too young to train ?

[AdamR]

Hello All :)

a father in need of some advice for my daughter!
bit of background info.. shes nearly 15 months now :o! for about 3-4 months she has been making clear indications of needing / going for a poo in her nappy. these signs are, the sheer look of concentration, the deep stares and getting her changing mat out before she has pooped.

I decided to get a potty and start to introduce it slowly to her.
Unfortunately th first time i saw the signs of her about to 'do her stuff' i whipped off her nappy and encouraged her to sit on the potty.. to which i think i kind of put her off and she didnt then poo until just before bath (another hour or so later).

I dont want to make a big deal out of it as i want it to be a progression, not cold turkey. She is very intelligent for her age and already understand pretty much everything we say to her... especially 'can you get your shoes please' as she runs to get her shoes with sheer excitment as she knows we are going out on a walk!

Thanks for you help.

Adam

[5babyangels]

Hello Adam, I'm a mum of 5, 4 so far potty trained! Well seeing as the oldest is nearly 14 you'd hope so anyway all if mine were v different. I don't have the exact answer necessarily for your daughter but of my experience the best way it worked for me was to wait until the days were slightly warmer and you're not doing anything else just pottering about at home and take the nappy off completely for a few days. Got her used to sitting in the potty so it's not frightening! Perhaps read her a book while she sits on it, then make z big deal of when she gets up having a look and seeing if anything is there!!! this is the funny bit as they clearly dont expect there to be anything there but one day there will be. My no4 we all did this is usual way except when he finally did a wee we all cheered which totally freaked him out as he thought we were shouting so hated potties after that and went straight onto a toilet instead. So keep it really low key and a quiet well done aren't you such z clever girl. With my eldest I did sweetie rewards as that was considered the thing then, by frowned upon now. A couple of my others have had sticker charts which helped. Don't worry about lots of accidents it's par for the course. I only ever used pull ups if it couldn't be avoided if out and it was going to be difficult. I was always one of those mother u see in a lay by would rather stop even for the 99th time! Annoying but so much better they realise they need to go. Hope this is helpful. If you decide you're not quite ready def more nappy off time in preparation!

[ohgoshkins]

From my own and friends' experiences my thoughts on this are that you can either start now and take a couple of months to train her, or you can wait until she is around 2yrs old and do it in a few days. You can absolutely train a 15mth old, but it will involve lots of accidents and frustration whereas a slightly older child will 'get it' in about 3 days. It's up to you how important it feels to ditch the nappies now or not.