Is my son ready for potty training?

Potty training. It sends shudders down some parents spines, it’s messy and it’s often difficult. It isn’t something we can avoid though. We had Isla potty trained by two years and two months old, and she was dry at night by around three and a half years old (probably longer but that’s when we realised she didn’t need the nappy at all!)

So how did we know she was ready? Archer was a baby and pretty much as soon as he was born, she began helping us change his nappy. We’d had a potty around the house for a while but we never asked her to use it, it was just there. A couple of months after he was born, she began fussing during her nappy changes. Crying, running away and acting very shy about it all unless she was hidden and just with me or Jack- strange considering she never used to care about who saw her bottom before. It didn’t take long at all for her to be fully dry- two weeks at most!

Archer is another story. They say boys take longer, but we’ve also put off trying as he isn’t as talkative as Isla was at two. He talks yes, and he uses sentences and tells us what he wants, but he’s not talked about his business much. He did go through a stage where he would tell me “my poo coming” a minute or so before one came and I tried to use that as a signal to get him on the potty but he would scream and hold it in, absolutely terrified of sitting on the potty. 

We left it. I didn’t want to traumatise him and he’d never mentioned wee so I didn’t know if he was even fully aware of all the functions enough to begin potty training. 

They say with boys, there are a few signs to watch out for, hinting at readiness and he wasn’t covering them all at the time, but I think he is now:

1. Pulling at a wet/dirty nappy 

2. Hiding to wee or poo 

3. Showing interest in or talking about other family members toilet habits 

4. Larger intervals having a dry nappy 

5. Communicating a need to wee or poo, or that they have already 

Other than pulling at a nappy I’ve noticed all of these in Archer. He does hide and then reappear when he’s done a poo (though he doesn’t tell us in advance as much anymore). He’s definitely interested as he has no concept of personal space when one of us is using the loo- I have to remind him that everyone does their own wiping! We also had him come to us and ask to do a wee a few times- we’ve sat him on the toilet and he hasn’t like it as it’s “too big” so we didn’t get anywhere. 

I think our next step is going to be finding a new potty. He thinks the toilet is too big and he isn’t keen on the low down standard potty- I think squatting is too unfamiliar so I’d like to find something more similar to sitting on a chair. 

We have pants now and we’ve talked about when we will wear them a little. He doesn’t let on that he understands although he does ask to put them on. 

It’s hard. He understands so much and talks so much but he just doesn’t seem to want to talk about this very much so it’s hard to know if he’s taking any of it in. 

I think potty training till definitely start over the next few weeks though, and if it doesn’t work perhaps in the new year. He’s not even two and a half so I know he still has a long time!