A desperate mother has revealed her struggle to get her four-year-old daughter out of nappies, revealing she has spent two years trying to potty train her.
Hannah Brown appeared on This Morning on Tuesday, admitting she has tried ‘everything’ to get daughter Grace to use the toilet before she starts school in September.
The mother-of-two said she'd tried following advice ranging from introducing pull-up nappies, to leaving Grace to run around without anything on at all - all to no avail.
'I had some advice from health visitors, but you see different people every time you go,' she said.
'The first time it was mentioned was at Grace's two-year check-up and she [the nurse] said you need to start thinking about potty training.
'The first thing she said was to put her in a pull-up [nappy] and sit her on a potty every fifteen minutes.
'I didn't entirely follow that, we had a book first that we read together and talked about but it didn’t entirely work because a pull-up is essentially a nappy.'
Hannah then explained that on another visit to her doctor’s, she was advised to let Grace run around without a nappy 'let herself get wet'.
'We did, but it upset her and she was holding everything. I would say "you have to sit on the potty", but she just got upset.'
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Hannah added: 'I don’t know if I should have done something different or started [at] a different point. She is starting school in September and she is going to be "that" child…'
Toilet training expert Amanda Jenner, who appeared on the ITV magazine show with Hannah, explained that every child is different and rubbished recent claims made by conservative councillor, Collette Finnegan, that some parents ‘can’t be bothered’ to potty train their kids.
Amanda said: ‘Toilet training is so hard. All you parents that are struggling talk about it, it's really important that people like Hannah speak out about these things.'
‘(Hannah) has worked so hard, it is not lazy parenting. We’ve already started seeing some improvements and hope to see more.'
The discussion caused quite the debate on Twitter, with some parents understanding Hannah’s struggle, while others branded her ‘lazy’.
One said: ‘Toilet training is the worst thing ever mine were nearly 3 & late compared to my friends kids, they did it when they were ready, I do feel sorry for this poor mum who is going through hell good luck’.
But another disagreed, tweeting: ‘Sorry, it is just pure laziness, I have a son who is autistic and he was out of nappies altogether by two and a half!!!! Get a grip, you set the ground rules for your children, they don’t rule you.’
