How to go about it?

[lexi'smum]

Hi,
I am looking at toilet training my DD, she is almost 15 months old and I am just wondering if any one had any tips, advice to how to go about it, Im a little unsure about the whole thing.
Thankyou.

[the_queen]

Personally I would say your daughter might still be a bit young (please note, only my opinion;) !!) Of course, I don't know your daughter, so I could be talking out my ar*e.... I think a really important "sign of readiness" is that you can talk with her and she can understand you and follow basic directions.
When Vallerie was learning to self-toilet, it all came pretty naturally and simply - because I just waited until she was obviously ready. (By this I mean, she could talk about wee's and poo's with me, understood that I put my wee's and poo's in the toilet, and could tell me before she did a poo in her nappy). I got her a potty and a step (for the hand basin) just after she turned 2, and then I just put them in the bathroom and waited for her to ask me about them (took her about, oh, 2 seconds :D !!) so I explained that if she wanted to put her wee's and poo's in the potty instead of her nappy, she could take her nappy off and sit on the potty. I've always let her in the toilet with me when I go (ahem, except at "that time of the month:o ) and always talked about wee's and poo's at nappy-change time. She was (and still is!!) very eager to do new things, very keen to prove she can do something by herself, so I just kinda let her get the hang of it by herself. So probably once a day she would take off her nappy and sit on the potty, sometimes she'd do something, sometimes not. I praised her when she did do something in there. After a couple of weeks of this, we went shopping and bought some knickers (I let her choose them herself) and we talked about how she could just wear knickers now instead of a nappy, and if she needed to do a wee or poo, she could sit on the potty to do it. She had plenty of accidents, but that's to be expected. I just cleaned them up with no fanfare (oh, except that time she tried to sit on the toilet and do a poo, and managed to get poo on the toilet seat, toilet lid, floor, wall, carpet.... LOL I tried so hard to stay calm, really I did!!) And eventually she was going to the potty by herself. She didn't actually use the potty for very long really, it was probably 4 or 5 weeks, and then after that she wanted to sit on the big toilet (that's another reason why I got her the step). Maybe I had it reeeeally easy, but I think because I was so relaxed, and just built up her confidence about the whole thing, it all kinda happened naturally!

Oh, another thing: I think it's important that there's no talk of "only babies wear nappies" or "you're too big for nappies now" because if she had regressed, or just wasn't ready, it would have been a blow to her self-esteem. And she still wears a pull-up at night-time. Some mornings it's dry, most mornings it isn't. But night-time wetness is nothing to worry about until they're at least 6 or so.

Good luck!! :D