What age should you begin to potty-train?

[alisci]

Hi!!!
I am from UB!! At what age should potty-training begin? I don't have the slightest clue, but I came across a UB post that said her daughter was potty trained already and my daughter is the exact same age (16 months).
THANKS!!
Alison

[Tracy]

Char is 16 months and I haven't even thought about starting her..She does show curiousity when she goes in with me and has started trying to get her diaper off, so I am thinking of getting a potty chair and just letting her do what she will without any pressure..I think the suggested age is 2 yrs...I figure when Char is ready she will let me know

BTW..I'm from UB too

[Nocona]

My ped said that she wouldn't even start to work on it until he's 2. It really just depends on your child and their readiness (staying dry at night, able to pull down their pants, awareness of being wet/dirty, etc.).

[Dawnie]

Our pediatrician recommended to really start at 2 years old too and I was told that most kids don't really grasp it until they are about 27 months old.

Victoria started to show some interest in the potty at 18 months so we bought her one and then she didn't want to try. We didn't push the issue because we knew she would let us know when she was ready. She is now 26 months old and showing a real interest in going potty so we've started working with her. It's going slow so far but she's trying.

Dawn

[gulp!]

Emma is 18 months old and is starting to show *some* signs, but not nearly enough to make me start potty training in earnest. We did pick up a potty for her recently, but we pretty much just leave it there for her to play with, and occassionally we'll ask her if she wants to sit on it (usually the answer is no.) She likes to go with me when I have to go to the bathroom, so for now I'm just letting her see what I do.

I wouldn't get too stressed about it yet- there's always going to be that one kid who does things early, but the average is somewhere between 2 and 3. (My best friend's son didn't get fully trained until he was 4!)

[Dennis]

There was a study that came out last year that said if you start before 27 months, it usually just ends up taking longer. But obviously you need to look at your own child and see when they are ready. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2917407.stm

[Jillian]

We bought Janelle a potty chair just because she is obsessed with going to the bathroom with me (and sitting on my lap while I go). So now we sit her on her potty chair while I go to the bathroom, in the past 2 weeks she has started insisting on being naked for this... it makes it difficult since with being pregnant I need to go quite often. She has went a few times, and been proud of herself for it...but it's not something we are pushing.

Other things she does is purposefully take off her diaper and go pee on the floor right beside the toilet....we have to keep a onsie on her at all times so she can't get her diaper off by herself anymore....

So she definitely knows when she needs to pee and how to do it...but I don't think she is quite ready for potty training yet. I figure she will be ready by 18 months, but at that point I doubt I'll be ready to tackle potty training and a newborn at the same time.

My mom has a daycare and she usually starts potty training at 15 months, girls usually have it down by 18 months but boys usually take quite a bit longer... I know she has never had a girl not trained by 2 years though. I was completely trained at 11 months, overnight and everything, my mom says I did it all myself and just refused to use a diaper after the one time they let me use a potty chair while she was using the bathroom. My little brother (just 25 months younger) wasn't trained till 2 months before his 5th birthday.

[Barb]

Originally Posted by Dennis

There was a study that came out last year that said if you start before 27 months, it usually just ends up taking longer. But obviously you need to look at your own child and see when they are ready. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2917407.stm

This is exactly what I had heard, and what I planned to say before Dennis beat me to it.

[Lyndee]

We weren't going to start until Lauryn was over 2 years old but at 21 months, she's showing a lot of interest. She'll ask to poop in the potty. We got her her own potty this weekend and she has been sitting on it from time to time but we're not pushing anything. I still feel like it's too early so we're just going to take our time with it.

[cherbear]

I think there is a 'window of opportunity' earlier than 2 years. I think Madeleine would have been well on her way at 17-18 months but I was busy with a newborn and didn't have time to encourage her, take her pants and diaper off when she wanted them off, sit with her, clean up accidents and all that. But she was interested, she went a few times, she enjoyed her successes etc. I think when they are still young they are into learning, fascinated by the whole thing and more eager to please. I think you can tap into that and have success early on though maybe their bodies won't be ready for overnight or whatever till they are older.

Then later on, after age 2 she knew her own mind and though she UNDERSTOOD the mechanics a bit more, she didn't WANT to because for a 2 year old, its one of the things they are in control of and they don't give it up so easily. She knew we wanted her to go on the potty, and though she COULD, she WOULDN'T. We started training her over the summer (less clothes, more time outside) and now, at 2 1/2 she is fully trained.

