Toddler Adams has reached a major milestone; we’re potty training her and trying to coax her out of nappies. I’m not going to tell you it’s been entirely straightforward, but thus far it’s been easier than when we potty trained her older sister.
To be honest, that comment is possibly a little unfair. I suspect it’s simply that, second time round, Mrs Adams and I have a better idea what we are doing. Elizabeth (our toddler) also wishes to emulate her older sibling, easing the path out of nappies.
Of course, I am a stay at home dad. Although Mrs Adams has been fully engaged and involved with this process, it has been driven by me.
For some months we’d been reminding Toddler Adams to use the potty or lavatory. To begin with our efforts were reasonably successful.
Over time, however, she got lazy. Except for the odd occasion, Elizabeth began refusing to use either and we were back to square one.
During the recent school holidays, I declared that she needed the shock of going straight into pants. If there were accidents, so what?
On a recent day trip to France, we found ourselves in C&A. Younger readers won’t remember C&A but it was, once upon a time, a clothing giant renowned for cheap, polyester clothes that could be found on every high street.
Although no longer in the UK market, C&A can be found abroad. Thankfully it now sells clothes in natural fibres and, finding ourselves in the children’s section, I declared that I was going to buy Toddler Adams some pants. In fact I let her carry them up to the till. She was so proud of her purchase that she had to be stopped from carrying them around with her for the rest of the day.
It’s not often I can say this with such confidence, but, thus far I have been proved correct. Putting her in pants has worked wonders. Last week I spent an entire day with her in Central London and she didn’t have a single accident.
Okay, so there has been the occasional accident, but she acknowledges the fact, which we take to be a good sign. She also needs regular reminding to use a potty but progress has been good none the less and nappies are only being used at nap time and during the night.
Compared to her older sister, the other thing we’ve done is wait. We tried potty training Helen from the age of 18 months and it just didn’t work. She was too young and it resulted in a lot of extra laundry. At two and a half, Toddler Adams seems the right age.
We started Helen at 18 months having taken advice from my mother. Her suggestion was very well meant, but my understanding is that technology was against us. I’ve heard that modern nappies are so good at removing moisture from the skin that kids are happy to stay in them for longer. In other words, potty training is getting later and later not, through laziness of the parents but because the nappies are so good.
That’s been the big development in this household recently. How did you handle potty training and what age were you when you started it?
While I have your attention, could I trouble you to vote for me in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards 2015? I’m delighted to reveal that I’ve been shortlisted in the family category (the only dad blogger to feature on the list!). You can vote by following this link. It’s a very simple check list and takes just a few moments.
Thanks to everyone that voted for me and helped me get on the shortlist. Your support is appreciated.
Pic credit; Peter Rimar. Picture released into the public domain.
14 thoughts on “Potty training, dad style”
Not looking forward to potty training, I must say. I plan to go the ‘three days at home in real underwear’ route. The good news is we have no carpet’s so I’ll only have to worry about the sofa. Could be a slippery few days though.
Congrats on your nomination!
#MMWBH
Good luck with the ptty training. Sure it’ll go well and smart move not having carpets!
I think waiting is the biggest thing you can do to make it a success! We are just about getting to the potty training stage, although I am hoping Max waits until the baby is born as I don’t think I am quite up to potty training right now lol. #MMWBH
If you don’t feel up to it…put it off a while! Sounds fair to me.
We were a lot later…boys! N had been dry at night since 2.5yrs, and from 2y9m would use the toilet before his bath, and sometimes in the morning. But day times it was not entertained at all.
We tried just after the Christmas before going back to nursery, a month before he was 3. 6 days at home wasn’t great, although he’d happily sit on the potty, but although we could tick off all the checklist items on ‘are you ready?’ to potty train, the actual practical side wasn’t working. 1 disastrous first day back at nursery (they’d run out of 5 sets of pants and clothing by 11am), and he was back in pull ups. We then decided (and nursery agreed) to keep encouraging him but leave him in pull ups.
He totally regressed after that nightmare and even his habitual toilet use evening and morning was refused. Then at 3y3m, he woke up one day, said he wanted pants on, and off he went to nursery. 1 accident that day, 1 accident the next, and since then no problems.
We’ve gone through the weird regression a bit where he’d be leaving it too late, or would pee a little bit in his pant, realise, stop and go off to the toilet. Went through a month of that earlier this year, driving me nuts. But mostly he’s been brilliant, especially at nursery.
But blimey – he moans like anything if you suggest he might need to have a pee. It has to be on his terms. The hard thing now is getting him to wipe his bottom. I want him to be able to do that before starting school.
Good luck
Every kid’s different hey Emma? I relate to the whole regression thing. Like I say Toddler Adams was great before the school holidays but it all went wrong. Sure we’ll all get there in the end!
I got into it a bit late cuz I dont know how start it with my son. We did it when he is 3 but surprisingly since he is old we only did the whole thing in 3 days. And he is potty trained in a week.
#mmwbh
Wow, three days. That is impressive. I think that’s a benefit of starting later, the child has a better chance of understanding hwat is going ot happen. Thanks for commenting Merlinda.
Ha I remember C&A very clearly so that says a lot about my age 🙂 It does tickle me that they still have it in France and Switzerland. We started potty training Miss M a few months ago before she turned 2 but stopped because, well given I’m pregnant I thought I’d save that battle for a later date. I think you’re right about it getting later and later though – a lot of my friends waited until 3. We’ll perhaps try again after this second baby makes and appearance. I’ll be check back for tips from YOU! Mim #MMWBH
I’ll let you know how we get on Mim! Sure it’ll be a while until she’s out of nappies at night time but during the day time things are going reasonably well. Thanks for commenting.
Ah, now that’s interesting. There are two things you mentioned there that have given me a hint at why we found potty training relatively easy. Firstly, we use cloth nappies. Secondly, we potty trained my eldest at just 2 years old when she woke up one morning and decided she wasn’t wearing nappies anymore. I guess that the cloth nappies made her realise when she was wet. I hope that baby number two is as easy to potty train as her big sister was! Great post, and good luck with the potty training!
Best of luck potty training younger sister! As you’re using cloth napies, I’m sure it’ll go well.
I started PT with Annabelle back in Jan but after two weeks I had to wave the white flag. I’d clearly read all of her “I’m ready!” signs horrifically wrong! And those two weeks {bar a single pee-pee in the potty which resulted in her FREAKING out, standing up and running off MID-PEE as according to her she’d just piddled in her new shiny ‘chair’! Secondly…she did a poo ON the potty, HURRAH! Shame it was still.in.its.box!} The rest of the time she would get OFF the potty, pee in a corner, then go back to sit on her potty. It was frustrating, torturous and I’m glad we stopped for a few months. However, it’s all starting up again at the end of May! I’ve more faith in her this time round, lol – Thanks for much for linking up! #MMWBH
We went camping when our youngest was 2 and she basically ran around outside naked for 3 days because nobody else was there. She potty trained herself in 3 days, it was lovely