Early potty training (20 months). Anyone else doing this?

[RomanGoddess]

I'm set to switch my DS from cloth diapers to cloth training pants later this month. Anyone else trying to potty train before age 2?  

[MsFortune]

I tried when DS was 20 mos.  We failed.  He did not get it.  We quit while he still enjoed it.

Ds did not seem to understand concept.

He is now 24 mo.  Trying again soon.

[Fly Girl]

I did. We started when DD1 was 22 months. She was fully trained day and night at 23 months. But I had been doing EC, she already peed and pooped on the potty every day and she was ready. It doesn't always work that way. Good luck!

[cparkly]

DS was completely diaper free at 19-months. It was led by him and we had used EC concepts from the beginning. He is 31-months now and looking back over the last year, I can say that he had no set-backs and very very few "accidents". The two that I can remember were when we were in unfamiliar environments and I think that he was unsure of what to do; on a long hike and at a playdate at a gymnastics center. Those two times taught me the importance of going over the potty options and letting him check them out before he really needed to go. 

[chr157y]

We started "training" my son at 11 months.  We'd put him on the potty every diaper change and morning and night.  The first time we put him on he peed and pooped.    We got more and more frequent with potty trips as he got older and poo trained himself by 1 1/2.   At 24 months we took away diapers, but probably could have done it much sooner.

Good luck!!

[plantnerd]

What did ya'll interpret as signs of readiness before age 2?  I would love to try early myself, but it's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel with a 13 month old who's verbal communication consists of "all done"  "uh oh" "dad" and "grunt".  He has started hiding when he poops- one minute he's running around the living room, next he's under the coffee table, and then when he runs by PU!

[tzs]

i think in the case of really early training....like the pp at 11 months....it might go smoother than at 20 months. i think i read somewhere that kids get control of their bowels/urine somewhere around 12 months. the reason this matters is that it seems like you have to start before then to introduce the idea of "going in the potty" if you want it to go super easily...otherwise it's hard for them to release into the potty.

not sure if i'm right on that but we started letting dd sit on the potty now at 15 months because she's so into imitating and although on of the first times she did pee, since then it's just been "for fun." it's like she knows what goes in there (because she fiddles with her parts and looks down there) but can't let go.) when i briefly did EC with her as an infant, all i'd have to do is turn on the water and she'd release.....not anymore. same with the 20-24 month olds in my preschool class. i've been putting them all on the potty after breakfast including one girl who supposedly goes sometimes at home but no actual pees.

i'm sure it can be done...it's just not going to be as easy as just putting them on at that age. i'm sure you'll get better info from other btdt moms though. 

good luck!

[scottishmommy]

We started training dd at 18 months. I bought her a bjorn potty and had her sit on it every time I went potty. Then we had her watch "once upon a potty" on YouTube. She loved it and watched it 30 times at least. Then we started taking her diaper off the minute she woke up after naps and in the morning. Then we gave up for a month or two, until one day she ran to her potty before a bath and peed. Then we bit the bullet and switched to gerber training pants. She was done training by 22 months and is now night trained as well (knock on wood!)

[lifeguard]

I started by putting ds on the toilet every morning & after naps at around 16 months. Before long he was dry through naps & we dropped the diaper for these (I liked him having some naked time every day so this seemed like a good way in the winter).

At 22 months I decided to take the leap. I took off the diapers & never looked back. I would say it took about a week for him to really get what was going on & then about a month before I felt really confident in saying he was potty trained. He was dry through the night within the first week & started refusing the diaper at night (I had not planned on trying to stop the diaper at night for quite some time).

When I was doing my reading I found something that said around 22months was actually an optimal time.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

Around 18-19 months we started putting DD on the potty at night before bed and she would potty.  It was a game to her and she liked all the cheering we did.  She knew what tooting was at the time and we would tell her to toot on the potty and that would usually lead to something coming out as well. 

At 22 months we took her out of diapers and straight into panties.  I have cleaned up more accidents than I care to count, but she's fully potty trained now when awake. 

For us, the sign of readiness was that I was pregnant and didn't want 2 kids in diapers. 

