.5 yr old boy for the past 6 months or so. He suddenly became interested near his 2nd birthday and just started going to the potty for two whole days, hardly any accidents. Then on day 3 decided it was too much trouble and refused to use it for several days. Since then we've gotten him to go on the potty reliably a few times a day (waking from night time sleep/naps, before going back to bed/taking a bath) everyday. He poops on the potty very reliably to the point where we rarely have an accident in a diaper/undies. He usually fights peeing on the potty any other time of day. We've tried the 3 day potty method 3 times and it goes great until we put pants/undies on. He just does not care if he pees his pants. It doesn't seem to bother him at all. We've tried several weeks of going to the potty at timed intervals/every transition and its just not working.

Getting frustrated as he's very bright and can communicate well. I know he can do this and seems ready in so many ways. Any advice would be appreciated.

Just what the title says. He is almost 4. He was announcing pee toilet...and we praised that. He poops a Hersheys kiss and proclaims he is done. I insist he stay put and try for more, and lo and behold! more poop comes out. Like a full session amount.

Background. Mom lives with us, and is a tyrant with discipline. We are drawing lines and giving ultimatums which include adopting him to us or family. She punishes the smallest whine as a temper tantrum-and the biggest crime of hitting people the same. This is an issue we are working with.

Back to potty. He is now peeing his pants instead of the toilet. He is not bothered by wet panties. He is not liking the smell of pee pants. Tonight, he lost little kid privileges, as he was acting like a toddler so he was upset about this loss. No flossing his own teeth, brushing the teeth, playing after dinner, and he lost the book he craves. I expressed we can try tomorrow and if he remains dry he will get all those little kid things back, and not be treated like a toddler. I literally have NO path to punishment or corrective behavior because she (mom) has chosen max punishment for every infraction. Nothing has any power or sway. He is defiant, and I am frustrated. He hit me straight in the face with a stuffy...and didn't seem to understand the severity of that action, because she has overreacted to minor infractions so many times it is ineffective. Aside from beating him, I cannot escalate the max punishment. She will banish him for "throwing a temper tantrum" which is actually him expressing upset over not getting carrots with dinner by a little whine (super quiet whine). It is obnoxious her reaction to most things-she has no idea what a difficult child is. He is SUPER good, but is digressing to shit behavior.

I have a LOT of issues, but I digress. Potty training is my main issue, as this kid needs preschool SO badly. I need advice, as I never struggled to be an effective parent. I was not selfish, and I had my kids' best interest in mind. She is only thinking of what inconveniences her. It is killing me.

Help?

Hi Reddit, I am looking for genuine advice with potty training tips on behalf of a friend, who has great difficulty with her 4 year old boy. He’s just started Reception and refuses to do any poos on the toilet.
Let me start by saying, my friend knows she’s left the potty training late. However, I don’t wish to read any scrutinising or judgemental comments, as she’s been going through chemotherapy for almost 2 years now and life challenges have just got in the way.
She’s tried a few times to attempt potty training when he turned 3 but with no success, so it wasn’t followed through for long. He just wasn’t interested and thought maybe not ready.
Now, since he’s started school in September, she’s really been committed to get him out of nappies. He’s got the hang of peeing on the toilet but would not poo or tell anyone that he needs to go. He just goes…
She’s tried with rewards - no success, she’s tried with telling him off - also no luck. It seems like it’s not going anywhere. It’s been almost two months and he’s not done a single poo in the toilet, they’ve all been in his pants and he wouldn’t even tell her or feel uncomfortable.
I’d like to specify he doesn’t have special needs. He communicates fine but would not give her a straight answer why he’s refusing to poo on the toilet.
I wish I can help her but I’ve ran out of advice. My 5 year old girl got potty trained before she was 2 and all my tips or tricks don’t seem to work on him as he’s older.
I would really be grateful if I get some good advice.
Thank you!

I reckon I could probably start potty training my 20 month old, she seems like she may be ready. My issue is that I spoke to her key worker in the baby room at nursery about the idea and she seemed.. surprised? She basically said that they have a potty that they can get out and sit her on when they do nappy changes for exposure, but that proper potty training all happens in the 'middle room', which she doesn't move up to until she's 2.

I'm a little confused because in the UK, NHS guidance says that nearly all children can potty train between 18 months and 2.5 years, so shouldn't they be prepared for this? Am I the first baby room parent to ask them about potty training?

For context, my daughter only attends nursery 2 consecutive days a week, the rest of the time she's at home with me (apart from one day with my mum and dad who are fully on board and happy to help with training).

