Potty Training - Argh!

You know, I had stupidly thought that potty training a second time round would be sooo much easier than it was with our eldest.

How wrong could I be???

We started this journey with Tom at the end of last summer, following advice from Gina Ford's Potty Training book (which has him down as ready) and it seemed like we were getting somewhere! He was happy to use his potty, was telling us he needed to go, and was even telling us early enough to get him up stairs to the bathroom to use his potty. He was still scared of the toilet itself then, convinced he would fall down it. But a potty in the bathroom was good enough for then. Problem was, he would only do all this if he was naked from the waist down. Put pants on him and he would treat them like a nappy and just go... where ever and when ever. We'd just about go him to go to his potty with pants on when winter set in. But that in it self was a problem. He'd sit in his potty... still in his pants... and get distressed because they wound up wet.

So we took a break. It was cold, even with the heating on we didn't really feel happy about him being almost naked all the time - and then all 3 got norovirus so nappies seemed essential for a while. But here lay our big mistake. We gave up. Only for a few months until it stopped being flipping freezing all the time, but it was long enough to undo all our hard work.

Now Tom is in nursery one day a week, and this September he'll be getting his full 16hrs a week, and he really could do with being dry and clean. We've started again.

There are good days, there are bad days. He's over his fear of the loo and it very proud of the fact he can pee standing up "like Daddy and Jack" which is a massive improvement. But there are still more bad days than good. He doesn't like having a poo on the potty or toilet. it causes him distress. Not because he can't go - that's definitely not an issue - so he'll wait for his bedtime nappy, or poo in his pants and then lie about it or hide.


Yesterday he was at nursery. He wet his pants once while he was there, dirtied them too just at the end of the session, and then wet again an hour before bed. Today he's having a good day - so far - with a trip to town done with dry pants, and dry so far this afternoon. But we've a trip to a play area planned for after school with some of Jack's friends... I'm torn between a nappy and pants. A nappy might just set him back again, but the way the play area is set up he could be out of my sight for long periods of time - away from my reminders to go to the toilet - almost guaranteeing wet pants. 

I guess I could leave the choice up to him.....