Potty training help

[FutureHKmom]

My son is 28.5 months old and I just started potty training him this past week by keeping him diaper-less in the mornings and early afternoons. He puts on his diaper for his afternoon nap from 3 and then has been in his diaper after his naps mostly because at nights with 2 kids in the house it is hard for me to follow my son around that closely. So of course he has had some accidents but the past 3 days he has told us when he wants to go for the most part and we have mostly gotten him to the toilet in time. Issue is that for the past three days he has also woken up from his nap with the pee pee having overflowed from his diaper and wet the bed. in the past this has only happened a few times overnight when he has had a lot to drink at dinner. He doesn't have more to drink during the day than in the past but I find that he doesn't go pee that often and when he does go, the pees are small. I'm wondering if he is stressed or nervous as we keep asking him if he needs to pee and maybe he is feeling so much pressure that he doesn't or can't fully relieve himself when he does go. So when he's napping he is fully relaxed and lets it all out. Any thoughts to share on this? Should I continue with the training or stop and try again in a few weeks. Thanks.

 

[erina320]

I wouldn't stop. I think it's best to not confuse them and once you make the decision to potty train they should only be in diapers for sleeping.

If you're concerned about stressing him try and not make such a big deal about it. When I potty trained my oldest I had a small potty in the living room she could use by herself and made a really big deal about it when she did. I also used a sticker chart as a reward for using the big potty.

 

[nicolejoy]

He's probably holding it in and then when he rests he relaxes but his bladder is more full than normal. I would continue with the training though because he IS getting it somewhat, and this is more of an inconvenience than a set-back really. I found with my daughter, when she got the hang of it, and when she knew that she would get an m&m for every wee, she would be on the potty ALL THE TIME and virtually always had an empty bladder!! I'm sure your son will get the hang of it soon

 

[southside852]

i agree w/the above. once you decide to potty train, keep at it. at times, it gets frustrating, but if you revert back to diapers, it will confuse your child. i too had a potty in the living room and then portable potty toppers in 2 other bathrooms. he used the potty in the living room for about the first 3 weeks, then actually found he preferred using the grown up toilet like us. incentives did not work for my son. we just always asked him, didn't make a big deal about it and tried reading the signs (ie. noting how much he drank throughout the day, when his last pee was, gasiness etc...) I tried a sticker chart and candies and he really didn't care about them. We did make a huge deal about it though when he peed and pooed. We sang the potty song and he loved it!

 

[FutureHKmom]

Thanks all - I figure we should continue also. Just wondeirng - what did you guys do in the first few weeks of potty training when you took your child out? My son goes out quite a lot - out with grandparents, downstairs to the playroom in my building, to various classes....this past week, I've just been putting him in diapers to go out.

 

[nicolejoy]

I kept my daughter in diapers when we were out at first, then when she was doing good, I would let her go to nursery school in undies but everywhere else was diapers... then I would allow her to go out in undies, except for when it would be hard to get to a potty (like if we would be on the train for a long time etc...) It was a slow progression, but now she's about 34 months and in undies 100% of the time, even overnight.

One note - once she was pretty much potty trained, she would ask to go to the potty even if she was wearing a nappy. I ALWAYS at least TRIED to find a potty somewhere. When we were in Oz, she did lots of wees on the side of the road . In HK we visit a lot of malls/McDonalds because they will ALWAYS have a potty. I never told her "Oh you're wearing a nappy, just go in your nappy" because I figured that would do more harm than good. There were times that I did say "Can you hold on? We're on the train and there are no potties. We can find a potty once we get off the train" - and sometimes she made it, sometimes she didn't... but at least she was trying.