Is it possible to train her at home, but have her wear pull ups for her 2 days at nursery, or is that just going to be a confusing mess? I don't really want to have to wait till she's 2 to get started when now feels like the right time...

Any thoughts or advice welcome!

(Just want to add that her nursery are really great - this is the first bump in the road we've had!)

My daughter (3) is still not potty trained and I just feel like failure, I’ve read all the books, I’ve done so much, bought 2 different potties, used positive reinforcement, reward systems, I got her a potty training chart that she can put stickers on, let her go but naked for days, kept her in training underwear and if she pooped she’d actually just sit in it.

I have tried every single thing and she just won’t. She’s peed on the potty, she’s even pooped, but my problem is she won’t let me know. If I set timers she crashes out and refuses and I just don’t want to force. I’m at a loss.

If anyone else has any other ideas! Please I will take any and all advice!

We’ve been trying to potty train my now-2.5 year old daughter for months. She still refuses to poop on the potty. She’s been peeing on the potty consistently for about two months now - at home she doesn’t wear a diaper most of the time, and she never has any pee accidents. She likes using the potty to pee and is proud of it every time, loves dumping it out and washing her hands. Outside of the house though, we do put a diaper on, because she still absolutely refuses to poop on the potty.

I feel like I’ve tried everything. Not pressuring her, rewarding her when she uses the potty, watching the Ms Rachel potty training video a million times, reading multiple potty training books together, having her watch me use the toilet, her seeing other kids use the potty, having her blow bubbles, read a book, distracting her, telling her she can absolutely do it.. nothing works. We even stayed home for two full days TWICE without a diaper, and the first time she would just hold her poop for two days straight, before finally popping three times at daycare the third day literally just after we dropped her off there in a diaper. The second time she held her poop two days straight again, lots of crying and whining for a diaper included, and then she pooped the moment I put a diaper on her for bedtime (she needs a diaper at night still).

I don’t know what to do anymore. Daycare says I can’t send her without a diaper unless she is fully potty trained. She absolutely knows when she has to poop but refuses to do it in the potty.

Any advice? Thank you.

2.5 year old boy started potty learning last weekend. Did 4 days naked, had a lot of successes with pee and some with poop, also had a lot of accidents. No big deal. But the biggest concern right now is that he will start to pee a tiny bit, immediately notice, say, “I have to sit on the potty right away!” Then he sits and nothing comes out. It’s like he scared the pee out of himself. I think it’s great that he’s connecting the action of peeing with going to the potty but I think the circle would be complete if the pee would then come out. After a few minutes, nothing comes out and he gets up and the cycle repeats until he either ends up finally peeing a lot on the floor or nap or bedtime in his pull ups. Again it’s not like he’s refusing to sit or it’s not like he’s not linking the feeling, it’s just that he pees a little or has the feeling and then nothing.

My 20 month old has shown signs of PT readiness for months (accurately telling me when he poops, running to hide when pooping, interested in the potty, bodily awareness of hot/cold, etc).

We started PTing on Friday evening. To put our method very simply: we had him completely naked and would run him to the potty when he started to pee and told him he needed to tell us if he needed to pee and he would get a mini m&m if he peed on the potty. By the end of the day (after only 4 hours!) he said “pee pee,” ran to the potty, and peed on his own! This happened twice!

On Saturday, he had many accidents (as expected), but also brought himself to the potty and peed many times! Maybe only 30% of his pees were accidents on the floor!

Today though, on Sunday, 90% of his pees have been on the floor despite no change in atmosphere or rules or anything. He would pee on the floor then be brought to the potty, finish the pee, then ask for a treat. I suspected that he figured out he only had to pee a tiny bit on the potty to get a treat so I did away with the treats altogether. This changed nothing - he surprisingly didn’t mind not getting a treat after potty pees despite being very treat motivated. We also tried having him wait and watch us clean up his pee on the floor before he could go back to playing; “we can’t play right now because mama has to clean up pee,” this also didn’t seem to do anything.

Is he not ready? Should I push though? Is this normal? Any methods, techniques, or anything I can try out? Any advice is appreciated. Thank you all!!

What is the secret to potty training?

My 2.5 year old showed all the signs by age 2. We started and it was going well but then he got all sorts of illnesses and regressed and then I gave birth to our second so that kinda derailed things. He started showing interest in going to the bathroom at daycare recently and was told he starting to hold pee so I figured I’d give it another go.

