Potty training questions

[KrystalS]

I have been PTing DS this past week. We started on Monday, had a ton of accidents of course, but he did use the potty and by the evening he was telling me he needed to go. I thought for the first day he did awesome. He stays dry for naps and nighttime. Tuesday-Thursday he did really great, we even left the house on Wednesday for 2 hours and he stayed dry. He was averaging 1-2 accidents a day usually when he was playing, but he was telling me he had to go most of the time. This weekend has been a total disaster, I'm sure because our routine has been different. DD is out of summer break, and we have some family visiting. DS had 5 accidents yesterday, he never told me when he needed to go, I was having to force him to go sit on the potty.

Is this normal? He was doing so great all week, I think I was spoiled into thinking, wow this was easy! He almost always has accidents when he's playing. Should I just use a timer and make him go every 30 minutes or so? He really hates this, but he doesn't tell me when he has to go!

[indigo99]

DS is currently in the bathroom pooping in his diaper so I'm obviously not an expert, but he has been pee trained for a while. Instead of making him go sit on the potty, I just reminded him CONSTANTLY "tell mommy when you need to pee" instead of asking "do you need to pee?" I also gave him MnMs. He got one for trying and washing his hands or two if he actually went pee and washed his hands. That encouraged him to try more too because that was the only way he got any MnMs.

I do think it's normal for them to be excited at first and do well but then decide that it's too much trouble and want to go back to the easy way of doing things (having someone else change them).

[candaceb]

I could have written this a few weeks ago. Finally things just clicked one day and now it has been 8 days w/o an accident. We started the weekend of may 4, so it was about a month of accidents. Don't give up! There were some days when it really sucked, but I knew he could do it and I just kept doing laundry and always had 2 extra outfits when we left the house.

[TxCat]

Sounds pretty normal. I was feeling very smug and proud of ourselves about 5 or 6 days into the PT process and then it came crashing down and wiped that smug smile off my face. The good news - the big pee accidents diminished quickly - we only had a few of those. Now, she has "small" pee accidents at least once every other day - basically damp to wet undies, but not to the point that she has soaked through her clothes or that she's sitting in a puddle. Once her undies get damp, she realizes she needs to go. I also do what a PP mentioned and remind her constantly to "tell Mommy & Daddy when you need to go potty!" and that helps. Poop is a different story. I'm thinking she'll be in college before she is poop-trained.

[KrystalS]

Thanks, glad I'm not the only one! We have had no success pooping on the potty, he did it twice in his underwear the 2nd day and he hated that. Obviously it feels much different pooping in underwear vs a diaper. So now he tells me he needs to poop, I make him try on the potty but if he won't I let him wear a diaper. I'm worried about him getting constipated and I would much rather change a dirty diaper vs poopy underwear!!

He has done MUCH better today since our family left. No accidents so far, we went out earlier and he used the public restroom for the first time! He even kept his pullup dry for the 3 hours we were out of the house! I'm not brave enough to let him wear underwear out of the house yet!