You are quite right to leave the potty training if your little girl is, as you have identified, scared of the whole situation. However, don’t put the potty away, leave it in the bathroom so it is just a part of the furniture and everyday life. When you feel you can introduce it again do so very gently; suggest to your daughter that she might like to bath her dolls – undress them, sit them on the potty and then give them a bath. If your daughter becomes distressed at the idea of her dolls sitting on the potty you can try to ask her why she feels like this – she may not be able to articulate this very well but may give you enough clues to work out what the problem may be. If she is still finding the whole idea too much before she starts nursery talk to the staff there and explain the situation. They may offer to do the potty training in the nursery where the environment is quite different from home. In this situation she may pick up the idea very quickly and you can continue the regime at home without drawing her or anyone else’s attention to it.

i had trouble with my youngest. in the end it was because he was a skinny boy and he was slipping on the potty which was then hurting him. i hadnt realised this. in the end i got a kiddytoilet seat to go on top of the normal toilet and he eventually learnt to trust it. was hard going but when he started nursery he went backwards a bit and would wet himself occassionaly but again once he learnt to trust the playschools toilets and was watching the older kids its ok. just got to sort bedwetting!!!

Do you mean nursery or playschool as a nursery will be happy to aid with potty training (and have lots of experience in persuasion techniques) and if your daughter sees other children going to the toilet then she may well start copying. Also, starting nursery could put her back a bit with her toilet training as it is a shock to their system.

Hi everyone, I am new here. I am a parent of 2 girls one of 6 and my little one of just 3. I am having problems trying to get her to start using the toilet or potty but it's not happening she gets scared about the whole ordeal. I went back to work early when my first was potty training and it was left to my mum really, and also we lived in Spain so nappy off and run around "freely" and she just started using the potty and then the toilet straight away. I have now left the little one and stopped pressuring her into something she doesn't want to do but I would like her to start nursery and it would be nice if she was potty trained before then. Help lol and ideas will be welcomed i'm not sure how to go about it :-)