well,my little girl is 3 in may and weve been trying to potty train her for the past 6months.

she will have her good days, and her bad days but i dont think shes totally ready to be out of nappies yet! if we put pants or trousers on her,she totally forgets shes got a nappy on. and we can hardley take her out with nothing on!

she stayed at her dads last night. he has her just once a month (will only have her when its convienent for him & his girlfriend!)
he dropped her off telling me " i think shes ready to be out of nappies, she was on her potty all yestarday"

WOAH! Hang on a min! he has her just ONCE a month, makes her sit on a potty all day then tries to give me parenting skills!!!!

im not going to force her, were trying! and she wont go anywere near a toilet, even with toddler seat on it!

her dads really stressed me out. made me look perthetic and lazy infront of his of so perfect girlfriend who thinks she knows it all cos she works at a playgroup! im not going to force my daughter...END OF!

any tips at all to encourage Izzy to go on the toilet? the potty she'l sit on but the toilet...you might as well make her sit on a crocodile cos thats the reaction! and if were out and she needs a wee, she'l have to sit on a toilet.

oh so stressed.

Not a good situation.

I have no personal tips - I once got a reward freebie from Kandoo .... I blieve they have sets with a seat reward chart stickers etc might be worth a go its an added praise!?

From memory having got so many siblings, my mother used to do a couple of weeks of running around the house with nothing on the lower half (my siblings, that is) and encouraging the potty as much as possible... oh and copious amounts of milky button rewards!

We also have a potty here for Tasha's little 2 yr old brother and our nephews... my brother G. and nephew J. (both at my mothers) are 2 and my mother has specified that potty training for them begins 24th may 2008! Will let you know how she gets on... I believe she has already ordered a couple of crates of treats... thats 2 crates of haribo + Galaxy for her and my sister and 1 crate of chocolate buttons for... well, her, my sister and the nephew/brother!

Good luck though - its rewarding when you begin to save £1m a month in nappies!

rewards worked brilliantly with Jack, we still have the odd accident but not many
He would get a sticker and a smartie everytime he had a wee on potty or toilet and we also had a sticker chart

We kept them in a "special place" so he knew they were only for wees
I was suprised as he never asked for a sweet unless he had done a wee

When the sweets were running out i told him, so he wasn't still wanting sweets at 15 when he weed

Good luck and just let her go at her own pace, pushing the issue can only make things worse ( as you know but dad and perfect GF obviously don't)

You know, I never pushed potty training on my kids but did talk about it every day.

My daughter started going pee on the potty when she was 2 but did her other thing in a diaper until she was three. She never once wetted the bed.

My son was a bit tougher and actually didn't start going on the potty until just after he turned four. One day he just went and never wore a diaper after. He's never wetted the bed either.

I think and truly believe that when they are ready, they will go on their own. My kids did.

Like I said, I just talked to them every day about it but never pushed the issue.

I started the potty training when my little girl turned 22 months. I knew she was ready a few weeks before then because she would point to the nappy and say" mummy listen" obviously she was weeing, she knew when she was going, the same with poo. We had a holiday and moving house in the way so I left it until we were set in the new place.when I saw she was getting ready I started to read books to her about pottys, one was Dora de explorer's, she likes her and was really interested in Dora using nickers. I bought a potty as well so she would be familiar with it when the time was right. then I decided it was the time and took the nappy off showing her where the potty was.she needed just 2 days to get the idea, third day no accidents at all, she would go on the potty without asking anyone every time she needed it. Now she needs to learn how to pull her bottom clothes up and down, she is without trousers at home because she wont tell me when she is going to the potty and will sit there with clothes on and then cry becuase she is wet. when we go out she will have a training nappy on but she refuses to go in the nappy, she tell me see needs a wee.
Sorry about the long post. I thought potty training would be more difficult and I would have to be cleaning up puddles at home for months. Now I know it is really easy if you wait until your child is ready,truly ready, not when YOU are ready and fed up with nappies. I never used any regards, just showing her how proud I am she goes in the potty like a big girl and she is so proud of herself as well. You can try as well to do games with their toys, I know it sounds silly but making their favorite doll or whatever go to the toilet will make them think it is a normal think to do. My daughter doesnt like the toilet seat that much, I dont have an adapter yet, going to buy one soon but I'd let her choose the colour so she will feel more in control about her potty thing. I also take her with me to see other toilets when we are out and about so she knows there are different toilets everywhere for us to use. I bougth a portable potty, called pottete and I take it with me everywhere now that is still early days for her. when out I take it inside the toilet room and sit her there instead of on the toilet.
I hope my experience helps somehow(if you are still awake by now)
the best advice is to wait until they are ready and BE CALM AND RELAX with the whole thing. and as you say, never force her to do it, she will get there in her own time, as with everything else.

I don't have any advice on the toilet thing. But I work at a daycare and we potty train all 16 two year olds all year long each year. It's tough. Rewards work well for some. We would give them stickers if they went in the potty, two if it was a BM. No food or candy or anything like that though because rewarding with food is just a bad idea. And some kids that do good most of the time but have their off days, we go ahead and put them in underwear. Because when they have a diaper on they know they can just go it in when the time comes instead of telling you, like if they're having to much fun playing or something. But if they're in underwear and decide to go, they have an accident and 99.9% of them HATE the feeling and we'll come up to you. And usually they never to it again unless it truly is an accident and just don't make it to the bathroom in time.

thanks for the advice ladies.

well, shes got 3 pottys now and a toilet seat. she seems ok sitting on the toilet seat but has only done 1 wee so far. still, were very proud that shes overcome her big nasty toilets gonna eat me fear! lol

weve been keeping her bear bottomed at home and theres only been 1 accident this week. were keeping 1 potty in the living room, 1 upstairs in her room and 1in the bathroom in hope that if she really needs a wee, theres a potty close by so theres no accidents.

yestarday, we went round town and we put a nappie on her. she was ok at first but as soon as her nappie was wet she pulled up a fuss. must be a good sign? she didnt tell us that she needed a wee tho. probably too occupied!

and just now, shes jumped up off the sofa and gone on the potty n wee'd!

were getting there,its just gonna take time. i supose my worst fear is taking her out in pants and she wets herself halfway through shopping in tescos! embarrassing!!!

You see she is doing great! Going out is aswell my main worry. I usually wait until she has done a wee at home and we go straight away after and when we arrived at whereever we are going first thing I take her to a toilet(with her portable potty for now) and try to get her to have a wee, normally she will and then try to guess when she can need another one because when she tell me she needs to go it has to be in the next 30 seconds so quite difficult to get to a toilet. two days ago we were at Sainsburys just in corner opposite the toilets, and....she needed a wee, well, there you see me running with her in my arms, people must be thinking is sometime wrong with her(or with me) , when we got there there were a few drops left. thats why for now I put a training nappy on when we go out. I wonder how long it take for them to be able to hold on for longer