Our nanny’s been giving our boy the option of using a little potty several times a week for a few months now, but we’d both like to start training him more seriously.
He’s 13 months.
Any experience with this?
Any good links to share?
TIA
I think it works well at first, but then they stop doing it. I started letting my son use a potty at 18 months. He liked it and would pee and poop in it almost every time. I always made a big deal and gave him a sticker. After a month or so, he pretty much stopped going at all. Now, at 26 months, he rarely does anything on the potty. I have read that this will happen if you start too early.
Hi, when is best time to start which is not too early?
They say you shouldn’t start until your child starts to show readiness. If you start before that, then it might not work.
I did not notice it to be a problem so far… Of course every baby goes through periods when they do not so good, I think it largely related to teething , or going through milestones, when it takes them a few days to adjust, etc. So just not making a big deal and keep on encouraging them should work…
Skylark, I think your situation is a little different. You never had to potty train!
I read a book about Montessori “how to raise an amazing child” children can start be potty trained between 18 months-3years old. they say: As her nervous system becomes better developed and integrated,your child will learn to control her bladder and bowels.
My personal experience with Catalina(23 months old) she started to use the potty when she was 14 months old…she was doing really good…pee and poop…she will be so happy about it…she was doing really good but now everytime I ask her if she wants to go potty she refuses!!but latetly she is doing better at least once ot twice a day.
I will have to start over I guess. 
My experience is different from the rest of the posts. When my daughter was 3 months old she started to show a pattern of when she peed, so I got a potty and put her on it when I knew she needed to go. I then expanded that to after every nap and after every feed - and she pretty much peed on the potty every time. I never put any pressure on her, I just made it available - and had lost of books next to the potty which we would read while she sat on it. Then I started to be able to see when she needed to poop and I also put her on the potty for that. She is 15 months now and has been talking pretty well for 3-4 months. She now says “potty” or “poop” when she needs to go. I have not yet taken her out of diapers, but plan to do that in the next few weeks. I just haven’t figured out what to do when we are out (she is really scared of public toilets with automatic flush and won’t sit on them). I grew up in a culture where almost all children were potty trained by around 1 year, so this was the norm there. I think once a child can walk and communicate that he/she can be potty trained and that waiting too long (like until they are 3) lets them get too used to going in a diaper that moving to a potty is a bigger transition than it needs to be.
I started potty training with my son when he was 13 months old…Happy to say that from last one month he started to telling that he wants to do potty…About pee he tells sometimes…but hoping in coming days he´ll be telling.
I am an advocate of everything early. My first was potty trained at 18 months and so was my second. My third was going consistently on the potty at 12 months but I got too busy and she wasn’t trained until 2 years old. My son trained in 4 days at 2 years old. Of course it depends on your kid.
Krista G what was your training approach?
Did you just set them on the potty several times a day, or…?
I would always put them on the potty as soon as they woke up and after a nap because that was pretty much guaranteeing their success. I used a timer and set it every 40 minutes and then brought them to the potty. If they were wet at that time, I adjust the time to 30 minutes. I let them experience results this way and they quickly got it on their own. I have also used stickers, M&M’s and lollipops as rewards for going on the potty. I do not enjoy potty training, but it never dragged on for very long. My almost 3 year old is trained for a year now but she insists that I still have to take her. I guess it is better than diapers. 
my son is 29 months but will not go on the potty. he will sit on the potty but he won’t do anything even if he really needs to go. he holds it in. as soon I take him off the potty, he would go on the floor or in his diaper. I would love for my son to be potty train by his 3rd birthday. any advice would greatly appreciated.
hey all,
I just wanted to add to this post because I really found that with my daughter she couldn’t really I understand what I wanted from her until she was two. At two and a month we started potty training her and it only took three weeks. I honestly believe that if u wait till they understand it will be less frustrating for you and them and it won’t take that much time.
P.S I found that using those pullups were a really bad idea because she felt that I put the nappies back on, so its best to take them off completely.
Hope that helps :)))))
Good point, Ammum. I rarely used pull ups. They are just like a diaper and don’t teach the consequences of wetting. If you can give your baby a chance to have undies on and feel what happens when they wet they will most likely understand more quickly what you want them to do. When I use the timer to put my babies on the potty I would use the diapers with velcro since I could reuse them. I did this if I didn’t feel like dealing with a miss if they didn’t get there. On great days we used the same diaper all day since it was dry.
We did the same with our first child (now 3 1/2 years)… We started at exactly two years old and we just lost the nappy and were advised by relatives to stay clear of pull ups. She took about 10-16 days and got the hang of it real quick. After 3 weeks she was waking us up in the middle of the night screaming “potty… potty”.
but I’m pretty sure it’s like walking etc - all kids will pick things up in their own time… keep at it and good luck
I started training him since he was 3 months old. it was the first thing I used to do after he woke in the morning .it took him almost a month to get to the routine and after that he used to do it in the morning and some times twice in the day. by 9 months I got potty seat for him & we used to spend sometime playing with some toys.slowly he got into the routine & by 12 months he was fully trained. as far as pee was concerned it took time. most of the time he used to tell but bed wetting was on till he was 2 yrs old. I used to put diapers at night. slowly I started telling him that good boys don’t wet their pants and to my surprise it worked. now he wakes me up at night…
Russian baby-care books suggest and lots of mommies follow the pattern of holding a baby over a basin or some kind of stuff to let him pee or poop after each feeding or every time baby wakes up or just after each half an hour… This is suggested to be done as early as possible to let babies feel the difference between wet and dry diapers, so that they could react and let mommies know that the time for pee is coming ))) I’ve recently read on one of Russian forums about a mommy who trained potty as early as at baby’s 1.5 months… Amazing, huh? :wub:
Babies (like all of us) feel when they are going pee-pee or poop and can try to at will and a bit later learn to hold it. The trick to early potty training is not letting them sit in full diapers, but rather teach to appreciate that clean feeling 
All of my kids almost never had a stinky diaper after turning one and got trained daytime shortly after. I remember my son at 14 mnth bringing his carry-on potty to the airplane lol I found it confuses them if you potty train at home but then tell them to go in their diaper while out shopping or at night, etc. My two younger are 18 mnth apart and since I wasn’t going to have two kids in diapers, I potty trained the older one a couple months in advance of the new baby coming. My huge mistake: when she woke up at night, I was so tired that I would tell her to just go in diaper. That developed into such a pattern, that I couldn’t take that night diaper off till she was 4! Her younger sister was trained first!
To second beeemboo, it is possible to set your baby’s potty times by encouraging them to go at regular intervals. My mom never had disposable diapers or plastic pants, so by 3month both my sis and I only peed our bed (or pram) when we slept (as she didn’t believe in interrupting our sleep either ).
What do you mean? She has a toddler…
I mean that she has never been in diapers. She has been going on the potty since birth.