Potty training at 21 months - advice needed!

[GingerDoodle]

DD has rather caught me by surprise - last week, out of the blue, she started signing for a bum change (something she's never done) after every single pee AND removing her nappy entirely if given the chance (getting her in one can be an epic battle too).

We've had a potty in the house for some time but I wasn't really pushing the issue; now however it seems a good point (i'm going through nappies at a rate of knots!)

I've ordered a step and loo seat for one loo and a combined ladder and loo seat for the other as I think she may take to one or the other quicker than the potty (she likes the bathroom and copying me!)

We go away on Sunday for a week so I was wondering how and when i should make a serious go. I was thinking, no clothes on the bottom half, lots of juice - and regular trips to the bathroom.

Does anyone have any experience of similar and / or advice?

(cross posted with potty training section as it doesn't seem to get much traffic!)

[storm4mozza]

I have a 3 year old who has been potty trained since he was 2, and i also have a 21 month old who is doing the same as your DD. taking nappy off, telling me when she needs wee wee, so i decided to give it a go now.

Not full on just letting her run around with nothing on her bum, and nappies whilst out and about / in bed (though i ask her if she needs toilet whilst we are out) maybe try after you get back from the holiday? or if she is comfortable let her run around barebum whilst inside in private?

we put DD on a potty friend it seems more comfortable on her and it sings a song.. o.O i had to take batteries out as it scares the kids but hopefully it could help you www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdisplay0_10751_-1_16289_10001

i noticed that not making a big deal when she pee's on the floor helps, just making no fuss and encouraging her to try again, no point wasting nappies (like we are aswell) when she doesn't want to be in them.

Good Luck x

[naturalbaby]

I had to have a potty in the room with them all the time at that age. They just couldn't get themselves onto the toilet on their own but if I was busy with baby then they could go sit on the potty. As soon as we got home then the trousers and nappy came off, and I had to talk a lot to them to remind them. I had padded training pants for when I had to go do something (e.g cook dinner).

[MrsJoys]

That's great! If she's so aware of her toileting in a nappy it should make things easier. We introduced the potty at 15 months and I was surprised how quickly he was using it. At that age I had my son bare on the bottom, as he didn't have the motor skills to pull his trousers down. As a previous poster said, we made very little fuss over accidents, just pointing out what had happened, "Oh, you've done done a wee-wee. It feels wet, doesn't it? Wee-wee goes on the potty" and when he did do one on the potty we said, "You've done a wee-wee on the potty - that's great! Now we don't need to change your nappy/pants/clean your legs. It feels much nicer to do it in the potty, doesn't it?"
I was so proud of him that I really wanted to give him a biscuit to celebrate but resisted! We never did star charts or bribery and he never demands a treat after emptying his bladder/bowels on the potty.
You can do it and so can she! Just accept that there will be accidents and then hopefully you'll feel less on edge. For us, it was a 3 stage process:

1. Naked from the waist down meant no accidents and he'd tell us when he needed to go, eventually taking himself and we'd just discover a filled potty!
   
2. If he had pants on, it seemed to switch something off in his mind and he had more accidents, so I needed to remind him he was wearing pants. When he was dry most of the time in pants, we went on to step 3...
   
3. Again, with trousers on, it seemed to switch something off in his mind so he'd have more accidents but, again, he got there.
   

When leaving the house, we'd encourage him to sit on the potty before leaving and on arrival wherever we were - but didn't make a big deal if he didn't want to.
He had dry days before he was 2 but at 2 years 1 month, we could leave the house for the day and return in the same trousers (no accidents!).
Hope that helps.