So, potty training.

[MyNameIsKenAdams]

As im off the next three days (and dh is off the two after) I thought we would give potty training a whirl. Dd is 2.2 and the potty has been part of the stuff in the living room for a year and occasionally she sits on it but doesnt do her business in it.

Ive not really got any idea what the Best Way is to do it. This afternoon ive stuck her in nickers and keep asking her if sje wants to have a try on the potty. Ive got a bag of giant buttons so a wee/poo in the potty gets a giant button.

In an hour, weve had one wee and one poo both in the knickers.

Am I even approaching it the righr way?

I started off by putting them on the potty with a book whilst I ran the bath for them. Gave huge appreciation if they ever did anything and completely ignored it when they didn't.

After I'd done this for a while, think months rather than days, I started potty training by sticking them on the potty and sticking on cbeebies.

If she's doing it in her pants I'd give her another day or two but she may just be too young. It's also a lot easier when its warm and you can get them outside.

I found this book very helpful too

As she shown any signs of being ready? Being aware of weeing or pooing, can pull pants/trousers up down, can ask or tell you in some way that they need a wee or a poo? Stuff like that.

I did it pretty much how you are doing it. Try and get her to sit on potty before needing to go. You might give her a button for initially sitting there for say one minute.

Then button for results only and once she's got the wee sorted, button for poo and hand washing only.

I figured out DD1 needed a wee roughly every 1.5 hours so I set my phone timer so I remembered to sit her down. This was very helpful.

DD2 was a bit older when I tried and she just got it in a day - with a few accidents over the next couple of weeks.

So if you start to feel any pressure you can back off and try again later.

it is lovely not buying nappies after 6 years of them though.

Well, she has been through five pairs of knicks.

Will keep going tomorrow and see where we are at at the end of day two.

DD is 2.4. A month ago she told me " pants today". So I got DS's old potty and pants out and she mastered it in about a week. Wees and poos, day and night. She knew what to do, she'd seen people doing it at nursery.

If you have no success, then maybe leave it a but. Once your dd knows it is an option, she might say when she is ready.

I'm trying as well.
Dd is 2.6 and I think she's ready. Started yesterday, she had mostly accidents. Still some today but less. She hasn't pooed yet in the potty. Have to take her out soon and I'll be putting a nappy on her.
Not convinced we'll get there but I'm persevering. My biggest problem is that we have lovely new couches and I really don't want her to wee on them...
Any tips?

Ive found a cushion that I dont mind if it gets ruined so dd has been sitting on that whenever she wants to sot on the couch.

Honestly, I think 2.2 is a bit young, I would leave it another few months and do it in the summer when she can wear less clothes and the washing will be easier to get dried.

I agree it's too young. The longer you leave it the easier it will be.

Think it depends entirely on the child. We potty trained DS at 2.2 and by 2.3 he was dry at night too. Dd was more like 2.6.

I agree with waiting until they are almost asking to do it.

With DS I had him on a potty every morning after breakfast whilst he watched Postman Pat. No pressure and if he didn't want to then that was fine. It only took a week of him doing that before he was completely using the potty and asking to use it too. We used chocolate buttons too, always a favourite!

I kept him in nappies at night for another couple of weeks but realised that they were always dry in the morning so chanced it without (fearing the worst) and he hasn't had a single accident.

He was 2.8 (I think) when fully trained and it was no trouble at all.

With my eldest I decided "To Try Potty Training". She was about 2.4.

With my youngest I'm being far less deliberate. He often asks to put on pants after a nappy change so if we are staying at home I let him - he so far has done really well with getting wees in the potty. Poo went in the bath though ...

He has nappies if we are going out though. He is 2.4. In the summer I will make more of a decisive effort as I am hoping to start him in nursery in Sept. But I am kind of hoping he might have got the knack by himself by then anyway through the "give it a try at home if you like" approach.