Anyone start potty training early?? Was it a success?

[Mama4life14]

My son is almost 17 months old, and I've been thinking of introducing him to the potty casually so that he starts to get use to the idea. How early is too early to start full on potty training?? I think he's really smart and could do it if he wanted to. But I'd like to hear of some stories of trying to train in the earlier months instead of waiting til they're older. Thanks!

[crunchy_mommy]

We tried EC and it was a horrible match for DS. Then we tried early potty training, and again, not good for him. So now we just do whatever he wants. Often he asks to pee in the potty but he also often goes in his diaper. I'm sure he COULD potty train if I really pushed him, he totally understands where he's 'supposed' to go, he can hold it, he can tell when he needs to go, etc., but he seemed to have really bad emotional reactions to even our gentle attempts so no way am I going to push it!!

You could just give it a try & see how he takes to it. With my DS, it was pretty obvious when we needed to let the idea go for awhile... You'd probably be able to tell in a few days whether he's physically ready, if he's emotionally ready, and if YOU'RE ready!

[Jaimee]

IMO, it's never too early to introduce the potty.  What I mean by this is letting him explore the potty, putting him on it when you change diapers, etc.  As for early potty training, I've had several friends who successfully trained their 17, 18, and 19 month olds.  We trained dd at 20 months.  So it definitely can be done, you may have more accidents and you will have to get creative with how you get him to sit on the potty, but you avoid the power struggle so common with older kids.  Plus, I much prefer to deal with the occasional accident than with diapers.  Oh and FYI, dd wasn't dry at night until she was closer to 2.5.

[Youngfrankenstein]

[Marissamom]

I introduced the potty when DD was 11.5 months in a casual/relaxed sort of way. I started out just having her sit on it when I went. she's 23 months old now and still uses diapers a lot of the time. but she does ask to go potty a few times a day and does actually go on the potty at those times. I like that we've been able to go at her pace, and haven't had too many potty power struggles (and those centered around the time she kept telling me she wanted to go potty when what she wanted was to play in the bathroom). I probably could have her fully potty trained at this point if I had really pushed it, but my goal is to have potty training without there being any emotional scars. 

[scottishmommy]

We started the planting the potty idea in DDs head around 18 months. We were very casual about it. I encouraged her to sit on the potty every time I went to the bathroom. At around 20 months we showed her the "once upon a potty video" on YouTube. She watched that video multiple times a day. She loved it! Pretty soon she was sitting on the potty without a diaper(but still not using it). One night (I think she was 21 months or so) before she took her bath she walked over to the potty and peed in it. After that we really started training. We only put diapers on her when we went out and at night. The rest of the time she either went pee pee in the potty or on the floor. It took a few moths, but by the time she was two she was totally potty trained (no diapers ever, including nighttime).

[treeoflife3]

My kiddo got a froggy potty chair for her first birthday.  She'd sit on it while I was going since she was always in there with me anyway.  As she got older, I just talked more and more about what I was doing and explaining how she does it in a diaper right now but eventually she'd be doing it in her potty too.  Now at 2 years old, when she is naked, she'll go pee in her little chair without even telling me.  She knows how to dump it into the big toilet and then tell me she went (so I can clean the little chair haha)  She still isn't so sure about poop although she HAS done it and we've tried underwear on a few times which she loves.  She actually doesn't like wearing her diapers anymore but I haven't gotten the cloth nighttime training pants yet for her.

So, we never really potty trained... I did it similarly I guess to how I'm doing food... first she was nursed all the time (wore a diaper all the time) then she had a chance to start trying solid foods (then had a chance to try sitting on her potty and using that instead) and eventually she'll stop nursing (and eventually she'll use the toilet only)

I don't know that this would work with every kid, it could just be her personality, but I've always just had going to the bathroom as a regular part of her life and she's always been interested in it so it stands to reason that eventually she'd just take over without any pushing from me.

but yeah, we started on her first birthday planting the idea.