Her little sister might be trained a bit earlier - who knows?? She sits on the potty whenever Madeleine goes, she knows about BM's and peeing, etc. I suppose I could start taking her diaper off and see what happens. Cecily is about 17 months old right now.

I agree with others that it might take longer in most cases if you start earlier. Of course all our moms started training us when we were 11 months old or sooner and a 2 1/2 year old untrained was unheard of back then. I don't know what we are doing so much differently, other than having disposable diapers making it more convenient for the MOMS to keep kids in diapers longer. I know several people who have their kids fully trained before 2 years, but I know many others who started at 15-18 months and are still working on the finer points long past the 2 years mark.

It really is a PROCESS - before I started training my daughter I didn't realize how much of a process it is. I thought you get them to sit on the potty - then some wonderful day they will actually go IN the potty, so praise them and make it fun and they will continue to do it. Yeah, right. And I thought it was all about the child being ready and now I know its just as much about the PARENT being ready.

~Cheri

[chefkath]

I read so much about the study Dennis mentioned that I figured I wouldn't even consider PTing until Brigit was 27 months. We bought her a little potty when she was about 18 months and let her use it as a stool and a chair so she could "bond" with it a bit. ( )

At 27 months, I started talking about it but not pushing it in any way - I just planned to take my cue from her as to when she was ready. She is 28 months now and is just starting to get really interested in the idea. She asks to sit on her potty a few times a day. She rarely actually goes in it, but I figure sitting on it is a great start!

[Karri]

Around 17 months, we bought Aidan a potty chair because he was consistently telling us that he had to poop right before he would poop. I knew that I wasnt going to potty train him yet, but I thought that it would help get him comfortable with the potty.
He loves his potty...he walks it around the house and tells people its his potty. He loves to sit on it. But sit on it with a bare butt? NO WAY!!! It creeps him out
Anyway, at 22 months, even if he was ready, I am not...I dont have the time to commit to it with two newborns. So I am thinking that around 27 months (also read those studies back when they came out), I will start. It will be summer and maybe we can try naked time.

[AahRee]

Sometimes I think Katie is totally ready, and other times, I want to wait a bit longer. She's almost 21 months, and she'll usually let me know when she's wet or poopy. Occasionally, she'll ask to go to the potty, but if I ask her if she wants to go, the answer is almost always no. She'll sit on her potty while I'm going, but she isn't interested in pulling down her diaper and actually using it. We're just taking it one day at a time. I am starting to move towards using training pants and pull-ups, though, because it's easier to be able to just pull them off in the event she wants to use the potty, than to have to undo a diaper.

[bunybomb]

Alex has a potty chair and we use it as a bench so he can reach the sink to brush his teeth and comb his hair. He does like to sit on it before bath time but doesn't use it for a "potty" reason. He also likes to stand in it and pull the pan out to play with it. My ped said not to bother starting training until at least 2 years old.

[Eleanor]

I could have written Kathleen's post

I'm currently reading "Mommy, I Have to Go Potty!" and they have a chapter on why it was that we were potty trained so much earlier, than kids are today...it's interesting. But according to that author, it was a big status symbol for parents to potty train their child earlier- meant you were a good parent, and had a smart child (where today, it's more something to brag about if your child "gets" potty training "on their own" with not a lot of parental prodding). And mom was more likely to be at home, where she could spend the whole day watching for signs and plopping the kid on the potty if it looked like they needed to use it. Worked for them I guess...doesn't fit quite as well with today's society though.

[Lora]

Christopher is almost 2 1/2 and has only shown interest within the past few months. He will sit and pee on the potty about 3-4 times a day. So far he has not pooped yet. I am not pushing him right now. My plan is to let him continue telling me when he has to go and then really start to work with him once the weather is warmer. I figure it will be easier for him when he wearing less clothes. My goal is to have him fully trained by the time he turns 3 in August.

Lora

[Shanna]

Jacob is 18 months old and has a potty chair, but so far all he does with it is take the bowl out and carry it around the house with his binky in it. We're trying to keep him from doing that and are definitely going to have to break him of it before he starts "using" his potty. He is definitely showing signs of interest, and he goes in there and sits on it quite a bit, but we're not actively "training" him. Our ped said he wasn't ready, and to let him lead the way. So we are