18 month old refuses to sit on the potty

[LJJ]

Hi,
A few weeks ago I bought a couple of potties for our 18 month old, who seems to enjoy watching us on the loo (!) and even gets some toilet paper to wipe herself with! She sits her dolly on the potties and says "poo poo" (so she knows what they are for) but every time we suggest she sits on it herself, she refuses. The more we suggest it the more stubborn she gets. I don't want to forcibly put her on the potty, and I don't want this to become a fight - does anyone have any tips on what to do before she loses interest altogether? She has started saying "poo poo" although if you ask her has she done a poo, she'll say no because that usually means I'm going to interrupt her from her play....
Help please!!

Does she like cbeebies or something like that? Both mine got used to the potty when they watched TV for a wee while.

Another way is ask her to sit on it when you sit on the loo. She may like the idea that she is a big girl and can copy her mum.

18 months is very early to start potty training. My ds is 19 months and even though he says poo before he poos and knows what wee is, I'm not going to attempt to try potty training until next year sometime when I hope he will be more than ready.

Leave one around and don't mention it. Let her lead. Way way too young too push it.

If she has a regular time when she poos in the morning, you could sit her on it then and read her a story. If you happen to catch anything you can make a song and dance about it. But the main purpose of this would be to save a nappy. I would think you are unlikely to get her potty trained at this age.

Agree with fruitful and otto, LJJ, this is too young. Just leave the potties where they are, without comment.

You should not push the issue, I agree, but saying that children are far too young at 18 months isn't exactly true either. Both my dd and ds were potty trained at about 18/19 months. Although my dd has issues with pooing in the toilet/potty they were both dry within 2 weeks, with only a slight regression by dd.

Its too young if she doesnt want to though IYSWIM.

It's actually very RARE for children to be trained under 2yrs old - the majority are trained between 2-3yrs, then a reasonable number are 3 before they're trained.

I do agree that they may not be ready at that age although I do know some mums that have left it for ages (nearly 4) before even trying to train them and that actually makes me feel sick.

DS is 19mo and shakes his head at me if I ask him if he's pooing as he's doing it (in his nappy!).

No potty training in my house for months yet!

Don't force her - she'll do it when she's ready.

Makes you feel sick? My dd was almost 3 before she was dry and was almost 4 before she would poo in a toilet ... not because she wouldn't but because she couldn't. Some children just aren't ready until much later, and there's no point in forcing the issue if they're not. You were very lucky that your children were ready so early, but for goodness sake, don't judge those of us whose children didn't find it so easy.

Shazzler, very nice.

I'm sorry but now I'm really laughing - I was trying to find the website where I originally saw the 'statistics' on ages for potty training (and I know a large number ARE already 3yrs old before it happens) - and found this question from someone

Sorry wigwam. My friends daughter was perfectly capable and that's what annoyed me. Her mum just didn't want to.

It made me feel sick because I had to change her nappy once when I was looking after her.

Don't mean to judge, I just feel that it is better if they are a bit younger than 4!

I have a friend who's DS was 3 1/2yrs when she trained him - he had it sussed in two days (literally) because he was completely ready for it and understood exactly what he had to do.

Hi,
Wow, I seem to have unleashed a huge debate here! Most of the comments seem to have backed up what I was feeling anyway, that a) I certainly didn't want this to become a huge issue with her and b) that maybe she is a little too young. This brings me to my second question - how do you know when they ARE ready, then?!

I knew my dd was ready because she started telling me when she needed a wee rather than when she'd already had one - simple as that really. We'd had a potty lying around for her to get used to for ages, so I just put her in knickers and she used the potty. She was completely dry from day one. The difference was that she understood what was happening and what was expected of her, which she personally wouldn't have done at an earlier age.

Dd is the same as Hunkermunker. She'll play with the potty, so she's not afraid of it but she won't sit on it either. Although she did when she was younger, I caught a couple of poos that way. (Too lazy to sluice cotton nappy)
I just leave it beside the toilet so she' sused to looking at it. She'll do it when she wants to.

Er...I am hoping you mean the same as HM's DS, MrsD!

I'm pretty reliable at toilet time these days

18 months?? Carry on if you want to be in for the long haul, leave it if you want her to get it quicker.

Sorry but I think it is probably too soon. By all means keep one in the bathroom and encourage her to sit before a bath but if you persevere you'll both get very stressed and she'll become more resistant to the idea. She'll show a renewed interest in time.

Too young, my DD won't sit on it at 30 months. DS was done by this age but no where near at 18 months.

I would suggest too young, but my dd never would sit on a potty, she trained very quickly onto the toilet though with a mini seat. if you seriously think she is ready then that could be an option.

My 18 month od charge has been potty trained for 3 months. he tells when he needs to go wee or poo and will hold on for up to half an hour if he has to. He initiated it by asking to go make a wee at 14 months, 3 weeks later we were in cotton trianing undies and a week later dry 90% of the time. he does till wear a nappy for naps and nights, but wakes up dry after naps.

We use the toilet, not a potty. Initially I only took him when he asked (usually after naps and randomly during the day), then I started asking if he needed to go if I thought he might and he would either say yes or no. If he said no and I made him try, nothing would happen, so I guess he knew what he was talking about!

I was only planning on starting in Dec (summer for us) but I wasn't going to say no to him if he asked to go.