is it too early to potty train my 22month old dd

[laylasmummy09]

ive had the potty lying around in vew for ages but my daughter wont sit on it, she is happy to sit on the toilet for a few minutes at a time but doesnt always go, she just wants to sit there, im only asking because she keeps removing her nappies even removing clothes to get them off needless to say there have been accidents so maybe i should ditch the nappies and go for it if theres accidents it may as well be for a good reason right???????

We started potty training my son at about that age and it was fine. He got the basics quickly but I would say that we did have periods of regression as he got a bit older (i.e. into the terrible twos). He would suddenly have a phase of accidents for example - we worked out it was down to attention seeking at times and exhaustion at others. If you start early you need to be prepared for the times when they regress as they are developing. At first they will have a smaller bladder so may not last as long between wees as when they are older. Also, as their speech is not so well developed at 22 months and they probably need more assistance with toileting, you need to be a bit more attentive than when they are older and accept there will probably be more accidents.

If there's a good reason for starting early and you don't mind that its a bit harder work than when they are older then I'd say you could give it a go. In our case it was getting really difficult to change my son's nappy. At times I would be chasing him round the room with poo on his bot!

i know what you mean aabout the chase its not good i think i will give it a go ill want to get rid of the nappies by summer then it wont matter so much if she has an accidend in dresses and washing dries quicker but with a new baby due in september there is bound to be regression early on wich could be bad.

I potty trained my 22 month old DD2. It was a little bit more work then when I had potty trained a slightly older DD1 but she got it within 2 weeks or so. I went for it then as I had a new baby due 4 months later and I desperately wanted a bit of nappy free time before he was born. She had a regression a few months after DS was born, which I had kind of been expecting, but that only lasted 10 days / 2 weeks. I would say it was definitely worth it for me making the effort a bit earlier as not having to deal with nappies for an extra 6 months or so made a huge difference to me. Even with the downside of the short regression it was still worth it for me. In my experience the regression came about 3 months after the new baby - i.e. when she realised that he was here to stay and was desperate for attention rather than straight off. If you were to potty train now I doubt you'd even have a regression as far away as September as she'd be so used to using the loo by then. DD2 trained straight on the loo with a child seat as she had a weird and irrational aversion to the potty!

sounds just like my dd, thanks for the advice im gonna go for it cant wait to get rid of the nappies for a bit

There is little point in trying to train a child who will not sit on a toilet or potty. You are best concentration of getting her happy to sit where you want her to do her business. Its also helpful to concentrate on dressing skills. I am sure someone will post some good guidelines on potty readiness.

For example I persaude my dd to sit on the potty by offering to read her a story. If she refuses to sit on the potty then I don't force the issue. I praise her for sitting nicely on the potty and if she does nothing on the potty I say nothing. My dd at 21 months is doing poos and wees in the potty. She does ask, but she doesn't give me much warning.

I am planning to wait until the summer because dd nursery will not assist in anyway with the training of a child under two. It is a bit frustrating how dogmatic they are being.

laylasmummy09, if you can keep dd entertained on potty or toilet (personally I think potty is best at 22 months) for long enough periods then eventually she will do something in the toilet or potty. Then you clap and cheer and hopefully she gets the idea that this is a good thing she must do more often...That's how we started with ds and it worked.

Storyreading is a good idea to prolong the time she will sit on the toilet/potty as pointed out by reallytired. We did that with our ds, along with various games.