toilet training advice please

[beautifulgirls]

Hi all you supermums there. DD is 2y7mth now. For quite a while (way before Xmas) she has been using the toilet mostly to wee and occasionally to poo but pretty much only when we take her. She is not so keen on the potty but does like the toilet with or without a smaller seat added. She has been in pullups for about 4 months now and I decided after reading more here that as I am off work now for a long stretch over Easter (not back for another 8 days yet ) that we would go cold turkey into big girl knickers and lose the "ok to wee and poo in your pants" mentality. Tuesday was pretty good and only one accident all day when we were not paying attention. Yesterday day despite taking her to the toilet we had 3 accidents and already this morning 2 accidents before 9am despite toilet trips being made. Every ounce of me is screaming inside as things seem to be going from bad to worse, but then I realise it is early days too and I cant expect miracles and no accidents either. Please tell me what should I be looking for to tell me to carry on doing this, or that perhaps this is actually the wrong time for this after all. I am reluctant to give up if I dont have to but at the same time I dont want to put unreasonble pressure on her either and make her have issues.

All advice gratefully received.
Thank you.

How often are you taking her to the toilet, I do every 15/20mins for the first day so they have more success & LOTS of praise...Let her go around with no trousers/extra clothes on & give it priority if you can, stay at home for a few days.

If after several days she's still having many accidents & doesn't seem to get it you may wish to leave it a month & try again.

Four and a half weeks! - yes four and a half weeks! was how long ds had accidents for in pants/trousers before he started reliably weeing and pooing on toilet/potty. If you really want to potty train her now keep going, she will get there in the end and it will slowly get better. If she has an accident try not to make a good fuss, tell her its ok and that next time she should try to get it in the toilet. If she does get it in there make a HUGE fuss, stickers, a sweet whatever you like.

If you really can't deal with it at the moment, maybe stop and try again in a short while. However this last attempt at potty training ds was our 3rd and each previous time was exactly the same with accidents/holding etc. I worried he would never be 'ready' so persevered and he did get there in the end. During the 4.5 weeks of hell I encountered, I heard lots of stories of children potty training within a couple of weeks or so, one even over a weekend! However, I also heard stories of children take alot longer - 9 months! - and you just need to keep on with it.

Good luck!

Thanks ScottishThistle. We are taking her at least every hour, more often if she hasn't been at a scheduled visit and we think she is probably due to wee. I am using m&ms to reward each sucess and she got a small toy the first night for being so clever. She has another toy to work towards and we have talked about how she can have it if she manages two good days.

Gegs73 - wow I admire your persistance for 4.5 weeks and so great to hear it was worth it. I am not going to give up just yet, though I will be pleased to have DH home to take the pressure off a bit over the long weekend. We have a 1yr old here too so it is hard juggling the two of them with their needs. The fun of being a mum eh!

In that case much more regular loo visits & you'll find she'll have less accidents hence more incentive to go.

I'm of the if they're ready they get it pretty quickly school of thought with accidents becoming fewer as you go on...It's very hard for a child to feel they're "winning" several weeks/months on iyswim.

Yes, I agree. We have had a few weeks where I pretty much backed off taking her at all except at bedtime when she has a bath routine, so now it should feel "new" again to her. I did discover by accident this afternoon that she is more likely to use the toilet if I leave her to it for a moment. I happened to put her shoes away after she had sat there a while and she went while I was gone for a few seconds. I deliberately left her again a short while ago then popped back fairly quickly and she had gone again. I'm thinking perhaps being there she is feeling under too much pressure so we will try getting her in there and then "leaving" her to it for a short time now and see if that gets her more comfortable with it all. Huge smiles etc afterwards still though of course. She has had a much better afternoon thank goodness with no accidents and several sucesses, even when my mum had her for a short while when I had an appointment.

Thanks

Great!

so far today no accidents, one happy little girl knowing she has done well when she uses the toilet and one even happier mummy. I think we just needed to get over that blip!