Reading the 'signs'...

[julietbat]

My dd is 21 months. We hadn't considered starting potty training until spring next year (better weather!) but she's been able to tell us for a good while now 'poo poos coming' and recently she's also started telling us when she's done/doing a wee (she also tells us when she's trumped too). One of her friends is potty training right now and she's very interested in his potty and flushing the poo down the toilet afterwards. So this makes me think she might be ready sooner than we thought. However, we have a 5 week old ds so there's no chance I have the time or inclination to try for any sort of proper potty training right now.

So my questions are:

1. should we respond to the 'signs' she's showing now and get her a potty?
2. can we then just let her use it as and when she decides she wants to or will that confuse her if she's also in nappies?
3. if we don't do either of the above and wait until spring to start training, will we have screwed things up by ignoring her now?

I have no desire to rush into it just for the sake of it but nor do I want to stick to my guns if actually she's ready and this would be the best time to get positive results.

Thanks.

If she is reliably telling you when she is going to pass a stool, why aren't you already sitting her on the potty?

Or do you have a fetish for changing dirty nappies?

She sounds more advanced than my two were when we first tried them.

Yes, of course I love changing dirty nappies, doesn't everyone...?.

Sorry, didn't really explain enough - she says 'poo poos coming' but that can mean anything from it's half an hour away to I did it a while ago and now it's mashed in my bum cheeks. So she's not reliable enough to have warranted us to rush to the potty (mostly because of having the newborn to contend with as well).

I think she'd cope very well if we started training her now but I'd really rather not start it properly now because I'm only just getting my head around dealing with the two of them on my own during the day when we're out and about. That's why I'd rather wait a few more months if I can as long as I'm not risking a positive outcome by ignoring what look like the right signs now.

I'm in a similar dilema. My DS who will be 2 in a couple of weeks has been using potty during 'naked time' before bath time for a number of weeks now. Whenever he has no clothes or nappy on, he will quite happily run to the bathroom to use the potty shouting "ooo need a wee wee/poo poo". He is starting to tell us during the day when he has done a poo in his nappy but there is no warning to say that it's about to happen.

I am wondering whether to bite the bullet and put him into pants as i think it may be nappy distracting him during the day? He seems fine when he has no nappy on.

Also, as we are moving soon and baby number 2 is due in march i'm thinking that it may be the best time before any disruption comes along!