Are we ready to begin? - verdicts please

[Taler]

DD is 2.5 and showing many signs. For instance she tells me mostly when she's done a poo, although sometimes she'll say "no poo poo" when she has. But all poos are done with her taking herself off to a quiet corner.

The last few weeks or so she's saying "wee wee" or "done a wee" but no way of telling if she's telling me during or after. I guess either are still good.

We have a potty in the bathroom that she sometimes asks to sit on, most recently she'll ask to sit on it when she's done a poo, before I change her, which I'm reluctant to do as don't wanna put a pooey bum on the potty.

Is she ready? I'm thinking yes.

How do I start?

I'm wanting to put her straight into knickers. I see no benefit to pull-ups during the day as surely she needs to feel when she's wet??

Is the idea to constantly ask "do you need the potty?" Or do I just plonk her on it every 30 mins or so???

Feel I need a bit of a plan/guide to work towards.

TIA

[TooMinty]

Straight to pants but be prepared to do lots of laundry the first day! I tried putting him on the potty often but it just annoyed him so just had to wait for him to get the hang of telling me when he needed to go. Only took a couple of days. Good luck!

[TheOddity]

You probably know the basic rhythms of her toilet habits without realising. Like especially poos mine always did pretty much at the same time each day. Sit her on the potty at the most obviously likely poo time and then periodically through the day for wees. Definitely straight to pants. Buy loads so you can just whip off without a big deal. Wear leggings or something quick to wash and small so lots fit in machine at once. Buy lots of kitchen roll to quickly soak up wee from floor and take it when out and about in case of accidents. Hang out somewhere tilled/laminate I.e. not carpeted! Do it when you can stay home three days in a row until she is getting the hang of it. Don't make her sit on potty ages, just a few secs and praise her lots for being a big girl and trying. Let her sit on potty whenever she wants. Poo washes off easily enough, just give it a wipe with antibac spray and kitchen roll, then a swill with water. Make up a silly song and sing every time she wees or poos on potty. Sounds mad but worked for mine and he was trained within a week with no stress.

[BikeRunSki]

Somewhere on MN there is a "Potty Training Bootcamp" guide. I did it with DS when he was 2.5. Worked brilliantly - second time we tried - because he was ready.

Potty training took about 3 or 4 days with both my DC, because they were ready. I know people where it took 6 months or more - because their DC were not ready.

The "Bootcamp" revolved largely round - pants, not pull ups; taking child to potty every 30 mins; lots of whoops and cheering and rewards with Smarties.; stay in for a couple of days. IF no progress after a couple of days, then give up and try again later. (With DS, we tried fro 3 days, he didn't reply get it, so we stopped. A week later, he told us he wanted to wear pants, took less than a week then) .

Good luck

[Fresh01]

A good indicator I found was, is her nappy dry for a period of time say a couple of hours then suddenly very wet? I found it indicated there was some bladder control there.

Agree with just go straight to pants. Each of my 4 have done it slightly different timeframes, fastest 5 days. I would also get a step stool for the toilet. Only my DC1 used the potty the rest had the choice as the potty was there but preferred to use to toilet.

[Taler]

Thanks for replies so far.

I will get a seat for the toilet so she has a choice. Any recommendations as to which one is best?

As for whether she has a dry nappy or not, unless I constantly feel it how will I know other than at changing time?

[Fresh01]

We got ours over 8 years ago but I can't remember where from. It has 2 steps, think IKEA do something similar. The upper step gives them something to rest their feet on whilst sitting on the loo. The single plastic steps are too low for younger toddlers to rest their feet on whilst sitting on the loo.

The way we could tell was if you feel the back bottom part of a nappy, even through clothes when on the child, it feels flat. But as a child wets it gets softer and squishy. We found just before toilet training it would be flat for a couple of hours then suddenly very squishy. Whereas when the child was younger it gradually got squishy. We didn't deliberately notice realised as we were lifting the child etc.

One of my friends tried to train her wee boy before he had any bladder control and she said it was like following a drippy tap. She gave up and tried a few months later and he trained fine.

We always had books kept in the toilet too, lift the flap type ones to keep them sitting on the loo for long enough to go.