Potty Training - La Porte,IN

Like most here said, use her interest/inclination to start explaining. However, children can't control their bladders yet so I wouldn't try going "all the way" for several months.

N.-
It depends on your daughter. If she is making those first steps then it sounds like she is ready to start being introduced to the potty. IF she rebels do NOT force the issue. My 4 year old daughter just FINALLY got potty trained although she is still in pull ups at night. My 26 months old stepson is almost fully potty trained and he did it completely ON HIS OWN!! He started right after he turned 2 in January and he does it all on his own but he insists on using the big potty. He will point to his pants and yell mom. So he goes and then he pulls the footstool over to the sink, turns the water on, gets the soap and washes his hands. He is very smart! So bottom line: If she wants to go, let her!

A few things...she will let you know if it is too soon...and second, i guess it depends what you mean by "start potty training"...my son was about that age when we brought the potty into the house...we just left it in the bathroom and let him come in when we use the bathroom and he would sit on his potty...we also told him that "peepee and poops" go in the potty...I tried to put underwear on him around the house but that was a bust...he just didn't get it...we were just very casual about it for about a year and one day ( really i swear) he just started using it...so that first day he used it on his own, i took off his underwear and let him run around the house like that for a couple weeks...dealing with accidents as they happened...he was fully potty trained by his second birthday....so i would say, go ahead and try but don't push it...but if she shows interest definitely go with it! good luck!

I start potty training children at my daycare as soon as they can walk. I had one child who's mom started sitting her on the potty as soon as she could sit up on her own. After a month of her mom doing it at home I started sitting her here since her mom said she was actually peeing ON the potty if sat. Sure enough she did. That was at 9 mos old. By the time she was 15 mos old and started walking I was going to give her another month then put her in undies cause she was consistently dry between being sat. I wasn't trained, she knew to hold it unless she was on the potty.

After potty training dozens of kids I have learned to do it sooner then later. Children are capable of it, and there is NO other skill that the advice is to "wait for the child to say they are ready".

Here is an excellent article about it...
From the ArcaMax Publishing, Parents Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/parents/s-120739-150882
1.Potty training after 24 months can be a gamble
John Rosemond
Knowing that I recommend toilet training between 18 and 24 months, and apparently feeling a tad contrary, a reader recently shared with me the positive experience she had toilet training her son when he was 3 years, 3 months. She writes that she didn't want the hassles, and especially the accidents, involved in training a younger child, so she decided to wait until he was 100 percent ready. At 3 years, 3 months, he said, "Mommy, I want to wear underwear," and that was that. He was toilet trained in one day. The added advantages of waiting, she says, is that from the get-go he was able to undress and dress himself, wipe himself, and wash his own hands.

Letting her share her experience proves that I am a "fair and balanced" columnist. But having let her share, it's now my turn. I'll begin by pointing out that as recently as 40 years ago a 3-year-old who was still wearing diapers would have been generally regarded as the victim of lazy parenting. Ironically, however, the parent of said child has been anything but lazy. She has, after all, spent three years changing diapers when she could have spent only two, or less.

The currently popular notion that children below the age of two are not "ready" to be toilet trained is belied by the fact that in 1956 Harvard University found that more than 80 percent of American 24-month-olds were accident-free. This notion of "readiness" is a rather odd one, at that. If "ready" means that a child can sense the need to eliminate and has the dexterity to put him- or herself on a potty, then children achieve readiness around 12 months of age. Granted, the younger the child, the more assistance a child will need with such things as taking off their clothes, which is why I recommend that children be naked from the waist down (at home) during the training period. This is how children have traditionally been trained in Europe and parts of Asia, by the way. But if "ready" means "willing," which many parents seem to think it means, then this is just another indication that we are raising a generation of home-grown terrorists.

This mother rolled the dice and won. The research is clear that the longer parents delay toilet training past 24 months, the greater is the probability of serious problems, including the forced withholding of bowel movements and downright refusal to use the toilet. As I've said many times, it is easier to house-train an 8-week-old puppy than a one-year-old dog. The same is generally true of the difference between an 18-month-old toddler and a 3-year-old child. In the case of both the child and the dog, the habit of eliminating at will, whenever one feels the urge, has been allowed to strengthen past the point where it can be easily replaced by the more appropriate behavior. But every rule has its exceptions, and this mother can celebrate that her son was one of them.

I believe it is an insult to the intelligence of a human being to deny him the right to be diaper-free by age 2. After all, we expect six-month-old dogs to have learned to scratch at the door when they want to go outside. Mon Dieu!
Finally, if this mom had started toilet training her son when he was 18 months old, both mother and child would have been emancipated from diapers in three months, max. In the final analysis, she did neither herself nor her son any favors.

*About the Author: John Rosemond has written nine best-selling parenting books and is one of America's busiest and most popular speakers, known for his sound advice, humor and easy, relaxed, engaging style. In the past few years, John has appeared on numerous national television programs including 20/20, Good Morning America, The View, Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, Public Eye, The Today Show, CNN, and CBS Later Today.

Click here to visit Rosemond's Web site, www.rosemond.com.

This news arrived on: 10/06/2006

Copyright © 2006 ArcaMax Publishing, Inc., and its licensors. All rights reserved.

I agree with taking it in little steps. There is a lot of info out there on Elimination communication which was really helpful, even for my older daughter (we started introducing the concept of potty when she was about 20 mo.)

It's not exactly the "potty training" everyone talks about since kids this young are not as independent as a 3-year old. But there are a lot of ways you can make the transition from dipes to potties a lot easier from easy-off clothes to observing times that your child goes, etc.

It has actually been quite a fun process for us, not the completely frustrating one that you often hear when two year olds get into the "no" phase.

Just keep observing when she goes, using a cloth trainer helped me a lot. And then we just make sitting on the potty a part of our routine. No stress, just watching and patience.

Good Luck
-K.

Hi N.. I was in a similar situation, though my daughter was 17 months. I bought a little potty (it sings when it is used, which is a cute incentive!) and stuck it in the bathroom. I didn't plan to actually start training, I just wanted my daughter to see it in the bathroom and get used to it. Turned out that she loved it. She wanted to sit on it right away and peed the first time she was on it! I was amazed. That night she pooped in it too. All was great the first weekend, she only wanted to be on the potty. After that it lost its allure. For the last month and a half she would use it before her bath (I think because she wanted to be completely naked!). Now she's starting to tell me when she wants to use it during the day. That's my story, hope it helps you a bit. I've made it a point to never force her onto the potty or to make her feel bad about not using it, since she is so young. I think she (and your little one) at an age where they are still a bit to young to truly understand incentive systems which can make training a bit more difficult.

We started potty training our daughter about 16 months and she was doing great. I got sick and was in the hospital for 4 days and when I got home, she wanted nothing to do with it. There are books out there about potty training an infant! I think you should start when YOU think she is ready. I think my daughter would have been potty trained in a few months, but because I got sick and there was 4 days of inconsistent training (my hubby and my Mom watched her so they were different than me) she stopped. She seems to be showing all the signs that she is ready...why not try? Good luck! May you be diaper free in no time! :)

I found with my kids that potty training happened in little steps. This is a step in the right direction. I would praise her for telling you and change her diaper. Start talking about the potty, how mommy uses it and daddy uses it. Just make it a fun game. Maybe look into some of the books and videos available. I wouldn't start pushing it too much yet. She's a little young. Sounds like she is off to a great start, though. If she doesn't like being wet or dirty it should be easy to train her.

In my opinion she is way too young. I have 4 kids and I think you would just be wasting your time. If anyone would get trained it would be you....taking her on a time clock forever making sure she didn't have accidents.