When Did You Start Potty Training

[AnnaNova]

so im confused about when to start potty training my son. i really really dont want to have a 3 yo in diapers (like some people i know do). My son is turning 1 next week and ive been wondering if it's too early to start potty training him.
i was thinking of maybe at least having him sit on the potty around the times when he is more likely to pee (like after nap), but at the same time i dont want to waste my time and test his patience if he is not ready.
if you have potty trained kids, when did you start potty training them?
how?
any useful books or articles?
i while back i read an article where this one doc was saying kids have to have enough brain development to start effective potty training which according to him doesnt happen before the age of 2. is that really so?
thanks

[lonegirl]

I did EC (Elimination Communication) with Tyr starting at 8m (I have a pic of him and his first pee in a potty ) Unfortunately starting at about 13months he had the occasional rectal prolapse (we went to specialist to find help)....He is 3 now and some days wears a pullup and others big boy underwear. Due to the prolapses he only wants to use his pullup for BMs....this is something we are working on because he doesn't prolapse while standing/squatting....but the incidents have happened while on the toilet/potty (last incident in Oct). That being said he has been dry through the night since he was a year and He regularly uses the toilet to pee (and only occassionaly has an accident-maybe once every few weeks)....he just prefers pullups and it is no big deal to us...I always ask if he would like big boy underwear. Oh yeah he started wearing pullups around 16m as it was much easier than diapers.

[ann_of_loxley]

We never did potty training either - We did EC.
We started part time (not knowing that was what we were doing though! hehe) - when he was a week old. It was pretty obvious when he was going to do a poo and I figured there was no pointing in having to wash another cloth nappy so I would let him do a poo on a piece of toilet paper, wipe and then flush it! Made sense to me. After a few weeks his pees became pretty consistant to and I was able to 'catch' a few of them come evening time.
Once he was 11 months old, I thought why not! - and gave it my all and we started EC full time. By then I had read much more about it and knew what I was doing! I joined some pretty great yahoo groups as well for tips/advice/support. I highly suggest IPTLateSTarters yahoo group!
By the time he was 17 months old - after a huge pause when he took up walking - he came back in full force and was no longer in nappies during the day - shortly after graduating! A few months after he turned 2, he was dry through the night as well and we have never looked back!
Can't wait to start EC from birth with this little one due soon!

EC is an approach. It is not potty training/learning. It can be started at any age as it is an approach. But of course, there are more 'ideal' windows of opportunity - such as starting from birth. It is a great attachment parenting tool and a great way to connect with your child. And those that have actually done EC, do find that it is not as time consuming as they though it might be. You are not stat here all day holding your baby on a potty! I even found it was much quicker to offer my son the toilet than to change his nappy! You just know when your child needs to go - just as much as you know when they are hungry. It could be a shuffle or a snuffle or some other cue. I have had pee on my carpet a few times, but only poo once and that was when he was ill and has a super runny bottom - so EC or not, it would have been messy! lol For me, and many who do EC - it is more about honouring our childs needs just like we honour all the rest of their needs. The need to eliminate and not on ourselves I think is a real need. It is fabby - worth a try!...everyone should do it! hehe

[MamaMelis]

I never really officially "potty trained" either. I had a hand me down kiddy potty in our bathroom that I used as a stepstool for handwashing. At 19 months my son was naked from the bath, sat down on it, and peed. He continued to use the potty whenever he was naked and around it (so morning and night clothes changing time) until about 24 months, I praised him when he used it but never asked him to use it or encouraged him to use it. By 24 months he could go without a diaper all day (excluding naps or bedtime) if he was naked, but if I put him in clothes with no diaper he would pee. I would just change him into a diaper and not make any sort of fuss over it. Honestly, I was not ready to have a totally diaper free kid at that point as I have another child just a year younger than him and I was terrified of the inconvenience of having the two of them out and about and rushing around to public potties

At 29 or 30 months I asked him if he wanted to start wearing underwear, he said yes, had two pee accidents that morning, and didn't have any after that. That was it! It was the easiest transition I could imagine, totally free of any pressure or stress. I really feel like letting him just do his own thing made it so easy on both of us.

My DD, now 22 months is using the potty several times a day and as soon as the weather warms up some I will probably transition her into underwear if she wants to.

We use cloth diapers. I never used pull ups, they seemed confusing and expensive to me.

Good luck, Mama!