[YayJennie]

We started sitting my son on the potty at 9 months old, first thing in the morning and after every nap.  He always had to pee then, so it got him used the concept, and he also pooped a few times.  By 17 months he was able to identify when he was peeing and pooping, and we could identify his "poop face" (he would start running back and forth across the house right before he pooped, then stop, stare off and grunt a little sometimes, so it was very easy to read his poop signs).  It was over the summer, so we spent a lot of naked time with potties available, and he started going a lot more on his own.  Then I bought some underwear and, at 19 months, we were having completely dry days (still needed diapers for naps and nights, but we could catch almost everything else in the potty).  However, when he was 20 months old, we welcomed his sister into the world, and that has set the potty training back. He still goes on the potty regularly, but, honestly, I'm too lazy to make sure he gets on the potty for every poop and pee.  I'm nursing a lot or carrying the baby around, so it's not always easy to rush at his first sign and get his pants off and get him on the potty before an accident.

I think the main thing with early potty training is that it's way more work for the parents.  My son still, at 21 months, can't pull his pants up and down by himself, so we have to get him in and out of his clothes every time we think he has to go.  And he's verbal, but doesn't always communicate that he has to go in time, so we have to really be paying attention.  If your kid is ready and you have the time/energy to invest in it, I think it's great!  I am definitely going to pick back up with the potty soon, I just wanted to adjust to having two and not push the potty when there's so much else going on right now.

[ledzepplon]

I just put my 5-month old on the potty for the first time the other day, so I don't think there is such a thing as "too early." I did the same with my two older ds's, and they were both in underwear full time around 16-18 months. I really think if you introduce the potty in a non-pressure sort of way very early on, potty learning is pretty easy. And I like it better than washing diapers!

[colsxjack]

Our DD will be 18months on Monday and we are going to get her a potty this weekend.

I don't really care if she gets potty trained or not. She just seems like she is ready to start the concept. She says potty, she is interested in us going potty and she likes to flush the toilet for us. She has recently over the last month or so been saying poo, pee and fart when she does these things. She also seems to be holding her pee longer because she is dry sometimes even after having a diaper on for 2 hours or more. Even a month or two ago we could change her every 1.5 to 2 hours and she would be soaked. I know it isn't dehydration because she does have many soaked diapers, she just seems to be holding it more and having bigger pees instead of many smaller pees. 

I think she will enjoy having a potty. And we will let her go on it anytime she wants to, and may encourage it after naps or meals or some other routine. It would be nice if she took to it, but I do fully expect her to be in diapers for quite some time still.

[brennan]

We started at 14 months (I would put her on the potty and encourage her to have diaper free time and say "oh you peed" when she peed), but got serious at 18ish months and were done by 19 months.  It took a month for it to click.  I hung out over on the EC board because that's basically what we were doing, just pretty late!  We had a set back when we moved for the 2nd time in 4 months and are still working through it.  She hasn't had a pee accident since 19 months!

[icy02]

It also took my about 1 month to potty train my DS1. I started at 20 months. He now has just turned 2 and is doing great. He is not night-trained and does have an occasional accident, but it is awesome! No more poppy diapers :)

[redvlagrl]

We did the 3 day system at 22 months and it worked perfectly (4 days for pees, 8 for poops) both day and night. I highly recommend it (goodle lori jensen)

[JudiAU]

Diaper Free Before 3 is great. We trained DS at 24 m and just started with DD at 17m. She is figuring it out pretty quickly.

[beebalmmama]

We introduced the potty at 18 months and he was was PL'd by 24months (except at daycare, that was another couple of months mainly because he was so reserved about asking his teacher for help. The bathroom was not accesible in the room). He was dry in the morning by 20 months (overnight potty learning was done by him!). We took it pretty easy and he probably was without accidents within a couple of months. But it was summer with lots of outdoor free naked time and all wood floors in our house at the time which made accidents not a big deal. I can see that our approach with ds1 may not work with ds2 if we are in our current rental house....

[hartfelt]

Subbing

My dd is 14mo and I am starting to put her on the potty after naps and anytime I am using the bathroom. We are working on the sign for toilet, and now anytime she poops she does the sign. I hope to have her out if diapers by her 2nd b'day. If she isn't, that's okay too.

[claras_mom]

Dd2 has just turned 21 months and initiated using the potty starting about 3 weeks ago.

Signs of readiness--she takes off all her clothes. We figured out after about the second time that she sheds her diaper if she needs to go (or if she's just gone; she's still working on the timing) and that she believed, initially, that you have to ditch the shirt as well.

We've got a way to go, but she's peeing in her potty probably once or twice a day and clearly understands all the steps (pee, wipe, flush, wash hands).