Potty training - Is your child ready?

The easiest-pee-siest way to swap nappies for pants? Get your timing right. Despite pressure from others to start potty training, if he's not physically developed enough, he won't get it. Here's how to work out when to introduce the potty.

Are you feeling the pressure to potty train?

If you're not, it won't be long: once your child's past 18 months, the people around you will develop an unhealthy obsession with his toilet habits. Your mother, older relatives, your (more competitive) toddler group friends - they'll all want to know why he's still in nappies.

Before you know it, you've bought a potty, got the trainer pants, ordered fifteen books on the subject and worked yourself up into a right panic.

Stop right there! The fact is there's no point potty training until he's physically and mentally ready for it. He may be a child genius, but until he's got a certain degree of control over his bladder and bowels and can recognise the feeling of needing to go, he's not going to last even half an hour in the world of dry pants.

Is he ready?

His body will be ready sometime between 18 months and three years - the average is about two-and-a-half - but it all depends on gender (girls are generally ready earlier than boys) and genes (if you or your partner were late into pants, your children almost certainly will be, too).

One of the clearest signs of physical readiness is still having a dry nappy an hour after you last changed him (see Your potty training checklist below) and being aware of doing either a poo or a wee as he does it.

But it's not just about a ready body; he needs to be familiar with a potty, know how to sit on it and know what it's for. And he needs to be really rather excited by the whole idea of ditching nappies and doing something new.

Most important of all, he needs to be in a tantrum-free zone: you really don't want him having wobblies over weeing as well as everything else.

The secret of successful potty-training, then, is waiting until the time is right. Start too soon and you'll be in for weeks (and weeks) of damp desperation; start when he's ready and you can get the whole nappy-to-pants swap sorted in a few short days.

And are you ready?

Your child may be raring to go nappy-free but it's no good if you're not up for the challenge, too. A potty-training child needs constant attention and encouragement for the first few days at least - a quiet, visitor-free weekend is ideal. Never start potty training, though, if...

• You're going on holiday or staying away from home.
• You're in the process of moving house or settling in.
• Your childcare arrangements are about to or have recently changed.
• Your child's ill or getting over illness.
• You're about to or you've just had another baby.
• You're feeling stressed.