Help me get off my lazy @$$ and TT my nearly 3 year old...

[Amity]

Okay, long story but I'll try to make it short.

I left XH when DS2 was 12 months old. I use disposies, XH used cloth. DS2 had horrific nappy rash from XH not changing clothies often enough. Like bad enough that the doctor was going to notify DHS (DOCS). Anyway, I started to TT DS2 when he was 2yrs 3mths old, over Christmas. I had two weeks off work and he was with me, so I started. Got about 2/3 of the way there with wees, but no success with poos. Then I sent him back to XH's for the weekend, and lo and behold, he came back in nappies

I haven't had the time or the inclination to start again since.

DS2 was hit by his father in May and is now only having supervised visits. We're in the court system arguing about what happens next. However I really would like to try and TT DS2 soon. I have been putting it off, saying he's not ready, saying that he needs some time to recover from the assault (which is true), but now that it's heading into summer, I really think I should start TT him.

He does understand about wees, if I sit him on the potty and tell him to wee, he does so. But it doesn't all come out - 5 mins later he might wee on the floor! He also doesn't "get" poo, nor does he "get" when he is feeling full and needs to go.

I'm looking for helpful hints, encouragement and support. I need to find a week when I can take the whole week off and spend it at home with him, on our own. And does anyone know where to find the thingy that you stick in the dunny that changes colour when you wee on it?

Help me!!! I don't want him to be three and not yet TT!

[aussienic]

I was just looking at some great sites yesterday about TT.

A Friend of mine is trying to TT her almost 3yr old DD. (3 in December)

now or my tips. I have TT or should i say they TT themselves.. With my eldest I just took the nappy away and took him to the toilet often.. Ds2 same thing.. Toilet often.. I would sit with him for a while talking ect till he peed. Ds3.. whole new kettle of fish.. TT himsel day and night so I wn't use him as an examle..

neither Ds1 or Ds2 pooed on the toilet till well after 3. they didn't like it I suppose but I refused to clean pooey jocks. I said right.. You either poo on the toilet or ask for a nappy.. They would ask for a nappy do thier poo get cleaned up and go on thier merry way. I eventually got tired of pooey nappies as well. I told them if they pooed in thier nappy they would have to help me clean it up. I started by tipping the poo in the toilet with thier help and we would have a giggle about the sound it made (boys love poop jokes) then they would flush it away and we would wave good-bye and laugh and carry on.. I am not sure exactly how we stopped pooing in the nappies but it happened. We would talk about how our tummies felt before they pooed and things like that. Great conversations

As for changing the toilet water colour I just read something yesterday about putting food colouring in the toilet.. a couple drops of blue colouring and when they pee it turns green..

There are also rewards charts you can print off yourself. I never tried these as I didn't think they would work with my boys. I did reward Ds3 with a treat of a milky way for his efforts though..

um I can't think of anything else.. but if you have any questions ask away I am sure once a question is asked my memory will be jogged

Good luck

[Ellibam]

div!!
remember my great post a million months ago about makon being tted?? well it went out the window and we are still struggling with it all!!
i would leave it he will show signs soon of wanting to do it esp when mr A goes to the toilet so soon he will want to follow his bro! he has had a rough yr!

[Lulu]

Bribery pure and simple. Mitch TT in a week because he loves snakes.....

[morgan78]

Bribery pure and simple. Mitch TT in a week because he loves snakes.....

LOL...freddo frogs worked here though it took 2 weeks

[Amity]

ooohhh forgot about the bribery, now I remember, it was smarties for DS1....

okay will try and get off my (rather large) butt soon!

[~Raven~]

Another one here rather fond of bribery chocolate works well. Don't worry about making a "rod for your back" so to speak. I just would either forget to give a chockie and the praise was enough after the first few goes or we would "run out" (accidently on purpose kwim...) after he had been in the habit of going for a week or so.

Mason didn't get it till he was 3 1/2. What made it for us was the little toilet in the parenting toilets. Take him to Chaddy (if you dare ) and see if the little kid sized one sparks his interest.
Wees on the grass was also fun for Mason. It is a bit cold ATM for that but if it doesn't work now then you can let him go run wild in the yard in a few months.

[little sprocket]

My daughter is 3 years and 4 months and she still isnt completely toilet trained. It took a long while for her to want to do wees in toilet and daycare didnt want to help at all either (nor did my lazy husband). So I just put my foot down one weekend and said no more nappies (didnt yell at her or anything just u know thought it). SHe would wee on the floor constantly but after a while of reminding her to go to the toilet she eventually did it. Then when it came to going to daycare, she would arrive in undies and they would put a nappy on her straight away even after talking to them about toilet training. So i fixed the problem by refusing to supply nappies anymore. My daughter was able to toilet train quite well after that cos she just goes when her friends go. She still wears a nappy to bed and probably will for a while. She also has to wear a nappy when going for nap time at daycare. However I take her out all the time shopping with no nappy on and she is fine. She really likes the mini toilets in the mothers rooms at the shopping centres where we can wee together. They are fantastic apparently.

Oh and she likes to do wees in the big toilet and poos in the potty.

[Amity]

All righty, I've taken a week off from 22-26 September and we are going to go for it! Just DS2 and I will be home as DS1 will be in daycare. So I'm going to keep a journal that week to see how we go.

DS2 and I have discussed it, we've bought big boy undies with Bob on them, so we'll just have to see how we go! Thanks for all the handy tips - will keep them going.

