Potty Training When to Start

Try and see what happens. If she starts to do ok then keep going forward if she decides later she is not interested just go back to diapers. I have a 19 month old that loves his diapers except when he has to go potty. He will take it off and go anywhere else, but refuses to go in his diapers. My oldest was starting to show signs that he was ready by 19months as well, but so many people including our DR. told us it would do more harm then good to train him at this age. So we held off and he got so confused it took twice as long to potty train him! Start by getting a little potty so when you go she can go to. If she goes give her a special treat that she only gets when she goes on the potty (I used M&M’s). If this goes ok then go to the store and buy some really cool big girl underwear! We bought the cheap white kind and then make a big deal of tie dyeing them! I have been told by several potty training experts that once they go into underwear they never put on another diaper on unless it is at night. I also was told that when they have a accident let them sit in it for a minuet or two. I was told that this is to allow them to feel how uncomfortable it is to go in your pants and makes then want to go in the potty more. My son had trouble going poop in the potty. I was told that little kids think that the poop is part of there body and now it’s getting flushed away and this scares them. So we made a really big deal of giving our poops a great send off. We waves and cheered for it and the whole bit. This seemed to work just fine. That is probable more information that you needed or wanted, but that is what I have done. Good luck!

Your daughter will let you know when she is ready, but in the mean time,I took my son to the potty with me every time I went, so he could get the idea that is what you were supposed to do.

I say try and see what happens. We started early and took the "long" route -- but it was VERY painless.

We started using pull-ups (I know many people say they make things harder -- but not for us) and let our son use the potty when he was interested. We also started setting a timer for every 30 mins and when the timer beeped we'd encourage him to go -- but didn't force the issue. We also gave a "potty treat" (2-3 M&M's or jelly beans) after going.

When we started around 20 mo, our son was very interested. Then for a month or so not so much. Around the time he was 2 1/2 I bought some Thomas the Train undies and told him he couldn't wear them if he peed in them -- we made the switch with NO issues. About a month later we had a "set-back" (several accidents in one day) so we put him in a pull-up again and told him if he could go all day with no accidents he could wear undies the next day -- again no more problems.

Our son will be 3 in Oct. and we still use pull-ups at nap and bed times. Most naps he stays dry but overnight he still ALWAYS wakes up wet. We are not doing anything active to make the finally transition -- I figure it will happen naturally on HIS time.

Good luck!

It's not too early. Start now. Summer is a good time - easier to let her go with a sun dress and no panties when you get to that stage. Just get a potty chair and make a big deal out of it. Set her on it whenever she is at all interested, before and after eating, when she wakes up from a nap, and especially when you are in the bathroom. Make a big deal when something happens. It's really not a difficult process, some catch on fast and some it takes months, so be patient and encouraging.

Ditto Shelly! Its not too early to start at all! hte US is the only country that thinks its ok to leave kids in diapers until they are 3/4yrs old! We used Elimination Communication and our boys were both out of diapers by 20mos (our oldest) and 15mos (our youngest).

www.diaperfreebaby.org is a good site for EC. And it doesn't matter if you start now or at age 3, there will be accidents and setbacks. You jsut need to be confident in your choice, stick with it, and keep going no matter what. Skip pull ups, they are jsut an expensive diaper. Go with undies (Gerber makes great trainers wit ha thick crotch) and go for it! She will do great, just pay attention to her, be patient and consistent.

D.,

It's a great time to start. It's summer and the weather's good and she is a perfect age. I would recommend "Toilet Training in Less than a Day." You can find it at Amazon.com or on eBay. I used it on all four of my kids and had good success. I will say it works like a recipe, not a list of suggestions, so if you are going to choose to use it and expect results, follow the instructions exactly.

It's kind of the popular trend now to wait until the children potty train themselves and not teach them to do it. The downside to that is that they have bladder control early that they lose if they don't use and strengthen the muscles. And why not stay in diapers if you can? So parents get frustrated and start trying to train at an older age, but by then it turns into a big power struggle. Like most things with children, it's just easier to take care of it early on.

Regardless of what you decide, there are things you can do now to prep her no matter when you decide to train her. Teach her concepts like wet and dry, up and down, on and off, dirty and clean. Teach her to dress and undress herself - especially pants. Have her be responsible for some of her cleanliness - dirty dishes in the sink, dirty laundry in the hamper, dirty diapers in the garbage, etc.

One of the best things I did with child #4 (and I wish I had thought of with the others) is when she was about 17-18 months old, I would set her on the potty after dinner while I ran the bath water. She would pee in there about half the time and it got her used to the idea at a time when she predictably went pee. After a while, she would go up there unprompted as a part of her nightly routine and hold the pee until she got to the toilet. That preliminary experience made potty training at age 23 months so quick and easy. She is now 26 months and is fully trained both day and night and hasn't had any accidents in almost two months, and her last accident was due to a horrible stomach bug when we were on a 12 hour road trip and was still very small.

As far as readiness goes, if she can walk, hold pee for a couple hours at a time and follow simple directions, she can be potty trained.

Good luck,
S.

go for it...try a no pressure approach and dont get frustrated if she has any setbacks. my daughter was pretty much trained by 2 years old and trained very quick and easy. we used pullups for a while too, but she was dry and using the toliet, so we went with undies. she still needed a diaper to poop in, but that soon went a way too. she woke up dry so we went with underware at night too. she rarely had any accidents since she was 2.

Our daughter started showing interest at about 16 months. We bought a potty chair and had it sitting in the bathroom. She would sit on it but was more interested in just getting to be naked. Things finally started to click with her at about 20 months when she watched her older cousin go potty on the "big" potty. She wanted to start using the big potty too, so we started using a potty ring and she would rather use that then the potty chair. We haven't pushed her too much (due to some travel). She was doing really well for awhile to tell us when she needed to go potty but recently she has been telling us right after she goes in her diaper. We watch for signs that she needs to go and ask her frequently if she wants to go potty. We also have her try and sit when she wakes up, before we leave the house, when we get home from somewhere, after every diaper change (even if her diaper was wet). It definately isn't too early to start!

We started our son at 20 months now hes 21 months and hes doing great. :) good luck