Is my DD ready for potty-training or not? Advice please!

[CoffeeChocolateWine]

My DD is 2.1 years. She is a bright girl, communicates very well and is physically very able. For instance, she undresses herself independently and doesn't need a huge amount of help dressing herself and her speech is very good for her age. She tells me when she needs a wee/poo, when she is doing a wee/poo and when she has done a wee/poo. She loves sitting on the potty or toilet and doing the toilet role play etc. So in my mind, she is showing all the signs that she is ready for potty training...apart from the minor detail that she's never actually done anything on the potty and doesn't seem to want to.

We haven't actively started potty training but she has plenty of no-nappy time and she is constantly taking herself off to sit on potty or toilet but doesn't do anything. We haven't had any accidents either though so she obviously does has bladder control as she's been without nappy for up to 2 hours. Eventually she just asks me for her nappy back on and she'll wait till then to do what she needs to do.

So what do I do? My gut feel is that she's got a bit of a psychological block and once she's done it once we'll be away with the potty training. But how do I encourage her to do that first wee on the potty? Or do I just wait it out and let her do it in her own time? She's not under any kind of pressure from me at home to do anything yet...I just let her go nappy-free and then give her lots of encouragement and praise for her lovely sitting on the toilet (although she obviously does know what it's for and what she will eventually be expected to do!). That's as far as it's gone so far. But she's been doing this for about 10 days and still nothing.

I know she's still only very young and I'm not in any hurry to potty train her, but at the same time I don't see the point in delaying it if she is ready.
If it's useful to know, she does seem more interested in using the toileet than the potty.

So what are your thoughts, does she sound ready or not? Do I go for it or not? Any encouraging tactics (for her to do a wee) and advice would be appreciated.

TIA.

[WeGotThere]

Hi,

We were in this exact position (with up to 5 hrs without wees in no nappy time on sunny day!!!) and in the end we decided to go for it. We chose a couple of days when we didn't need to go anywhere and bought a large pack of usually 'forbidden' juice cartons. We allowed her to drink loads of juice on the first day so she couldn't hold on and then caught some wee in the potty each time. Lots of cheering and a lucky dip in the pound shop prize bag. 2nd day back to normal drinking and had some hits and some misses, then on the 3rd day she suddenly clicked. 2 weeks and 2 days in still have an accident every 3 days or so, so we're not trained yet but not far off. In total after the first day we've probably had 10/12 wee accidents and no poo accidents.

We have a potty downstairs at the moment for the urgent times but she mostly uses a little step ladder/toilet seat for the toilet upstairs. Which I am very happy about as cleaning poo from a potty just seems so much worse than changing a nappy!

Mostly I think we did the right thing, but when she has an accident I do wonder if we'd waited would our carpet smell better?..

[tobysmum77]

you wait it out and let her play with the potty. It will happen pretty soon by the sound of it.

[Tipsykisses]

If she's telling you that she's doing a wee or a poo I think she's definitely ready !
I took both of mine to the toilet with me and sang a special " wee wee on the toilet " song ,I asked if they wanted to try to go & also kept a book on the shelf for them to look at whilst sitting to go .
We had special pump soap ( musical Thomas the tank for ds this time !) ready for washing hands and once the first wee/ poo was done they were so proud !!
You can always try again later if you have accidents as she's still very young , some children do pick it up early though so it's worth a try , mine were both under 18 months .

[blushingmare]

My DD was like your's. I bought her Princess Pollys Potty to read whilst sitting on the potty and straight away she started doing wees and poos in it! So we started potty training in earnest after that. It's going ok, although she's still some way off telling me when she needs to go and I wonder if she's too young for that (2.2).