When to start?

[SpanielFace]

DS is 2 in 2 weeks. For some time now he's been telling us when he's pooed, but always after the event. We bought a potty last week, not with the plan of starting potty training, but just to get him used to the idea.

The potty is in the bathroom, and morning and evening I have been taking his nappy off when getting him dressed, and asking him if he needs to wee. For the past 5 days, he's done a wee in the potty, clearly deliberately, and been very pleased with himself! He's also tried to poo, lots of straining & grunting, but not produced anything. In between I have kept him in a nappy.

I was completely not expecting this, and am now not sure if I should be trying to train him fully. But he's so young! Not even two, and everyone tells me that boys are later. I don't want to make life harder for myself by trying too early, but is he showing signs of readiness? We go on holiday to Scotland in about 10 days time, to go to a wedding, and I don't think I can face being mid-training, so I was thinking of just carrying on as we are until after the holiday. But then what?

[Piratejones]

I'd start by doing it slowly, bring the potty down stairs and let him have a bit longer with the nappy off, eventually try the nappy off for an hour and explain underpantas to him, but not really pushing training.

[SpanielFace]

That sounds like a good plan, thank you for the reply. So just take it very gently. Is it worth trying pull-ups before pants, or does that tend to confuse the issue? Sorry for the questions, I assumed we'd have at least another 6 months before I had to think about it!

[ilovepowerhoop]

I did use pull ups at the start for ds who also started training at around 20 months. They are easier to pull up and down when out and about. When he reliably told me he needed to pee and could hold it until we got to a toilet I put him in pants so he never really had a lot of accidents. He was day trained by age 2.