Unfortunately DS2 is too big for a potty as he just pees all over the edge, even when sitting down! Icky!

[AngelPunks]

Div - good luck for this coming week with my gorgeous young man

Tell him Auntie Sharon is proud of him

[Michelle71]

Div - there is (apparently) a device that hangs over the edge of the toilet for them to wee into (more at the kiddies level for aim purposes without needing a stool) that then flips over the edge of the toilet for emptying and the flush washes it at the same time. I think I saw it at a baby shop. Might be an option if he is too big for the potty but too little for the big toilet just yet.

[Amity]

Well it's Day Five and here's how we've gone...

Day One - Monday - four in the potty (once we worked out that he could use it if he dangled his pen!s right in, and aimed for the bottom of the potty)... as he didn't like the big toilet. Apparently the hole is too big, even with an insert. Two on the lino... two in the garden...one in the BL&*DY car seat!!! And we managed to get INSIDE the gumboots too... icky.

I was pretty down in the dumps on Monday, as I was getting really annoyed with the whole process. I'd take him to the potty, he'd do some, but then 10 mins later would do a whole heap more in an inappropriate place. It was very frustrating. We also had a poo on Monday morning in his bedtime nappy, which was great because I knew I wouldn't have to deal with it that day!

Day Two - no poo in the morning. Had a fairly good day - six wees in the potty (woohoo), one under the tree when he was too busy climbing it to get down and wee, and one in the garden when he was trying to wee the garden. So he started to understand what he was supposed to be doing, which was good.

Bribery stopped working - he refused chocolate when he'd gone to the potty... hmmm strange child. So we went to stickers - worked for the morning, then refused them in the afternoon. But by this stage he'd realised that if I was going to take him anywhere or do anything with him, he needed to go potty first, which was good.

Day Three - pretty good. Saw him grab his penis in the morning, and asked him if he needed to go potty, he said "Yes" and ran for the potty! It was the hugest pee he'd ever done in the potty... I had to take my parents to the airport in the morning, and was pretty worried about the carseat... it's a 1 1/2 hour round trip. But he did well. One accident on the carpet in the late afternoon and a dry nappy with day sleep! First accident on the carpet, but hey, it's day three.... Oh and still no poo.

Day Four.. let's persevere... lots in the potty. Even when playing in the garden he pulled his own pants down and tried to wee the garden.. the first time he managed to also get his gumboots (again) and his undies and his pants... but he actually worked it out himself that he needed to go. Blooming marvellous. The second time, I had to aim it for him... but he again worked it out himself! Woohoo progress!

He's now on antibiotics for a bronchial infection so maybe the ABs will bring on the poos... which have been missing in action since Monday... unusual for DS2 as he's usually an every morning man... asked the doctor about it and apparently it's quite common for them to hold it in when they're toilet training, so I have to persevere and see... it will come out eventually (yikes I hope it's at daycare tomorrow and not at home EEEK!!!!)

Day Five - here we go... one "accident' this morning on the carpet which was again annoying especially as I had asked him if he needed to go potty and he'd said no!

He's now at daycare as I prepare the house for his birthday party tomorrow!

Some things I've learned -
that Crocs are the best TT shoes
Gumboots are the second best
Urine doesn't come out of leather or slippers easily - the smell lingers...
Carseats are very absorbent!

Will keep you all updated over the next couple of weeks!

[alittlegrubi]

Well it's Day Five and here's how we've gone...... one "accident' this morning on the carpet which was again annoying especially as I had asked him if he needed to go potty and he'd said no!

Apparently, it is not the right thing to do to ask them - as they generally will say no in the early stages, you are better off saying come with me and taking them to the potty, especially if you know what times they tend to go.

I've found with DS that if you say let's go to the potty if he really doesn't need to go he says "no fanks" if he needs to go he runs there. We've only just had a poo breakthrough this week after months of trying to TT for poos I gave up and just kept saying poos go in the toilet not the nappy every time we changed the nappy. Then on Tuesday he wanted a toy - so I bought it, put it in a jar for him to see and said he could have it when he did a poo in the potty - last night I said it again and he went in and did a poo for the toy. Be patient with the poos, they will come eventually.

[Amity]

Well we've had a bit of a breakthrough! TOday at daycare he did TWO POOS in the potty! WOOHOO!

This is after three weeks, so we've done pretty well. I showed him that I was throwing out the undies that he was pooing in, (because I'm lazy lol) and he didn't like that idea, so EVENTUALLY did poos in the potty!

He'd been holding it in a LOT, like we had lots of overnight wake ups, I think with tummy pain from holding it in, but I just kept telling him that it was okay to do poos in the nappy or pullups at night time, and it's okay to do poos in the potty too...

So I bought him a lollypop (and his brother too lol) after swimming today! Woohoo! Now just to keep it up!

[maz]

oh oh put a golf ball or something bright that will float in the loo and tell him he has to pee on it to try and 'sink it'....but im sorry thats about as big as my advice is.
I let my kid lead the way with TT.
Nikolaus was done (night and day) but 2 years and 4 months
Wilhem..god dont get me started but he has issues - 5 years
Vy - she's dry through the day and the nappy is moist of a night time

PMSL at the pooh....you dont want to know what I did with poohy jocks then do ya

[AngelPunks]

yah for my gorgeous little man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lulu]

Thats great but I'm going to miss my poo and wee updates!

[AngelPunks]

Lulu you are a nut but I love you