I'm quite surprised by these comments and being afraid of potty training.
Who wants pooey nappies??
It is really not that much work. I started working with my son when he was very young. There are whole web sites about people who don't use nappies at ALL! Just think about that.
Anyway with a few of those techniques I had my son pooing in the toliet/potty from about 1.5 yrs. He could tell us when he needed to go kaka. So no more pooey nappies think about that. Since about 2.5 he was more or less trained to do his pee pee too, but with a few accidents. He is now 3 and only wears pull ups at night.
I did the same, she was dry between 1,5 and 2, I think it sometimes goes faster with girls if I remember right talking about it with other parents. Travel potty with me all the time was a great help, in fact I wouldn't have been able to do it so easily and early without it, since you just plop it down in the toilets if you happen to be outside. Being outside and not having anywhere to pee seems to be the thing that spoils the good rhythm in potty training. It was really easy having a little potty with us folded away in the baby carriage. It's called Potette and it is done now by Tomeetipee aside of MotherCare , too, I think. You can just line it with whatever plastic bags, do not need specifically those made to fit at all.
But as soon as she could sit, she would like to be put on a potty, it was nice to sit on that little thing, go through books, have her quiet times, long before she knew what it was for. So she was familiar with potty and did not see it as a weird plastic chair she has to use all of a sudden. Transferring her to a big toilet was easy, she always wanted to copy what grown ups do.
You're describing more an example of a potty-trained parent than a potty-trained child.
A child cannot be dry until the nerves and muscles are properly developed, with each child it's different, some are dry/clean earlier than others.... with poo control coming first.
Urine control can be around two for some children (and their lucky parents), three to five for others, with night control being often the last thing to happen. Changes in life-style or surroundings can cause set-backs, as can illness.
One theory about the new 'lateness' in a child's willingness to toilet-training is that they're simply too comfortable in their fancy disposable nappies, eight hours and still touch-dry!
As Odile has pointed out, wet, cold and sore in terry nappies was strong incentive to becoming dry.
OP, be patient, there are no hard and fast rules about when a child should be 'clean', it'll happen when the child is ready and peer pressure plays a part here too!
My son was pee pee - trained when he was only two, may be even before. Actually he doesn't like wetness at all. But to make him potty- trained was little difficult. i started to train him when he was around 2.5 yrs old .He used to remain without diaper all day long but when he wants to do potty ,he would ask me to tie him the diaper, He was just so afraid to sit on the WC.
Then i bought the little potty trainer and he refused to use even that . Graudually i started to pretend that i am running out of diapers. I said ,"i have only three left,then two , now this is the last one ....He didn't have any option left and eventually he sat on the little potty ,though he kept crying. And that thing makes sound,sings poem..after the child is done with their job. My son was so happy after hearing the sounds. All cryings gone ..
So i definitely recommend the little potty trainer...without that my son would never have been potty trained that easily. Within two days he was loving his new WC.
My son was pee pee - trained when he was only two, may be even before. Actually he doesn't like wetness at all. But to make him potty- trained was little difficult. i started to train him when he was around 2.5 yrs old .He used to remain without diaper all day long but when he wants to do potty ,he would ask me to tie him the diaper, He was just so afraid to sit on the WC.
Then i bought the little potty trainer and he refused to use even that . Graudually i started to pretend that i am running out of diapers. I said ,"i have only three left,then two , now this is the last one ....He didn't have any option left and eventually he sat on the little potty ,though he kept crying. And that thing makes sound,sings poem..after the child is done with their job. My son was so happy after hearing the sounds. All cryings gone ..
So i definitely recommend the little potty trainer...without that my son would never have been potty trained that easily. Within two days he was loving his new WC.
So, you started potty training at 1.5 years and finished at 2.5 years. That's one approach. The other approach is to wait until the kid wants to-in our case we started potty training at 2 years two months for one child, 2.5 years for the second (the third is clearly too young at 4 months) and be done within 2 weeks.