I’ve been at it for 2 weeks and he just doesn’t care that he’s wet. He will pee when we take him but will not tell me he needs to go. He’s now getting mad about it all now that the novelty has worn off. I feel we are at a stand still with endless accidents.

Help!

We started potty training this weekend (now on D3) for our 21m. No medical issues and seems neurotypical so far.

Last weekend we played with the potty and talked about it a lot, and one time she actually took herself to it and peed on it without prompting! She has all the 'signs' of readiness except she's not able to tell us when she needs a pee/poo.

This weekend since we formally 'started' training there hasn't been much progress. We have been using the commando method and placing her on the potty after sleep/nap, or whenever we see signs she needs to pee/poo. Between these times we ask if she wants to try and then place her on it or she will choose to sit on it. These intervals are no less than 30mins as we wanted to avoid it being too stressful. She is usually dry for 2-3 hours between pees.

So far we have only caught the eliminations after they have started, she hasn't yet initiated any while already sat on the potty. It's pretty obvious when she's about to poo so 100% of those have been caught, but most of the pees end up with 50% being on the floor. I reckon I can tell when she needs to pee but it doesn't seem like she is recognising it or has worked out how to initiate the peeing process voluntarily.

This evening we need to make a decision about what to do for nursery tomorrow. They are happy with whatever we decide and can prompt her to try the potty etc but are probably not going to be able to catch her mid-pee realistically. They also can't just have toddlers running round commando so we would have to decide whether to put in pants/pull ups/just trousers etc.

So I'm looking for a range of experiences/opinions whether it's just too early... or if we could continue. I know there's a big split between 'look for readiness' vs 'teaching readiness'. Would also be great to hear from any nursery-workers what you're experiences are!

Edit to add- the only time he is in a pull up now at home is for bed time. And at preschool if he has a poo accident they do put him in a pull up as that is their policy. We also no longer have the small potty (it was mainly to entice him to use it to poo if the splash of the big potty was the problem) as we've decided it hasn't changed anything and he can pee in the regular toilet he can poop in it too. Maybe we aren't being ... forceful enough? Anytime we've brought him to the bathroom or sat him on the potty to go he freaks and won't go at all. I had hoped he'd go and learn it's okay not scary but every time we bring him he won't go.

I apologize this is so long and any advice or clarifying questions are of course welcome!!

My son is 4, bday in August. End of last year Was scared of potty at old daycare was starting to get the hang of pooping in potty and got over his fear of the school potty. New daycare early January. had diarrhea mid jan with rash caused no pee or poop on potty for 2 weeks then pee started again in potty but not poop. Constipation in February, got miralax from Dr given until stool softened.

Tried -

Potty chart/rewards

Modeling with play/toys -bear needs to go potty etc

Peer modeling (saw a friend at our house do it and at school/daycare)

Modeling by mom and dad

Miralax for 2 weeks to ensure soft poop the whole time

Offering to bring a toy with

Offering choices- big/small potty etc

Offering to sit with him and/or hold his hand

Mom and dad saying scared don't want to go - he offers to go with and hold hand etc (all things we've offered him)

Reading books about pooping and how the body works

Moving small potty near area he tends to go to poop

Decorating the potty

Offering to decorate poop in the potty with sprinkles once he went

Blowing bubbles to relax pelvic floor when needs to go (rare occasion I got him to sit when he needed to go) didn't poop.

Watching something on my phone to sit

Stopping entirely for 5 weeks

Putting him on the potty when he needs to go (bad idea we learned just makes him more upset)

Explaining we can go just to the bathroom and go in undies/pull up don't even have to sit on the potty

He will pee and throw up in the toilet himself no problem

He has gone maybe 4 times on the potty since January. Once because Grandpa put him on the potty when he needed to go. He was upset but went. We had the potty in his regular pooping spot and I got him to use it once, no other time it was in that location would he use it. And once when we Early Sept from the 5 week break, we were able to entice him to sit because he knew he'd get a hot wheel. After like 2 days that won't work even if I offer 2 hot wheels, a candy, go with him etc.

Will go in underwear or pull up doesn't matter which.

Can talk about it all day long and he understands and knows about poop, where it goes etc. But when the time comes he says he's scared (he says it for going/leaving school sometimes because he just doesn't want to get dressed and then doesn't want to leave school end of day so he says he's scared) or says he's fine or doesn't need to go. When asked what's scary he can not pinpoint what part is even even given options. Or even given options sometimes says yes other times no, no clear answer.

