3 Early Signs to Start Introducing Potty Training!

How times seems to fly; Can you believe it, we are at the potty training stage! It only feels like just yesterday that I was learning how to put nappies on the twins in the hospital, and now I’m thinking of saying ‘good riddance’ to them! It has been on my mind when best to start. Small signs have been slowly appearing, but I have stayed firm to my belief in that the girls will tell me when they are ready. I don’t feel that there is a magic age at which children are ready to start learning how to use the potty, but some develop the necessary physical and cognitive skills between 18 and 24 months of age. However, many children aren’t ready to potty train until their children are 2 1/2 to 3 years old, and this is fine, it is where we are now!

I was told that if I started too early, I would run risk of months of frustration and mess (more than usual, anyway!). It feels like you have to wait until the perfect storm of your child’s readiness and your preparedness hits before you can even think about starting to go potty. But how do you know for sure that the time is right?

Whilst I am eager to whip that nappy off, it also feels me with dread and opens so many questions. Do I train the twins together, or separately? Will I even get a choice?! If I start, will I know if I have mis-judged and mis-read the signs?

I have done a lot of research and spoken to friends about when I will know. These are these are three signs they are showing so far…

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  Hiding to wee or poo

I noticed this quite early on. Tabitha much more than Poppy but they hide in all sorts of places – under the table, behind the chair, under a cushion!

• Pulling at the nappy to get it off

The girls have just started to do this. Not all of the time but it is getting more frequent. They are also recognising when it is full and do the ‘wee’ or ‘poo’ walk!

• Showing an interest in the potty and others going to the toilet

This is the most recent one and I think going up a class in nursery has helped where they are seeing their friends us the toilet. I have also started telling them when I need a wee and reluctantly let them come with me!

Over the last few months, we have been introducing toys and books to help them to understand how to use a potty.

Potty Train Bing

The Toilet train Bing has been the best toy so far. He comes with a potty and talks telling the children stories, plays games and tells you when he has wee’d. I would highly recommend one of these toys. Click HERE to find out more about Bing and where you can get one from.

Potty Training Academy

I took advice from Potty Training Academy fairly early on because I felt I should be doing more for the girls to ‘train’ them. Their advice was to just wait until they were ready but suggested following their pack which consisted of a child friendly book, DVD, stickers and charts to support their training. You can find these HERE. It was also suggested that they choose their own potty. They did this with the travel potties and love them, also known as My Carry Potty, but what is interesting is that I bought some basic identical ones to have around the house to save arguments and guess what, they argue. So this weekend we are off to buy our own potties for the house!

At what age did yours start to show signs of being ‘Potty Ready’?

If you want some more potty training ideas, have a look at  ‘Why I’m glad I put off potty training my toddler’ by Twins, Tantrums and Cold Coffee.

GO ON, PIN IT!