Potty Training!

When Skye was around 18 months, someone at work asked me if she was potty training yet.. at the time I remember thinking what?? She's far too young! It hadn't even crossed my mind to begin training her yet! However the thought played on my mind and I decided to read up a little on when people began training their children. It really did vary and of course everyone has a different opinion on when is the right time! I think there are signs if you look for them, that show your child may be beginning to be ready.

A few things that I noticed were:

She would go and hide when she needed to go for a poop! She also got quite embarrassed if we asked her about it! I think when kids start to do this it shows they are becoming aware of what they are doing.

She woke up dry most mornings. It was very very rare for her to wake up with a wet nappy.

She used to come into the bathroom with me if I went to the loo and she would say "mummy wee wee" (lol)

Obviously all children are different and the things that I noticed may not be the case with other children!

We decided to get her a potty and used to let her sit on it before and after she had a bath. After an accident in the bath one night, she became very conscious and wouldn't sit down in the bath incase she did a poop again! So we used to sit her on before she got into the bath and that seemed to help her get over it! She then learnt to ask if she felt she needed to go and we would take her out and sit her on again!

We had her potty for a few months before we decided to take the plunge into fully potty training her! We did this mainly so she could get used to seeing it and knowing it was for her!

I think I decided to go for it at the end of October when she was 23 months. It took around 2-3 days for her to understand what was going on and she has done brilliantly ever since!!

The first day was obviously a day for her to get used to no nappy! We had a lot of accidents!
The second day we still had a few accidents, but she was learning to tell us when she needed to go!
By the third day she had learnt the feeling of needing to go and was asking us before she had an accident!

I was so surprised at how quickly she learnt what to do! I really thought it was going to be weeks of wet knickers and mountains of washing!

We were still putting a pull up on her when we went out, but she surprised us by still asking when we were out to go for a wee! She also wore a pull up at night but woke up dry every night. So we are completely nappy free now! YAY!!

Do I have any tips?..

- Talk lots about the potty/toilet beforehand so they have an idea what's going on!
- Let them choose some big girl/boy knickers/pants
- Have a potty beforehand so they can see it and try it out if they want to!
- Potty training books are really helpful! We had Princess Polly's Potty and LuLu's Loo!
- Don't buy a cheap small potty! We got one for the downstairs loo just incase and Skye won't even sit on it as it is far too small!
- Buy a toddler seat for the toilet - We got ours for around £5 on amazon, Skye is much happier doing number twos on the big toilet!
- STICKERS!!!  Very important! Even though they are randomly stuck around our house now! Every time she went on the potty she chose a sticker! There's lots on ebay for super cheap!
- When starting ask every 15-20 minutes if they need to go! Even if they say no, put them on the potty!
- If they don't go straight away when you sit them on, try singing songs together until they go, I think by doing this it helped Skye to learn what it felt like to need to go, plus she enjoys singing wheels on the bus lol
- If they ask to go when wearing a pull up don't be tempted to not take them especially when out and about! We used to still tell her she was wearing big girl knickers even if she was wearing a pull up so not to confuse her!

I think that's about it! If you have any tips on potty training to share, please leave them in the comments below for others who may want more tips! Especially if you've trained a boy!!

I hope this was helpful! :)