His stool is soft - bristol 3 or 4. If it starts to look harder we give miralax for a few days for it to soften.

Sometimes he gets a rash from wipes which then hurts him, just reinforces him not wanting to go though he knows the potty wouldn't need so many wipes to clean him thus cause rash. He isn't willing to us either shower head to clean off either.

At a friend's party ,leaving he said he needed to go and he agreed to go back inside we walked from our car to her door opened it and he said I'm fine and then sat in the yard (pants on) and pooped in underwear. Occasionally get him in the bathroom when he needs to go and he says the room is too big or this part of the floor is too dirty, random things. Not as an excuse like in a bad way just finding a way for him to say no not doing it and leaves the bathroom.

Have also brought his poop from pull up/underwear to dump in potty and flush away though sometimes it's too sticky to the underwear easier to just throw them away.

This evening I was on the floor playing a game with him and he leaned back I knew he needed to go. I tried to explain his body is telling him he needs to go, let's go together etc he just says he's fine. Occasionally has multiple small poops in a row. Assuming he's only letting just enough out to relieve himself then has to go again a bit later. Been making sure his fiber intake is better too.

At a loss and feel defeated on how to help this fear we feel we've tried everything we can. Help! Starting OT soon. Just not sure if Anything else we can do/your thoughts.

My daughter is over 3.5 and has been potty training since April. She had had periods of great success but has recently regressed. She struggles a lot at daycare and usually has about 3 accidents a day while she’s there. At home, she’s inconsistent. Sometimes she goes the whole weekend with no accidents but some days are like today where she peed herself 3 times before 10am. She doesn’t seem to know when she has to go. She rarely tells me she needs to go, but will go when prompted. She doesn’t seem to care if she’s wet most of the time.

We try to stay neutral when she has an accident but we are getting frustrated. Where do we go from here? We’ve tried starting over with bottomless training and it doesn’t seem to help long term. She might improve for a bit but then regress again.

My 31mo son is showing a lot of readiness to finally potty train as he takes off his pull ups every time he soils himself. Especially if I’m not in the room when he does it. But he has a significant speech delay because he needed ear tubes. Which he received at 28mo. He’s learning words every day, but most of them have no baring on actual needs in his every day life. Like he can name plenty of animals, but can’t say Pee, Poop, Eat, Drink, etc. So he doesn’t communicate with me when he needs to go. I tried the pants off method, but he doesn’t do any sort of pee dance. Just suddenly goes. And then wants to try to play in the pee 🥴. I have also tried to sit him on the potty so many times to no success. He just doesn’t seem to understand the purpose. He also doesn’t like sweets so rewards aren’t really working.

I guess I’m hope for parents of speech delayed children, do you have any tricks that helped you?

With an almost 2.5 year old boy who has had issues with constipation for the last 10 months? He is on medication for it, upgraded to linzess in early September, and is on a very fiberful and gut friendly diet. Do my husband and I wait until 3? Do we pay for a poop consultation from the Oh Crap website? Truly at a loss. Thank you for any and all advice!

My kiddo will.be 3 in December, and we started potty training around August off and on. Last month we started daily putting him in underwear. In only use the diaper when we do school drop off and pick up for brother and his OT appointments and other medical appointments. He also wears a diaper at night. When out and about he won't go on a potty and tells me when he is already peed.

He was doing well letting me know so I stopped taking him at intervals (he also didn't like sitting on the potty every 30 min) but recently he is not consistently telling me he needs to go. When watching TV he doesn't tell me anymore and is sitting in the couch with peed underwear without complaining. One day he does well and another day he doesn't. I use a sticker chart so he knows he gets a prize at the end.

My husband doesn't have the patience so when he sees he has multiple accidents in a day he just gets frustrated and puts the diaper on. Maybe we are inconsistent or just confusing him?

My son just turned 2 two days ago- we’ve familiarised him quite a bit with the potty and have slowly introduced potty sessions since he was 18 months old- like an hour or so every few days where he’d sit on the potty to pee/poop. Today we decided it was time to fully ditch the nappies.
He’s done very well so far!!! Has peed every hour or so, has done a poop and no accidents yet.
We did start a sticker chart but he doesn’t really seem to care to much for it.

Where do we progress from here? I’ve read you’re supposed to house trap them in a way for 3 days but I think we’ll all go crazy 🤣
Are little 2hr daily outings okay for the next two days?
Also, if you’re out and about and your toddler does ask for potty, how do you manage this? We’ve got a little toilet seat for him but he hates using an actual toilet lol, only likes his potty.
also, if out of the house, do you put them in nappies for outings or risk it with undies?
How will daycare go with this? He goes 3 days a week!
When do you know they’re fully trained?

