Too soon to potty train?

[Maud]

My daughter is 26 months old and has been coming home from nursery chatting all about how her friends use the potty now and it's her turn now (think nursery put these words.into her.mouth!) We didn't feel she was ready but took her potty shopping anyway so that she could have a go sitting on it and we'd have it ready when she is.

We've only had it a day but she is now obsessed with sitting on the potty or on her potty seat on the toilet. She's constantly asking to sit on it and is very excited about itand proud of herself but it's a complete pain for us having to take her trousers and nappy off and on every 10 minutes for no reason. If we tell her she can't sit on the potty you'd think we'd told her the world was ending.

On the positive side she has started telling us she has a poo 'in her bottom' and asking for the potty after she has done a poo. I guess that's a step in the right direction?

I just don't know whether we're making things harder for everyone by having a potty around. I honestly don't think she's ready to potty train and with a baby due in a month was not planning on starting potty training for a long while.

Do we continue letting her sit on it and hope that either she gets bored soon or gets the idea or do we hide it away until she shows signs of actually being ready?

Sorry I've written an essay!

 

[littlemonkey]

We had a potty around for a while before actually firing ahead with ditching the nappies. We just got him used to sitting on it, then using it to wee and poo as and when.

It's difficult while she's at nursery because they're probably trying to push her to do it earlier, I know with my son the childminder was keener to start earlier than I was. I was in a similar situation to you, I had my second boy six weeks after my eldest turned two. I couldn't face a new born and potty training. I made it clear to the childminder I had no intention of ditching nappies until I thought my son and I were ready. Maybe have a word with the nursery, ask them not to push it just now.

 

[Lolie14]

I would leave her to it, taking it away is like going backwards I think. Leave her without a nappy on whilst indoors and put knickers on her instead which she can pull up and down. Good luck!

 

[Maud]

Ditching nappies isn't an option as we are fully carpeted and she hasn't a clue when she is doing a wee (plus she doesn't even own any knickers yet!). I do worry about causing a set back by telling her we don't want her to use the potty though, especially while she is so enthusiastic.

I might discuss with the nursery on her next day as it's clearly come from them (they mentioned at her 2 year review that we should start discussing potty training, which we ignored).

 

[BunnyN]

If she is enthusiastic I'd go with it. The 1st step is for them to like sitting on the potty and not be afraid of it so you have passed that hurdle already. We used a combination of potty and nappies with DD since very young. We never made a big deal about it except to praise her when she did something on the potty. She gradually used the potty more and more but is only out of nappies completely recently at just under 3 years old. If lots of the kids at nursery are using the potty it makes sense that she would want to imitate them.

Is there any part of your house that is not carpeted, like the kitchen? Nappy free time does help a lot.

 

[Maud]

We've got the potty in our entrance hall as it's laminate. She loves sitting on it, even though I don't think she understands what it's for yet. Rather wish we hadn't bought it yet as now I feel we have no choice but to keep sitting her on it until she successfully has a wee! Might have to invest in some pull ups so that we don't need to keep taking nappies off and on.

 

[kitten2014]

hi bunny interesting that you started very young, weve recently picked up a cheap potty, our daughter is 13mths and is starting to become aware of when she has nappy on or off (i.e. no nappy she resists going for quite a while) and her nappies are getting less full with wee too...so we have started doing 30mins every evening nappy free time keep the potty near and sit her on it every 10mins or so, the other day she started trumping n suspected she needed to go no 2 so sat her on it whilst she was drinking her milk and 5mins later we had a poo in the potty....who wud have thought we'd be excited lol, we praised her, briefly showed her it and she did the sign for dirty lol and so we showed her us flushing and cleaning it...she seemed pretty happy...I know that due to the trumping we pretty much 'caught it' but the fact that she then went AFTER being sat on the potty was a huge step as it sounds like no 2 is one of the main hurdles kids have with the potty for the first time....I daresay we'll still have accidents and issues with doing no 2 in potty but not bad for 13mths barely a week after introducing her to potty eh?

 

[Beckyb1991]

Could you not get a large plastic sheet for your carpet and let her go nappy free? From what your saying she's enthusiastic and seems to understand so I think it might be your perfect chance to begin potty training. Yes it's a pain but you have to go through it sometime. X

 

[kitten2014]

we do go nappy free and 'deal' with the accidents atm, a plastic sheet would be too much of a 'game' to her lol...we have got bed wetting sheets and we've had a large sheet on top before now but lets face it we're gonna have plenty of accidents so may as well learn how to deal with them. She has recently developed an aversion to potty and cries when she sits on it, I think for now getting her to tell us she needs to go potty is more important but we keep the potty around for her to familiar with...the other day she was playin with it as a hat (we wont tell her this when she's older lol) but hey its familiarity of sorts...we're not gonna stress about it as she is developing in leaps and bounds with her walkin confidence atm so focusing on that...

 

[Maud]

Fortunately she has lost a lot of the initial enthusiasm so now only asked to sit on the potty once or twice a day, which is much more manageable. She honestly isn't ready for it yet, she has no idea when she's going to go to the toilet. I spoke to the nursery and they assured me they haven't pushed it and don't care when they potty train so that's good.