Yeah, not crazy about poopy diapers, but also not crazy about spending a full year of my life per child going from not trained to trained. That approach simply doesn't appeal to those of us who have other jobs (and yeah, I know that some cultures don't use diapers. There are also cultures that don't use running water. And there's significant overlap.)
For those of us who work outside the house, have more than one child, or both, the general advice of waiting until the child shows real interest and then using lots and lots of positive reinforcement is pretty straightforward and easy.
I can't remember how many days mine took, each of them between 3 and 5 days I think. But I can remember distinctly that my daughter was night-trained sooner; and had fewer post-trained accidents. Although she was 3 and my son was only 2.
Boys are harder, because after you've done the progression to toilet, they still have yet to learn to pee standing up! What a joy that is Even though my son is 5 in a few weeks and still sometimes when not paying attention sprays right over the edge, all over the wall, the bin, the toilet brush, the bath, the spare toilet rolls *gah*
Why doesn't your son pee sitting down? When you hear so many women (and a few men??) complaining about pee on the toilet seat and toilet seat being up, precisely because males pee standing up?? Genuine question / I have a daughter... He can always learn to pee standing when he's older, if he wants to... no?
He's nearly 5! Don't all males tall enough to pee standing up do so?! He went to preschool for 2 years in the UK, the norm is to pee standing up as soon as they can reach
How long do you keep that up for though?! It would be weird to ask your 13-year-old to sit down surely... where to draw the line! Like I say in the UK it was the norm (i dunno about here yet) I wouldn't want him to get teased I think 5 is way too old to be sitting down! I am not offended to be put in the "non-sensible mums" category, it's never been a word I would have used to describe myself
Taught my son to sit down too! Few rules to it - at home, sit down. Outside, he can sit down only if it is clean. Otherwise he stands up.
I mean boys sit down for poos, so why not when peeing! We have not bothered him with "boys must stand up" just as we never say "boys don't cry".
Back to the post, these are very useful comments. I am trying to train my 2.5 year old, and it is a real pain. Will try the no nappy option next. I am getting desperate .
Well he's 14 now and 6ft tall and he still sits down to pee at home ( and probably when visiting other people's houses too). Even more room for error when peeing from that height.
He stands up and always has done at school and in public loos.
This is exactly the same for us. It's so much easier for men to just use the urinal in a public lav anyway.
I was brought up being told never to sit down on public loo seats as I might catch something horrible so after years of contortionism in tiny cubicles it's become pretty much ingrained.
My husband is 6 foot 4, and now that he's the father of three girls, he also sits down. I used to LOATHE the occasions when he'd miss in the middle of the night and I'd end up sitting down in the morning to wet feet
My pediatrician recommended that I read "How to Potty Train in Less Than a Day." Basically it says to take off the diaper/nappy and let your child run around your house naked or with just a shirt pinned up so it doesn't get in the way. Every 15 minutes take her to the potty & you sit on the toilet as well. My obsurdly stubborn 3 year old was so successful that my 2 year old potty trained himself the same way.
The only down side is that the 2 year old no longer wears pants or underwear when we are at home.
I did family childcare for a very long time and there really is no one and only solution for potty training. Each child is different. The easiest way I have found is just to make it part of the daily routine at the beginning, have them sit down on the potty or toilet seat first thing in the morning and in the evening when you change them into or out of jammies anyways. Once you have some successes add regular potty times before nap, before going outside etc. Pull-up type diapers are handy for this stage. Then, once you have lots of successes they often start staying dry in between on their own, at which point you switch to underwear. If the underwear has a character on it they don't want to get wet, that often helps. With stool it sometimes takes a little longer, just don't make a big deal out of it, or they may start holding it in, which causes constipation and pain and that becomes a vicious cycle.
As a side note I always taught all boys to sit down, and my 13 yr old son and husband do so at home. They both know if they miss, they have to clean it!