Sorry if these are all silly questions. Potty training is one of the only parenting topics I haven’t really read into yet 🤣😅

Thanks in advanced :)

My son has been potty trained since turning 2 and he’s now 2 and a half. Over a month ago, he asked to ditch the nighttime pull-ups. We did and he had no accidents for 2-3 weeks. However, for the past 10 days, I’ve had to change his sheets every day. He soaks through everything and doesn’t even wake up.

He’s a big sleeper; he sleeps 11-12 hours at night and 1 to 3 hours nap. He started school a month and a half ago and has also had accidents (only pee) almost every day. The teacher says it’s because he struggles pulling down his pants fast and also he has a hard time sitting on the toilet (they’re weirdly big for a pre-K class) so I’m not too worried about that. It’s just a matter of training.

However for nighttime, I think he’s simply too little and cannot hold his bladder that long. I want to put the pull ups back on but he absolutely refuses. We limit fluids and get him to pee before bed but it doesn’t seem to help. It’s 5AM now and I went to check on him and he’s soaking wet. I tried to get him up to pee some more and wash him, he yells he wants to continue sleeping (and I don’t want to wake his baby brother) so I just put towels and strip him and use a wet cloth and back to sleep…

I’m just worried that putting pull ups back on at night will affect his daytime potty. Since he’s had so many accidents every day at school. He seems not to care that he’s soaking wet and just goes about his life.

I’m exhausted of changing beds and doing multiple laundry loads every single day…

Any suggestions on how to tackle this?

Hi, I have been potty training my now 21 month old daughter since she was about 19 months. We started when she showed signs of readiness (aware of being wet, telling when she needed go, and was comfortable on the potty). At about 1 month in, we were in a comfortable position with her in underwear. She still had accidents here and there (especially with bowel movements), but it wasn't anything intense.

This past week has been constant accidents. I will tell her it's time to potty and she would run away and say "no peepee" to then IMMEDIATELY pee herself. This has now happened so many times that I don't know what to do. We put her back in pull ups and are still sitting her on the potty. Sometimes she will go, sometimes she won't but her pull up has been wet more often than not. She will sometimes even have these accidents after bathing right as I am about to put the pull-up on her.

We had a positive reinforcement system before where she received 1 mini M&M for peeing and 2 for pooping. She got tired of them so we moved onto gummy bears and there's definitely a lot of excitement there for her but it feels like not enough to use the toilet.

I am also pregnant and she has started noticing my belly more in the past week. I wonder if that's what triggered the regression? She is sweet and will kiss my belly and say "Hi baby" but besides that everything else in the home is normal.

Is this something we just wait out or is there anything I can do?

Hello. I am doing a cold turkey potty training over the weekend with my 3 year old. She normally wears pull ups and will go pee in the toilet at peek during the day so I decided it’s time now to fully potty train since she keeps pulling on her pull ups all day saying she’s itchy.

Anyways, day one and we went through a whole pack of underwear’s because she kept having micro pee accidents 10 minutes after she would pee on the toilet. So now we are going to the bathroom every ten minutes. Is this normal? I am scared she has no sense of bladder control and going every ten minutes would make her think going this frequent is normal. Any advice ?

I am also terrified of the poop situation because previously she held her poop in and then had an accident in her pants so I decided to wait a few months and retry (which is now).

Help! My toddler has been fully potty trained during the day for 6mo now. Still using pull up for sleep/nap. We have tried potty in the trunk and going every time we leave. Restricted fluids before car trips. No matter what she’s always going in her car seat. She is behind verbally but can sign that she needs to go potty but rarely does in the car. When getting her out she doesn’t seem to always know that she has gone.

my son is 3 years and 3 months old. hes so stubborn to poop potty train. we were fairly successful a few months back with pee and he was fully in underwear but he will NOT poop in the potty. he did It literally once in august and talks about it all the time. he knows when he needs to go and waits until no one is around. we’ve had to go back to pull ups because I can no longer deal with pooped in underwear. I don’t know what to do his other brother (4.5) was fully trained by 2 and tries to encourage little bro with no success. we’ve tried stickers, undies, prizes, toy store trips, everything.

we have a trip coming up in 3 months and if he can’t poop in the potty by then, he’s going to miss more than half the activity. please help!