Potty Training

We’ve been trying to potty train my son for over 5 weeks now. He’s done many poos and wees on the potty but never gone a full day without an accident. Now he’s just not interested and we feel so deflated. Should we just stop? He literally does not seem interested in the slightest and we’ve tried everything. 😢 since training he’s become really emotional, a LOT of tantrums and crying and it’s all just a lot to deal with mentally I’m pregnant with our second. Please any advice - potty or tantrums is anyone going through or has gone through the same thing? I actually feel pretty miserable the last few weeks with it all and feel like I’ve failed him and his behaviour is just so difficult to deal with at times.

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How old is he? My son was 2.5 when we first tried (I was also pregnant) and after a week gave up he wouldn’t engage with the toilet and there were many accidents. We tried again one month before he turned 3 and it was a totally different experience…by day 3/4 we weren’t having accidents on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong he still did but they were maybe one a week or so not every day. We have just started with my daughter (also one month before 3 years) and day one and two were horrible but since day 3 (we are only on day 6) we’ve had no accidents… I’m not sure what to say for the best? But it’s my reasoning not to force them on the toilet as I don’t want to put them off? He’s maybe just not ready? Good luck with your decision. X

Did you do a particular method? We did the "oh crap potty training" book method and it does talk about them having regressions etc. I might be wrong, but it sounds to me like he can do it but it's more a behaviour issue, they do cover this in the book. Do you think it is the potty training that is making him emotional or is it something else which is making potty training harder? Is he having lots of accidents still or a few? Have you got him in underwear, are you using nappies as well during wake time? These things can make it harder.

Thank you both, he’s 35 months now so nearly 3! He started well at the beginning but seems to have struggled more since having pants and clothes on and gets distracted whilst playing so will have more accidents then. I’m not sure what’s making him emotional, as the tantrums are out of nowhere.. but will definitely have a look at that book thank you! X

Maybe just take underwear away again. The book recommends to have them commando the first 4-5 weeks because underwear feels similar to a nappy and makes it harder for them to potty train. It's normal they get distracted by playing. We've been doing it like 3 months now and my lo is usually accident free at home, still has 1-3 a day at nursery. Had 1 yesterday because we were baking and she got distracted licking out the cream bowl 😂

@Tanya thank you so much! I’ve ordered the book ☺️ will try down to no pants again is that the same for when being out in public? X

@Jessica yes so for the first 4-5 weeks we didn't put knickers on our lo, just kept her in trousers/shorts, at home, out and at nursery. Then after that we put knickers on underneath and she was ok.

I'm not even going to pretend to be an expert. We didn't follow a particular method. Just encouraged LG to try the potty, which she has been doing for a long while whilst she was still in pull-ups. Tried around April but she was not ready and refused to wear underwear or use the potty by the end of the day. We didn't push it. Then 4 weeks ago she asked to wear knickers, she was dry for a few hours the first day then asked to wear pull-ups, so we let her. After that she had a couple of accidents and was dry during the day. Best advice I can give is to keep encouraging and they'll get there and hopefully it won't be as traumatic as most people think x

@Steph thank you! We’re still persevering x

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