Would you persist with potty training?

[Offspring]

DD is only just 2, she has a cousin who she adores that is 5 months older than her. My niece has just started training and wearing 'big girls undies'. DD has now decided that she will not be wearing nappies any more and has a meltdown if I try during the day. The worry I have though is that I don't know if she is physically ready.

She is communicative and articulate, can go a couple of hours without weeing and knows in theory that wees and poos happen on the potty. The only thing is, is that we're about 5 days in and she only goes on the potty three-quarters of the time. When she has an accident she lets me know and I clean it up and calmly remind her that it's ok to have accidents but we should try to go on the potty. I don't want it to drag out for months because she's not ready, but I'm not sure what to do when she absolutely refuses nappies.

What would you do?

I'd keep going - if she gets there 75% of the time then that's pretty good! (Unless you're reminding her all the time or chasing her round with a potty?) The rest is just practice and better muscle tone.

dd did exactly this. We went to playcentre one day and her friend (again 6mths older) was wearing pants and that was it dd wanted pants to. It took dd about a week at about 3/4 success to full success and we also had about 2 weeks of being scared of pooing and withholding. That said we are now 5 weeks in and she is completely clean and for about 2.5 weeks has had no naps at night either. I would keep going it sounds like she is doing great.

Thanks both, that's reassuring. Out of curiosity yawningmonster, how old is your DD? Did you think that you would get there so quickly when it was 3/4 success?

Octavia, I do sit her on the potty half the time to remind her (although she doesn't always wee when I do so), and the other half of the time she does it herself. I did initially try wrestling her into a nappy, but she just took it back off.

I will keep going, thanks again!

dd is 2.6 so was 2.5 when we started so a bit older than yours and no I thought it was very very unlikely to work as she literally went from full time nappies to undies full time day and night within 5 weeks. At the beginning I thought that we would be back in nappies after the first week but she just got better and better. After my experience with my son I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it.

Thanks yawningmonster. I have massive doubts at 5 days in that we'll get there, but you give me hope!

Also yawningmonster, when your DD had a 75% success rate, were you reminding her to wee or was she proactive in going herself?

dd has always been very against being asked or taken to the toilet when I thought she should go. In fact most of her accidents occurred when I asked her if she needed to go, she would refuse and then she would have an accident. When I left her to her own devices she would ask me to take her and succeed.

My sister reccmmended getting character pants. Little girls don't want to 'poo or pee on Barbie' paarently!

Hmm, yawningmonster , that's interesting - most of DD's accidents are straight after I've asked her to sit on the potty (and she has refused). I grit my teeth and remind her to go to the potty whilst seething internally because I'd just reminded her! Makes me nervous to let her go it alone, but might give it a go tomorrow.

wahwahwah, I have heard that tip before and tried to find some character undies for DD, but the only ones I could find in her size were butterflies. Will definiyely still keep an eye ut though.

Sorry for typos, should be 'definitely' and 'out'.

I would persist. If she's keen & can hold it for 2 hours she is almost certainly ready, just needs to learn to remember, focus & control.

Thanks lljkk , it is the focus that she's struggling with I think! But she was dry all night last night (although still in night nappies) so that seems encouraging also. Will crack on and keep the paper towel handy and my fingers crossed!

Don't pressure her, but if your carpets can cope, I would try to persist for another 7-10 days. If she isn't mostly getting it by the end of that week I'd leave it for now.

Try to learn from my mistakes, too :). DD trained at same age which was a little difficult in that she learned to control too well & would hold off until the last minute (afraid of constipation), and then she made herself prone to UTIs, which can be dangerous in little girls (long term repercussions). Then (because of holding off until last minute) she was prone to wetting herself at least once a day all the way until she was 4 (sigh).

Thanks lljkk , that's good advice. I will give her another week and then if she's not getting it will try to get her back in nappies. I'm not too concerned with the carpets, they can always be cleaned.