Time to toilet train? And when

[KD0706]

Im wondering if DD is ready to potty train

She is 2.3. Not the best speaker but can say wee and poo and about thirty other words with new ones coming each day or so.

She has a potty which she's had for a while and recently asked for a peppa pig padded toilet seat thing. She enjos sitting on the potty and the peppa pig seat on the loo. She sometimes pretends to wee and poo and on a few occasions has got a wee in the potty/loo. But she also still has accidents on the carpet.
She comes and tells me if she's had an accident (during nappy off time). And tells me when she is poo ing in her nappy.

On a recent shopping trip she pointed at pants and I asked if she wanted big girl pants and to do wees and poos in the toilet and she said yes. But I haven't done anything about it yet.

So, does that sounds ready or do the accidents mean she's not there yet?

I'm visiting my mum next week which is a two hour drive each way. Then home for a fortnight then off on holiday which will be a five ish hour drive. And I won't have much washing facilities on holiday so don't want to be still having copious accidents then. So, try when I get back from my mums, give it a week or so and if it's not working just stop and she will be back in nappies for the holiday??

Try it, accidents will happen whether she's ready or not. You can always stop after a month if you feel it's not working. We've just trained ds and it went much better than expected, he's 2.5. You can always wait a few months if you are unsure. You need to be ready to follow through too.

Whatever you do, I would say consistency is key. So once maybe give it a month with nappies only at sleeping times. When she has an accident, just say your pants are wet and take her for a wee then change her. It's much easiery when they understand wet and dry IME. Does she?

Plus it helps if she has the language to ask for a wee.

She understands the words wet and dry, is that what you mean?
I give baby DD2 time to kick with her nappy off and when she does a wee and it stains her vest (iykwim) DD1 will point at it and say wee.

She will ask for her nappy to be changed if its full, pulling at it and saying wee.

And if she is running around naked eg before her bath and does a wee on the carpet she runs to show me and helps me mop it up.

The more I think about it the more I think I should just have a shot and stop if it's not working. Are the car journeys a big no no though? Would we have to stop every half hour or something mad like that?

I think you could give it a shot. For car journeys longer than 30-40
Mins we are going to use pull ups. I've found ds needs to wee every 30 mins to an hour at the moment, we started a week ago.

I think it's important that you have resource to commit to it, something that worried me. You have to be consistent to make it easier to understand for them, chopping and changing between pants and nappies may add confusion.

Accidents are not a big deal, they will happen until they remember that they are not wearing a nappy and learn to stop the urge momentarily.

I found using a reward for using the toilet useful... We used chocolate raisins but whatever your dd is in to. Also, I sound there's no need doe punishment for accidents. Just am acknowledgement that they have weed and it should happen on the toilet, then take them to the toilet, give them a chance to wee and then change them. Rewarding seems to work.

We also song songs while on toilet to make it a fun place and reduce performance anxiety.

Thanks eclectic how did you start, did you wait for your ds to ask for the loo or did you sit him on the potty/loo say every half hour?

One morning I got up the guts and explained he was going to
Wear pants and wee in the toilet like mummy and daddy. He already seen us weeing and talked about it plus he'd already worn pants and was comfortable and sat on toilet and was comfortable with the concept.

Then gave him lots of drinks and took him to toilet every half an hour. A few accidents ensued but he soon worked it out and reward for weeing helped. Plus remaining calm. We only use nappies for nap and bedtime. We avoided any situations that might not allow him to go to toilet ever half an hour until he for the hang of it. We taught him to ask for toilet and to tell us
If his pants were wet or dry. Keep it simple, easy and fun...

Sorry about strange formatting, on phone.

We spent a lot of time in the bathroom the first day, playing with toys and whenever an accident happened, just placing him on the toilet with his pants on to do a wee. Making a big deal out of it seems to add to anxiety.

It sounds like she is ready but to be honest all children are different my ds was ready at 2 & is now completely dry at 2.9 all I can say is try & if you find she is not ready than put her back in nappies & try another time