When you know they're ready for the potty

[mummylove]

My dd is 19 mths, I kind of remember my younger sister using a potty aged two and my brother on alot later. Do girls generally start earlier?

How do you know they are ready and how do you even begin?

Every morning my dd's nappy is so full of wee, its like a brick and very strong.

Also how long does it take?

I think they're all different mummylove. My dd is 2 now and sometimes I think she might be ready but mostly I'm happy to wait another couple of months. General consensus seems to be that they may not be ready physiologically or psychologically until somewhere between 2-3 though of course some kids are ready sooner and some later. There's a few things that I can remember reading about to look out for:

Is she able to verbalise or indicate to you when she's about to do a poo or wee?
Does she have long-ish periods of time in which her nappy is quite dry (indicating that her bladder holds quite a lot before she needs to wee)?
Is she interested in potty's?
Is she reasonably fastidious about hygiene / cleanliness?

Gina Ford's little book 'potty training in 7 days' or something like that is a good general, straightforward guide full of common sense.