R.R.
I say "Good for her!" and to you, keep encouraging her. Yes, it's hard to keep cleaning up the accidents, but she really sounds as if this is what she wants to do and her body is telling her to do. I'm a firm believer in taking the opportunity to train when a child presents it, because if you don't acknowledge their interest it will soon pass and it will be harder to train when they are older and more set in their established ways. I am training my 27 month old son, but had I listened to him when he exhibited signs of readiness and interest at 21 months we might have already finished training.
I knew my daughter was ready at 18 months (a little on the young side, the experts say the "norm" for girls is 22 months, a few months later for boys) when she went and changed her diaper on her own, I knew because she put it on backwards, lol ; ) That night and for a few more nights I noticed she stayed dry until morning so I went out and bought her new potty chair, and she faithfully used it every time she needed to pee. Poop was an altogether different matter, I absolutely could not get her to poop in the potty until just after she turned 3. My dad had picked her up to go to his and Nana's house, and on the way there he talked to her and told her that everyone poops in the potty or toilet. She asked him, "Even you, Tata?" and he said, "Yes." She began using her potty for pooping that very day and was able, after all, to start preschool 2 months later!
What I did with her was put her in cloth training pants, not panties (she didn't get to wear those until she stopped pooping on herself) with plastic pants over them. This way she would feel her accidents (or in her case her "on-purposes") and was no longer in diapers. While Pull-ups are there for parents to buy and use, they're expensive, and they're really diapers that pull up rather than fasten (sorry, some do unfasten on the sides to check for accidents), and feel like diapers to training children, they whick away the wetness, so there's no incentive not to go in them. I won't use them, I don't want to spend all the extra money or confuse my child.
So, with my son we started about 5 weeks ago. I had him sit on the potty and he went pee pee a few times, and pooped twice. He tried using the potty for about 10 days then flat out refused to, even though I would give him a sticker for trying or a success. I backed off a week or so, no talk of the potty, just left it in sight, then about a week ago I said, "Let's sit on the potty!" At first he said, "nooooo" but within a couple of days he was back at it, and is practically going pee pee on demand, lol! As a matter of fact the last two mornings he has called me, "Mama, wake up, I potty, wake up, I potty!" I've rushed in, undressed his bottom, he ran to the potty and went pee pee. I always make a big deal clapping and praising him, and he loves it. I'm saving the stickers for something else, he doesn't ask for them or need them to go.
Poop has been another story with him, I believe he was holding it. I suggested he try to go, but he didn't want to. Then I decided to bribe him with a bag of Dum Dum pops, something I hadn't planned on doing, and told him he could have one when he poops in the potty. THAT got him trying, he wanted "Canny!" This morning we had success, I saw he needed to go, he looked as if he was struggling to hold it in, I asked if he needed to poop, he said "no." I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty, he said "no." Then I saw he WAS going to poop on the carpet where he stood and I said "I'll help you," and lifted him onto the potty to sit and it was over in about 3 seconds. I praised him and after we cleaned the potty and washed our hands he got a sucker : )
I found plastic pants on Walmart.com, 8 in a pack for $11, and previously washed, but new, cloth training pants on eBay for a great price so I saved a bundle. I'm keeping him bare-bottomed as much as possible during the day, have the cute underwear briefs to use when he's going consistently on the potty and just having a few accidents, and will keep him in training pants and plastic pants until he stops wetting during his sleep at naps and at night.
My suggestions are to let your daughter see you using the toilet so she sees it's normal and learns what to do from sitting to wiping to washing her hands, keep her bare-bottomed, set regular intervals for her to sit and try, say every 20 minutes have her sit at least 5 minutes, use waterproof pads under her when she's on the carpet or anywhere you don't want to clean up an accident, use the cloth training pants and plastic pants so she processes the wet feeling, and keep encouraging her for trying and any successes she has. If she decides she doesn't want to use the potty respect that, but keep her in training pants, (don't go back to diapers once you've stopped using them) and leave the potty out for her to see. Take cues from her and hopefully she'll be an easy trainer once she gets going : )
