potty training- how do I start?

[Newfamily2014]

Hello, my dd is 19months old and tells me that she is doing a poo and needs a nappy change so I thought I would have a go at potty training.

I have bought her a potty and she enjoys sitting on it (not yet without a nappy). She sees me going to the toilet and understands the toilet, I think!

But I'm not sure how to start potty training..
Where do I start? what do I do?

advice welcome please!

Following with interest

The Gina Ford book is quite good. It has a list of signs (one of which being they can get their trousers and knickers on and off unaided) and then a process which is basically talking about it, spending a couple of days inside then venturing out.

I have accidentally trained DD1, I was putting her in knickers in the evenings because she has eczema on her legs and the nappy rubbed it. After a week or so of this, she just got it.

However, she is too small to use the toilet unaided and not at all inclined to pull her knickers back up after using the potty! So I spend a lot of time saying "put that bare bum away" it's worth considering because if you've told them off and they're sulking, if they can't get their clothes off unaided they might not want to ask for help.

Spend some time without nappy on when you can. Use / refer to potty as much as possible. Silly amounts of praise for any sitting on potty, telling you when they want to go, doing something! I never looked at it as one day in nappies, next day potty trained. Accidents are not a set back, never scold. I did DD at 19 months and DS at 26 months. She was immediate, DS took a few false starts as I tried earlier. I felt like I hit a window where he suddenly got it, and because the potty use was so normal we were able to catch it. Good luck, life is so much better without nappies!!

Any tips on how to get them to do poos in the potty/loo?
DS (2.5y) is fine with wees but the poos haven't clicked. He knows he should do them in the loo/potty but every day he poos in his pants. He has had a couple of successful poos in the potty but that was about 3 months ago and we made a huge fuss about it at he time. I have avoided pull-ups as much as poss except if we are going out for the day. He is not constipated (very soft poo - sorry TMI) so that is not an issue.

We have tried praise, rewards, bribes, stern talking to but no luck.
Any tips welcome!

Riding high - are you getting him to poo on the potty? Both mine hated that. Loo was much better. Also, are you hovering. Even at 2 DD1 liked a closed door!

Ps. Neither of mine could do clothes unaided before training.

My 2.9 yo ds just started pooing in the potty on his own, we'd been"practicing" saying goodbye to poo in the toilet for a while. He wouldn't poo in the toilet, just his potty, but we were at a hotel and had forgotten his potty so he used the big toilet! He hasn't since, but it seems to be a few steps forward, and a few back.

We keep it very low key and we celebrate, and do the potty dance on occasion.

Thanks Libraries and LittleFeile.

I noticed over the past few days that ds would poo about 20mins after a big bowl of porridge (previously it would be any time of day). So, this morning I put him on the potty and asked him to wait, explaining (again) that poo comes sloooooowly - lo and behold, 10 mins later (and with the promise of a toy dinosaur), he pooed in the potty!! Cue outrageous celebrations and over-the-top praise.

Oh, and we have so many poo and wee songs:

• to coax them out,
• to describe how poos come slowly and wees quickly,
• to describe where the poos and wees come from - ds confuses them and would then expect rewards for the wees when they were explicitly promised for poos only

• and the obligatory celebrations for the when they successfully make it to the loo!