Why is my square peg nearly 6 and still in nappies?

*WARNING* This post talks about wee and poo…no pictures though. Those with a queasy disposition or just eaten then scroll on past….

Edward has turned into a bit of a potty training nightmare and we are getting advice from the continence team.

I’ve always been a believer in not pushing toilet training too young and to wait until they give you signs that they are ready. When my eldest was three we sent him to nursery in just his pants and lots of changes of clothes. I picked him up and they said that they’d had to change him six times. But that evening he suddenly said ‘my wee is coming out.’ So we went to toilet and all was fine after that. Night times were different and he wasn’t dry at night until he was five. I literally did nothing for this, put him in pull ups every night and eventually he just started being dry. I naively thought that obviously I am a toilet training genius and that we would so the same with my second child…..ummm NO SOPHIE, you are NOT a toilet training genius….Edward is six in June and STILL in nappies!!

Edward has no intention whatsoever of making an effort. I’m sure he knows when he’s doing a wee or a poo but he won’t say. It seems to be a sensory issue and he likes the weight of a wet nappy and the warm squidgyness of a poo…..(yes honestly, I kid you not…) When I’ve changed him and put a clean nappy on he has a meltdown and screams to take it off.

So I’m sure you want to know what we’ve tried so far….when he was around 3 and I thought that he must be ready for toilet training by now….we managed to get him to sit on a potty for maybe 1.0046 seconds, put him in just pants but when he did do a wee on the floor he was traumatised by it, bought a Thomas the Tank Engine potty but he wouldn’t sit on it, let him come in toilet with us, let him watch Matthew wee down the toilet and encouraged him to do the same, bought one of those frog urinals because I thought it might be that he doesn’t like sitting on the toilet so he can just do a standing wee until he’s bigger, change his nappy standing up in the bathroom and getting him to sit on the toilet fully clothed…..has any of this worked?…..no!

I used to be mortified that he would still be in nappies by the time he went to school but now he’s halfway through year 1 and still in them…One day…I’m sure he will be out of nappies….🤔