How do you know when they're ready to potty train?

[chickenmama]

My dd (2.5) has recently started telling me that she's 'done a wee wee' and keeps taking her nappy off. It's like she doesn't like to wear them when they're wet (tho most of the time it looks like there's hardly any wee in there).

I've tried putting her in pants but she always wets, she doesn't seem to be able to tell me when she needs a wee (and she just peed on the floor as I was writing this!). She will sit on the potty if I ask her to, but hasn't yet weed in it. She does seem to prefer her 'big girl pants' to her nappies.

Is this a sign that she might be ready to potty train? (or just a 2 yr old being awkward ) And how would I go about it?

I don't know if I should carry on using pants, letting her wet and hope she realises when she needs a wee, or insist on nappies. Just a bit worried if we carry on with the nappies it's going to cost me a fortune changing her after every wee!

Hello it sounds like to me she is ready, in which case you just have to go for it with the pants but bear in mind that there is no going back! Eventually she will get so sick of wetting herself and all the faffing about changing she will want to go on the potty. Loads of encouagement and praise is essential for potty training. You might find one of the toilet seat thingys that you put over your own toilet seat might work better than a potty. They are about £6 in boots and my dd much prefered going on the 'big girl toilet' than on the potty. You will get lots of accidents for the first few weeks but suddenly what I found was something clicked and my dd was able to tell me when she needed a wee! It was amazing and came just at the point when I was ready to admit defeat (nearly two weeks of very little success!) she was about the same age as your dd. Good luck, the gina ford potty training book does give some good advice. Xx

Ok, i decided to go for it yesterday, and took her to choose her own potty - this worked really well and she weed in it 4 times yesterday afternoon/evening (with only one accident), when she'd never managed any in the old one.

However, today is a different story, and we've had a lot of wet pants and no wees in the potty. Is this normal and to be expected or am I doing something wrong?

I put her in pull ups to go out for an hour this morning and she went in those (straight after I'd put her on the toilet to try, wondering if the sound of the water when she washed her hands made her wee?? or just coincidence?)

Is it better to do no nappies at all and just let her wet her clothes all the time? Or is there something I could put her in that feels wet so she knows she's gone, but doesnt soak her clothes thru (my mum said I hated wet towelling nappies and this made me potty train early - wondering if that kind of thing would help??)

Any tips would be appreciated!!

Hi CM,

Sorry, no advice as we are on day 1 today! About 50 - 50 so far, potty to accident ratio (if we ask her to go on). I think she is ready (2 yr 5 mth) and interested so will see how it goes. Bumping this for you - will be watching for advice as well x