[BetsyS]

We're on the slow side.

For background, my first son NEVER asked for a clean diaper, never mentioned a wet/dirty diaper, never seemed to really care (still doesn't). He was also a bit slow verbally. He didn't really talk until 2.5 or 3, and he didn't talk a lot until after 3 (but, boy, when it started! )

Around 2.5, it was summer time, and I'd let him go naked sometimes outside. During those times, or in the tub, I'd point out to him when he was peeing (cause he was CLUELESS....he'd look down like "where did this come from??"). He started getting the idea.

Around 3, I started letting him go pant-less in the house, and I'd just remind him to try every 30 minutes or so. We rewarded pee with a single marshmallow, and poop in the potty got fruit treats. He loves candy, so this was high reward! He got poop very quickly. He would also pee when I asked, but he never really requested to go (he would request to go for #2). We went on like this for a while, wearing diapers out of the house, naked at home. Surprisingly, we had a few accidents, but not many.

Around 3 years and 3 months, I told him that we were going to put the diapers away during the day and just wear them at night/nap. He was fine with that (by this time, he was more verbal). He started wearing clothes at home at this point, too. The first week, we had some accidents, but after that, it all clicked, and it seemed to work for him. It's been 2 months since then, and he still is wearing diapers at night, but only then. We haven't had an accident in probably 4-6 weeks.

Oh, we cloth diaper, but like I said, this kid just doesn't mind wet/dirty, so that didn't seem to make a difference.

[mrspineau]

My son is 22 months old and I am starting next week. I think he is ready and will be trained by the time his birthday comes or shortly after.

[sosurreal09]

i did EC starting at 3 months part time. she got the hang of it within a few days! she even tells me when she has to do #2lol she will grunt and if i miss it she lets out a warning poo...just a little skid mark its hilarious. i think by 6 months she will start telling me when she needs to pee. right now i just take her every half our or so idk you kind of just know when she needs to go. at night i dont do it but during nap time she always wakes up dry!

[~Katie~]

DS was EC'd up until 1, then we moved several times and he completely lost interest. I didn't push the issue and just assumed he would gravitate to it when he was ready. He has now become the kid who could care less if he's sitting in a wet or dirty diaper, he wants nothing to do with the potty and has no interest in using it or being encouraged to use it. In general, he is very resistant to any kind of encouragement to do anything that isn't his own idea. I think once his dad is home and he sees how it all works he'll be more interested in it, but I don't see him potty learning until closer to his third birthday.

[Alyantavid]

We did actual potty training right after my boys turned 2. It took them a day each to get it down pat and that was it.

We did break out the potty and start talking about it around 1 though.

[Jenifer76]

Its less about when I started and when I will be finished for me. Perhaps never. LOL.

[JBaxter]

I did potty train...

15-18 months we did potty orientation meaning sitting on potty when the diaper is off / bath time etc. Around 2 ( or when they realized when they were peeing/pooping) we did a week naked of potty boot camp. All mine were out of day time diapers between 25 & 30 months depending on the child.

Night took a little longer.

[NYCVeg]

Well, I have a three-year-old in diapers. : I certainly didn't "want" or expect to, but she has only recently started showing interest, despite being in school since age 2 and seeing other kids use the potty. I guess I saw no reason to force the issue (probably colored by the fact that I am friends with some parents who did try to push potty training on a child who clearly wasn't ready, with pretty unpleasant results for all).

Kids develop differently. Dd is extremely advanced in some ways, but this is one of the ways that she is not. I'm happy to let her go at her own pace. I feel confident that she won't go to college in diapers.

[inkslinger]

I started introducing the potty around 18 months, but didn't push it. We did sticker charts around 2 1/2 and that always worked well. I tried not to put a lot of pressure on them, never really pushed the potty issue, and both of my girls were going fully on the potty just before 3 years.

[lizziebits]

My son just turned 3 a couple of weeks ago.

Over the summer (when he was about 2.5), we tried potty training for a few days, and it just got him really upset. So we stopped. A few months later, I started having him go sometimes in the morning, before naps, and at bedtime. He did great with that.

This past weekend, we went totally diaper free and he did great. We're still working on pooping on the potty, but for the most part I would call him potty trained during the day. We go out and about with underwear on, and he wears Pull ups only at night or naptime.

