Potty Training!

Nooo pullups. They need to have the uncomfortable feeling of being wet in order to be properly trained. A lot of people may disagree with this but every child I have seen that uses pullups takes WAY longer to train. It may be messy at first but it will pay off in the long run. GOOD LUCK!

I noticed that you also posted a question about switching your daughter to a big girl bed. I think that both are attainable goals, but it is a lot of change for a little person. The more she understands that these are exciting changes for her and not changes she needs to do because of the baby, the better she will succeed.

Potty Training: Skip the pull ups and opt for training underwear instead. They're thicker than regular underwear. When we switched my son to these from the pull ups, he was finally successful. If I could do it over again (and I will be), I would skip the pull ups. Keep using a diaper or pull up overnight, though, until she stays dry for a week at a time at night.

Big Girl Bed: I would switch her to the bed she will be in in November. Otherwise she may feel that the baby is getting the bed that she is so proud of. We bought a mattress and bunky board, so it's not so high (skip the box spring). She may be more excited about her big girl bed if you let her pick out the bedding.

The best advice I can give is to have lots of patience and read the book "Diaper Free Before 3" I recently checked this book out from the library for my almost 2 1/2 year-old son, and I REALLY wish I would have read it two years ago!!! We introduced the potty when he was a little over a year, and he grasped the concept, but wasn't really into it. I didn't want to push him. I read the book (ALL of the book even though some of it was "too late,") and it makes so much sense! We basically told him there aren't any more diapers (except overnight), and we've had him run around in underwear for the past week (home, daycare, shopping,etc), and he has been "accident free" all weekend, including staying dry overnight last night (which we weren't even concerned about at this point). Yes, we had to deal with some wet/poopy undies last week, but the point is, the more "convenient" you make it for youself, the longer it will take to train them.

Also, I am expecting a little girl in September, and am eager and ready to take on the potty training with her after reading this book. Since you've got another little one on the way, I think this is a must read for you as well!

Good luck!

Hi J.,

No, I do not think that 19 months is too young to use the potty. Personally, I think that it is better to introduce the potty earlier vs. later, but I wouldn't expect a child your daughter's age to be 100% potty trained in a few weeks, either. When a child is this young, the parents have to be "trained" a little, too. :-)

One thing to keep in mind is that there are different mindsets and schools of thoughts when it comes to potty training. None of them are "right" or "wrong", but it really depends on what your expectations are and how much time you and her other caregivers have to devote. What I state below is my own opinions and experiences...

To your arsenal of potty supplies I would add some "training underwear". They are thick, padded underwear, and you won't have the mess you will with regular underwear. I think at this point, you still want something that can absorb accidents, but you also want her to feel when she is wet. I would hold off on regular underwear because I think they set the bar too high at first, esp. w/such a young child. You might be cleaning up too many messes of the floor and get frustrated! Another option besides/in addition to training underwear is cloth diapers. They have come a long way in recent years--there are even "all in ones" that look just like disposables, no fancy folding or anything. Pull-ups are just basically expensive diapers. They are good for when you are out and about and at nighttime, but they tend to just delay things.

I'm not sure what the travel seat is, but besides a potty chair, I would have a toilet ring that goes on the regular toilet. My son won't sit on a potty chair right now, only on the toilet. It's good to have a few options on hand, in case your daughter gets fickle!

To kickstart this, my recommendation to you is to devote 1 or 2 whole days to getting used to her potty rhythms. If she's been in disposables, you probably don't know *exactly* when she poops or pees. If possible, let her go naked from the waist down. If you have carpeting in your house, put some training underwear on her. Block off a room or two that you and she can play in for a few hours at time. Have the potty chair right there. I would recommend having her "try" every 20 minutes. You will start to notice patterns--she will probably pee x amount of time after a meal or snack, and she will look a certain way right before she goes. (Some kids stop and sort of look like they're daydreaming; others may start moving quickly like they are agitated.) A GREAT resource for getting in tune with your child's potty habits is diaperfreebaby.org.

