Idiot's guide

[DancingPhantomsOnTheTerrace]

DD2 is 2yrs 5months and we're thinking of potty training her. But I need an idiot's guide. How do I know if she's ready? Does she need to be ready??

With DD1, she was odd. Basically she never had a single accident ever, but that was because we took her nappy off in the morning and she held her wee until her evening nappy went on. We have her loads of drinks, but nothing. I was actually quite worried she'd end up with a UTI. That lasted a few months and then she just got it. She was somewhere between 2 and 2.5 when we started.

DD2 is not like that, she'll have accidents (which I know is far more normal!). But she'll sit on the potty and happily tell me she's done a wee, but she hasn't. And she also doesn't take herself off and hide when she does a poo. Nor does she tell us she's done a poo. Does this suggest she doesn't really have the required awareness to be potty trained..? Or is that fine?

They develop the awareness while potty training! Modern disposable nappies are so absorbent and comfortable that they don’t feel it when they go, except poo usually. I would say that at her age it’s more than likely that she’s ready. The readiness markers that you should look for are: can she follow simple instructions, can she pull her trousers down and up again, can she communicate that she needs the potty (as in, can she ask for a cup of milk or some toast, if she can then se can ask for the potty, but doesn’t know to yet because she hasn’t learned. Signing counts too if her words aren’t there yet)

I would recommend getting a book or finding a good online guide for the method you want to use, read it as many times as you need to understand what you’re attempting to do, and then stick with it. I used Oh Crap kind of loosely following online advice and in hindsight should have read the book first.

The currently popular cold turkey approaches have you taking the nappies away once and for all and spending a few days at home to get to a starting point of understanding. 3 day methods really just teach the basic awareness for potting but don’t expect to be fully trained and accident free in 3 days. The goal is for your child to go from “I peed!” to “I’m peeing!” to “I’m going to pee!”