by Keelar

Created on: September 02, 2008

I don't think there is a best way' to potty train your toddler; it all comes down to the child and the parent.

I introduced a potty to our daughter when she was about 4 or 5 months old not with the intention of potty training her at this stage but because every time I took her nappy off she seemed to do a poo or a wee, and I was just fed up of cleaning up the mess. So we bought the potty and I started sitting her on it at every nappy change, and she kindly obliged by doing her business in the potty. This allowed us to let her have a bare bum for longer periods in the day, and we all know fresh air to the bottom is good for our children as it also reduces nappy rash.

So anyway, the potty just became part of our daily routine, and she even enjoyed going' on the toilet which seemed to cause great surprise in most of my extended family, I'm not sure why. I suppose most children must have a fear of using the toilet for the first time or something! Perhaps my daughter wasn't affected by it because she'd seen me and her Dad use it so many times and she thought it looked okay.

When she started walking confidently at about 13 months we encouraged more bare bum time', mainly because it was easier than putting another nappy on a wriggling toddler. We still weren't in the frame of mind that we were potty training our daughter, but during these bare bum sessions I used to sit her on the potty every so often, just to let her do her business. Sometimes she did something and sometimes she didn't, and I never put pressure on her, but she seemed to be aware of the fact that the potty or toilet was where she needed to be when she needed to go. When she was about 15 or 16 months there came the time when she would tap me on the leg and say wee wee' so I'd take her to the potty and she'd do either a wee or a poo, which I thought was marvellous considering I still wasn't (as far as I was concerned) training' her.

Of course there were still accidents on the floor they say children forget or become too engrossed in their toys and just don't think about doing a wee or a poo, and then there it is on the floor Something which I totally agree with how can you expect a child who's used to doing it in her nappy whenever she pleases to all of a sudden start remembering every single time to go and do it on the potty? You just can't, remember they are only children.

So now at 19 months, we are still at the same stage. She wears a nappy most of the time, but when she has no nappy on; she seems to

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