Health visitor told me to start PT now - is this madness or am I procrastinating?

[irecitethegruffaloinmydreams]

Hi all

DD has just turned 2. She is on track development-wise - in particular, her speech and understanding are both very good. She goes to nursery 5 days a week (and has just moved up to the 2-3 room). I had planned to do potty training with her in August when the nursery is closed for 2 weeks, so that we could just blitz it with lots of naked time in the garden. But at her 2 year check, the health visitor told me quite firmly that I should do it now.

DD knows when she is pooing and tells me (often she hides herself away), and often tells me she wants me to change her nappy, so she's not completely clueless. But she's not brilliant at taking off her clothes (I have to give instructions/help her a bit) and I thought it made sense to give her another couple of months to practice that. But the health visitor (and the stern warnings in 'Oh Crap' about leaving it too late) have spooked me a bit.

I have no idea whether leaving it 'too late' is an issue at this age - obviously I do want to get on with it, but I am a bit nervous about trying to get it sorted over a weekend and then bundling her off to nursery on the Monday (even a long weekend sounds a bit ambitious). Or did I just need to get on with it?

We tt DD1 at 2yo because she met a lot of the signs but mostly felt that we should be doing it and it also coincided with time off work. It took her about 3 weeks to get it but she did struggle out and about. She was dry at night from about 2.8yo but had a few accidents at first.

DD2 was 2.7yo but was showing the signs much sooner. Like your DD would hide herself when pooing. I procrastinated because I had a newborn when she was 2.3yo and there was no way I was tt with a newborn! DD2 got it by day 3 and that was that. Dry at night by 2.8yo - just one day refused to wear a nappy at night and never had any night time accidents. She's 2.10yo now and is 100% reliable.

I honestly don't think age has much to do with it. I'd give it a go and see how she goes. You can always stop and try again. Equally if you feel more comfortable waiting until you're off then do. Personally with DD2 the longer that went by the more guilty I felt because I could see she was very ready.

Thank you to everyone who has posted, it's really informative. The only thing I've done with her so far is that we have a training seat in the bathroom and she often says "want to do a pee-pee in the toilet" and sits on it, - sometimes she manages to pee, a couple of times she's done a poo. So she seems to be comfortable with the concept.

I think I will speak to the nursery about it and get their view. She's now in a room for 2-3 year olds where some of them are definitely trained, and I think seeing other kids being taken to the toilet will definitely be helpful. Until I read the 'Oh Crap' book and had the meeting with the HV, I hadn't thought there was any real harm in waiting a bit longer but I am definitely more torn now - just want to maximise the chances of it being successful and not too tricky. Anyway, thank you to all.

Ah there you go then, you have started. Sounds like she's well on the road. My bet would be if you leave it till the summer she'll probably take it out of your hands in the meantime and save you the trouble.