ETA:  I should add that if she is wearing a diaper, she'll go in her diaper.  She knows she can so she won't bother telling me.  It also doesn't bother her in the least to sit in a wet and dirty diaper (and I even have to work HARD to convince her to change it in the morning even after pooping in the already full of pee diaper)  She will use the toilet the vast majority of the time that she is in undies or naked, but she won't in a diaper.

[lifeguard]

We introduced the potty seat when ds was about 17 months. I would put him on in the morning & after naps at first - he always happily sat there even if he didn't often pee. Shortly after he started being dry through naps so I'd let him sleep naked & then do the potty & he almost always would pee. At 22 months we really made a go at it & switched to underwear full-time (even at night which surprised me).

I don't think you can be too young as long as you are not pushing it but approaching it as a fun new experience.

[TSomm]

We're part-time EC'ing our daughter and have been doing so since maybe 3 months?  We used to offer the toilet during changes and she'd pee (hooray!) but since she turned 12 months she's too busy to use the potty.  She knows what it is, what it is for, but has too much exploring to do.  She will use it for poo, however.  If I notice she starts grunting I'll say "Poo poo?"  And she'll walk into the bathroom so I can help her with her clothes.  Still keeping my fingers crossed that she'll be interested in pee soon again.

Once the weather is warmer, I'll do some diaper free time outside and really try to match the potty / pee connection.

[akind1]

DS is also 17 months; I just got him the froggy potty for Easter . . . He has sat on it a couple times, but nothing else yet. I am trying to keep it a general introduction. In a few weeks, I plan on moving to cloth training pants when we are home, and at the end of June, when I have a week off of work, going a little more gung-ho on potty training.  He is starting to pull at his diaper when he is wet, and you can definitely tell when he needs a poo, so I hope it will be a smooth transition. Baby #2 is due when he is about 22 months old. I would love it if he were at least day-time trained by then (I am prepared for a bit of backsliding after baby is born, but hope it won't be for very long).

It is so good to hear some success stories! and a dose of reality too.

[revolting]

We are EC-ers. My first child was potty trained by 17 months in the day, 18 months at night.

I have a 14 month old son. He still has an accident or two every day, but he will take himself to the potty if he's naked at least some of the time, and with reminders, I will take him. However, his language development is not at a point where he can verbalize when he has to go. Most of the accidents are at night. I rarely use diapers in the day (only if we are somewhere where there access to a potty is difficult like a crowded museum or something), but I still generally diaper him at night, though I still take him to the potty. Still, it's a lot easier to clean up pee a couple of times a day than changing and washing all those diapers!

[sapphire_chan]

Introducing the potty at this age is a really good idea. Expecting to have a potty trained child at this age is a really horrible idea.

You will be absolutely fine if you go into it observing your child and meeting where he is at each moment.

Ideally, potty training would just happen, but there are plenty of good possible outcomes from less dirty diapers to just having a toddler who knows what the potty is and isn't scared of it.

[Mama4life14]

Thank you all for your advice. I've started to just sit him on the potty after diaper changes, and after his naps if he still has a dry diaper. Yesterday he napped for 3 hours, and woke up with a dry diaper, so I knew he had to go! So I sat him on the potty and turned the faucet on (to make him wanna pee), and he peed!! I was so excited.. He didn't really know what was going on, but he clapped because I was so excited.. That night it was the same after a couple hours I checked his diaper and it was still dry, so I sat him on it again, and he wasn't too sure about it. He was wanting to get off, so I put him down not wanting to scare him away from the potty.Then he peed on my carpet, lol.  So I'm going to just do this really slowly and not have any expectations. Whatever happens, happens!

It's helped to hear other's success stories though! It is possible, if it's meant to be!

[MadiMamacita]

DS didn't poop in his diaper hardly at all between 6-18 months (because he seemed to hate to poop in his diaper, and he preferred the potty) but then at 18 months he started resisting the potty, and we don't push it. He is 27 months now and he is still mostly in diapers, but he will sometimes go on the potty, but only pee.

