Toilet training

My daughter is 19 months old. We have started toilet training about 4 months ago but not with much success. We have put her on her smaller toilet seat and the potty - and she sometimes will sit for a few minutes and then not do anything until the diaper is back on.


In the past week, we have taken the diaper off and asked her to tell us when she needs to go to the toliet. She will again do it in the diaper and not the toliet/potty. The good news is she seems to have bladder control and is only weeing every 2 to 3 hours.


Any suggestions to get her "to go" in the toilet or potty? Many thanks.


HF

First of all, 19 months is still pretty young. She might just not be ready yet. If you have no success, stop the trials for a few weeks and try again later. If she's ready it doesn't take more than a couple of days. No point potty training if it takes weeks.


I have four suggestions:

- Let her run around without a diaper at home during the day (roll up nice rugs first). No clothes at all on lower body is best. Having the diaper on signals that it is ok to wee with it on.

- Put her on the potty for a couple of minutes every hour or two regardless of whether she asks. Praise profusely when she actually does wee while on the potty. If she wees on the floor, immediately put her on the potty but don't scold her. She might just not get the point of the potty yet and if you wait for her to ask she won't. She must learn to associate needing to go with the potty.

- Place a potty in the playroom or living room so that she can get to it fast. It may only be a matter of 10-20 seconds between when she feels she must go and actually going. She might not have figured out how to hold it all the way to the bathroom yet.

- Make sure she sees you wee. Kids learn by watching adults. Mostly important for Mummy (and helper if helper thinks it is ok). Call the toilet seat "big potty".

Some people say you could wait until your daughter can communicate with you that she needs to go to the toilet, so that means waiting even later for her speaking abilities to catch up.


Our kindergarten tells us to potty train in summer, not winter... probably because you might want to leave half their clothes off... or if they pee their pants in winter, they'll get cold!


My daughter is over 2 and she's only peed in the potty TWICE in her entire life. She just doesn't want to do it yet. But I think they need to be potty trained before starting K1, is that correct?

our daughter did her first potty pee at 21/2 yrs this summer...after about 1 week of absolutely NO diaper during the day but with training panties (terry cloth with a membrane inside to reduce leakage)...yes there were a few accidents on the sofa/floor/etc. After a few times peeing where she wasn't supposed to (being calmly told by us), she would tell us WHEN WE ASKED HER. So we made a habit of asking every 2 hrs or so (her schedule), and she would faithfully trot to the pot and go. Now after about 1 month, she's telling us when she has to go.

Many thanks for your tips and suggestions. Fingers crossed!


HF

Also if you can manage it, keep track of what time of day she does go, and what her behaviors were immediately preceding. Some kids are super regular and you can then just say "ok, let's go to the toilet" at the appropriate time. My son pretty much trained himself, but it was mostly because he would let a few drops out first and then know to tell us that he needed to go.


It is important for the caregivers to be very calm during this process, and remember praise for success and tell her that she'll do better next time for accidents.


Many diapers today are so absorbent that the kids don't really notice when they wet them; either bare bottoms or underpants can speed up the process tremendously.