in August 2023 Babies 🇬🇧

Potty/nappy meltdowns

We’d been very informally and in a very relaxed way potty “training” our boy for a little while now. I say “training” because we were really just getting him used to the potty. He hadn’t done anything in it but loved sitting on it and going through the whole routine whenever we went to the toilet. Last week we had a couple of incidents: 1. He did his first wee on the potty, great! But he stood up mid flow so it all went on the floor. I didn’t make a big deal out of it but he was really upset about it - maybe because some went on his feet? 2. He did a poo in his nappy, reached in and pulled it out with his hand and was then traumatised 🙈 Now he won’t go near the potty. This isn’t a problem as such as I’m no rush and not pushing him before he’s ready but the problem is he’s hating wearing nappies! He’s constantly pulling them off, fussing with them and getting upset about wearing them. So I’d love to get him potty trained for his own benefit but I now don’t know how to approach it. I feel like we’re in a no man’s land between him hating and being uncomfortable in nappies but not yet ready for the potty. Any advice?

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My little girl used to sit on the potty and even did a poo on it at 16 months old but since the novelty has worn off when I can tell she is doing a poo I say 'do you want to sit on the potty?' And she always says no. It's annoying but I'm just going to wait until she wants to use it again. Not sure what to suggest about your little one not liking nappies. May be change to a different brand Incase they are irritating him.

Sounds like he’s maybe now really starting to get it so he’s getting himself a bit confused. Maybe time to either take a week off, clear the diary and fully commit to pants and everything in the potty or to put the potty away and not try anything at all for a little while until you feel 100% confident that he’s ready.. and then fully commit. He’ll know if you’re not sure x

Where do you keep the potty? Maybe a change of location would help? We have a seat in the bathroom but also have a potty in her play area which is what she uses most of the time as we just play/read while she uses the potty so it's really low pressure x

@Becky they definitely seem to go through phases don’t they. That's exactly it, I don't want to push him when he's not ready. I've tried a different brand and size in case it was that but no luck!

@Sophie he would find that approach really stressful which is why we've gone for the gradual approach. I suppose I could put the pottys away. He's definitely ready, I just think probably a bit confused and freaked out x

@Rachel we have one in each bathroom and we sometimes bring one in his room. Yeah we never put any pressure on him. For months he's just been sitting on it his room whilst playing/reading. Then we started having the pottys in the bathrooms to build the association with going to the toilet, and he loved going in there, "wiping" (he would pretend to), washing his hands etc. All lead by him with no pressure x

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