I know some people are really all about being potty trained by a certain age, but I saw no point in rushing it. It's actually probably more work now because I need to be carrying around an extra change of clothes and be more aware of where public restrooms are just in case.

My son was another one though who just didn't care about being in a poopy/wet diaper, from the time he was born until now. I'd usually have to chase him around for a diaper change even after he pooped. Honestly I'm not sure he would have ever decided it was bothering him!

[MJB]

We put a potty out around 12-18 mos. Both of my boys figured it out around 20 mos. My oldest wore training pants for about 6 mos. (but only had 1 poop accident after 21 mos.) then went to undies at 26 mos. and my youngest was in undies full-time at 21 mos.

[AutumnAir]

Well, I 'introduced' the potty about 12 months. As in it was sitting around the flat and I showed her that she could sit on it. I used to give her an hour or so of naked time in the evenings to air her bum out, so if she started to pee during that time I would pick her up and pop her on the potty and encourage her to finish it there, saying "Pee goes in the potty."

I was expecting it to take ages, but she caught on really quickly and by about 14 months she would wander over to the potty and sit on it herself to pee, at least half the time. After another month or two she had gotten comfortable with pooping on the potty too. She needed to be naked though or she just didn't seem to notice the signals. We were making a fair bit of progress, but then we went through an international move and it all fell by the wayside for a few months.

But then once we got settled into our new house we re-started in earnest; it was summer and so I just let her run around naked all day at home. Slight pain as we were in a rented house with carpets everywhere, but she actually had quite few accidents and within a couple of weeks was effectively potty trained during the day. She was just about 18 months at that stage.

It took another little while for her to get used to wearing underwear and clothes and still letting me know in time, but she's very good about that now. She will occasionally still have an accident, but usually only if she's engrossed in something and too busy to stop, so I just make it my business to gently remind her if I think she might need to go.

She's still not dry all night (never has been) so I'm not going to push that - it's a physical readiness thing. She was physically, mentally and emotionally ready to be day-time PLed, but isn't ready for night-time yet, and that's fine by me. (She's just 2 now.)

[AnnaNova]

thanks for all the replies it is good to know that ec can be successful at a later age, i read some about it before he was born, but for various reasons (and laziness is probably a part of the lit of those reasons), we never really tried it when he was born.
it is also good to know that some kids ARE ready to "cooperate" at an earlier age. i just didnt want to push something on him if there is no way he could get it.
i think we will give it a try and see if he "gets" any of it and if he'll cooperate at all.
around the time when he was 6 mo my mom stayed with us for a while and she tried something kinda like ec, and she would hold he over the sink every so often and try make him go, and he would just laugh at the sounds she made and at the sigh of himself in the mirror. it was actually quite entertaining... so needless to say that didnt really work, but i think we should try again

[mbhf]

I never, ever thought I would have a 3 year old in diapers, especially after my first two were out of diapers full time at 22 and 17 months. But now I have a 3 year old in diapers and a 15 month old in diapers part time. I'm fairly sure the baby will be out of diapers before my 3yo. : Sometimes it is very frustrating to me to have a 3yo in diapers, and for a while I actually felt angry about it because I know he knows he has to go and whatever. So I stopped trying, and our relationship has improved greatly. This is just to say, please don't put arbitrary time limits on anything, it will only lead to frustration. That said..

With my other kids, I noticed at some point (around the 1 year mark) that they were dry at night, and only peed upon waking in the morning. I took this as my cue to introduce the potty. Whenever a diaper was peed in, it promptly went into the little potty. Before long, they started just going over to the potty right after they peed and would try to remove their own diaper. Then they would go before they went, and eventually I just put them in undies. It was a long process, but very easy for both me and them. My 15 month old is currently telling me when she has gone pee and taking herself to the potty to sit on it. Before long I am sure she will be going independently. Now, my 3yo still pees in the middle of the night, so this may be the issue with him. I have no idea, but I'm not pushing it (anymore).

[Mittsy]

I start potty training at 3, if the child doesn't seem really interested beforehand, which neither of mine were. I put them on the potty several times a day, let them run around without any pants on, let them watch a favorite potty video may'be once a day, lots of potty books, and 1 m&m for pee, 2 for poop. Catharina was pretty stubborn about the whole process, so she didn't get fully trained til just after her 4th birthday. Still working on Pete.

[Tjej]

There is the EC forum on here, and a local diaper free baby yahoo group could be helpful as well.

Tjej