When he poops in his diaper I always ask if he has pooped and he says "No, I no poop!" and then when I ask where poop goes he says "poop in the potty, not inna diaper!" but I think he's just saying that to appease me..

Anecdotally, it seems that girls potty learn younger than boys.

[schlafmanko]

We did part time elimination communication from 4-9 months, then we got busy buying a house and didn't come back to the potty until my daughter was 15 1/2 months old.  At that point neither she nor I was enjoying her diaper changes much, so we decided to go bare-butt at home and diaper when we were out or while I was cooking.  I took her to the potty regularly so that we could pee together, but potty training at that point was less about eliminating accidents than figuring out the smoothest way for both of us to deal with her elimination needs.

That lasted about two weeks, until I decided that the diapers were stressing us out.  DD didn't like having to stop what she was doing to take them off when we got home, but then whenever she got unhappy, I'd wonder whether she was uncomfortable and needed to go to the bathroom--because sometimes that was it--or whether she'd already gone and something else was the problem, or what.  So we switched out of diapers entirely at 16 months and never looked back.

I don't want to emphasize accidents, but I think sometimes the 3-day training plans give people a distorted sense of what to expect.  Our overall trajectory looked like this: 2 weeks naked during the day when at home, 2 months with no diapers but going to the bathroom on a regular schedule (1-2 accidents per day at the start, 1 every other day after a month, 1-2 per week by the end of two months).  Hopefully regular schedule doesn't sound like too much pressure--basically I took her whenever I went, and she mostly didn't mind peeing with mommy. It was a way to connect.  Now at 18 months she goes to the potty herself when she needs to, mostly unprompted, and there are pretty much no accidents.  She's also only wet the bed once, which I as her bed-mate am pretty stoked about.

I can hardly imagine what it would've been like to change diapers for a whole 'nother year.  It feels so good to be done with them.

[Turquesa]

Originally Posted by MadiMamacita 

Anecdotally, it seems that girls potty learn younger than boys.

UGH!!  Don't say this!  DD was 3.5 and the power struggles were hell on earth. 

DS is 20 months, so maybe if I get going now....

[ellemenope]

I think we introduced the potty at 14 months.  We did nothing but put it out and let her be naked.  She was obviously holding her pee a lot, because she never went on the floor during the hour or two she was diaper-less.  I can't remember when she first peed in the potty.  She was not fully potty trained until right at 21 months, save poops which were once a day at the same time in a requested diaper.  We even kept her in diapers a lot, but she took them off to use the potty, and refused to ever go in a diaper again.  We realized she was night-trained around 23 months.  And, she was poop-trained at 24 months.  It was a great experience, and I wish everything could go like that.  In her entire life (she is 2.5 now) she has had maybe 15 accidents, and most of them were well after she lost the diapers during an illness at night.  I think she had 5 during the actual transition.  Once, I scolded her, and she told me she was going to urinate, and then she did.  Thankfully, she only did that once.

[waiting2bemommy]

We're doing it now, dd just turned a year. She doesn't like her pull ups and I've been keeping her naked butt at home a lot. Although my goal is definitely to have her potty trained sooner rather than later, at this age I think of it more in EC terms than anything. So, I expect lots and lots of accidents. It wasthe same with ds, lots of addicents/misses, pee on the ground, peed on clothes, while he got used to being diaperless.

In all fairness to dd, I'm sick myself a lot because of being pregnant, so I'm not always on top of it. When I'm havin a good day and get her to the potty every 45 minutes or so, we have far fewer misses---maybe 1 or 2. Today I caught her pooping right as she started and rushed her to the potty with poop hanging out of her butt, lol. So I don't know if that counts as pooping in the potty or not!

It's definitely a process. I started ds sitting on the potty at 9 months, and he wasn't in underwear until 15 months. But it was so, so worth it to be done with diapers. Even with the accidents.