As for my own experience, my son has been using the potty since just before his 1st birthday. (He is now 17 months old). I don't say he's "potty trained", only that he "uses the potty part-time". He goes # 2 almost exclusively on the potty. (The exception is if he wakes early in the morning and goes in his diaper before I get him.) I am pretty in tune with when he has to go pee, and many days we only have 2-3 wet diapers to deal with--the rest of the time he is going on the potty. He knows the sign for "toilet" and often will sign it and start running towards the bathroom when he has to go. He is still in cloth diapers--I don't think we're quite ready for training underwear just yet. I don't mind having to assist him in the bathroom, and I don't expect him to be "potty independent" for quite some time. He still needs my assistance for everything else (dressing, eating, walking up stairs) and just like every other area of development, he will slowly become more and more independent.

Good luck to you, and feel free to email me if you have any questions for want to chat.

Hi J.

Sorry about a late response but need to add something.

Although 19 months is not too early if they show signs and interest.

Please keep in mind with the new baby arriving in 5 mos. any success that is accomplished may unravel. She may not understand and become stressed and revert back to diapers as she won't be a baby anymore.(mommy going to hospital, seeing a baby, etc.., bringing baby into the house, lots of people coming over than usual, etc..)

Good luck with the training and the new baby

I would start with reading about it to her. We bought the books, Once Upon A Potty, Big girls use the potty(with flushing and giggling sounds and sticker chart), and a few others. Then we bought Elmos potty time video for them to watch. We kept the potty chair as near by as possible so if they wanted to just sit on it or felt the urge to go they could. Mostly I would set it in the living room while they were watching a show and let them get used to sitting on it. My kids acted like they were erady, but as soon as I tried harder to get them to learn they backed off and were not so excited about it anymore. They pretty much decided when they were ready on their own. My oldest is now 11, but he was pee trained by 2 and poop trained closer to three with occasional accidents until 4. My middle child is 5 now and has been PT both day and night since age 2. My youngest will be four next month and she would not use the potty til she started preschool this past fall, and she still wears a pull up to bed at night. All kids are different so no method works the same of each kid. Just be patient and keep trying things until you find what works for yours:)

I glad you had a lot of people to tell you to go ahead and potty train. When my oldest was 18M he started to show a lot of interest in the potty. We started to potty train and was doing really well. Then we started to talk to other people and our Dr. Everyone laughed at us and told us we would do more harm at this point if we kept trying to potty train. So we put him back into diapers and waited until he was 3. By that time he had lost interest and it took over 6 months to get anywhere. My 2nd child is now 18 months and is interested in the potty. Yeasterday we put him in his own undies!!!! He was so proud and kept then dry all day and went in the potty when we sat him down on it. We sing songs and read on the potty to keep him busy. Otherwise he gets frustrated or board and dosn't want to sit on the potty any longer. Good luck with the potty training, you will do great!!!

Since she is interested then it is not too early. I would suggest no pull ups. We went straight to undies(at the advice of my Mom) and it was only rough for 24-48 hours. We used the undies that have extra padding I found them at Target they were great. Ask her a lot if she has to go potty, put her on the potty and read a book while she is sitting there. We used Elmo goes potty with sounds. We also started a sticker book and each time she went she got to pick out a sticker and put it in her book. Also you can try to push the fluids so she will have to go a lot and then when you have her try and she goes she gets the sticker so it will reinforce how the process works. Start the process when you don't have to go anywhere and can just focus on potty training. Make the decision and go with it, don't go back, be prepared for a lot of clothes changing just for a few days(we wore dresses and skirts it was faster to get her on the potty), hang in there it will be worth it. Good luck! A.

My advice would be to hold off on the heavy trainig until they are showing signs and interest on their own. All 3 of my kids were trained a bit different, but I will say the most frustrating of them was my girl (#2), who showed a tad bit of interest and pottied a few times at 18 months so I thought she was ready, but then took FOREVER to fully train... well past 3. The easiest was #1, who decided about 2 years, 3 months that he was done with diapers, refused to put them on and potty trained himself in a weekend. My youngest I TOTALLY waited for him, and when he started asking me to go occasionally, I started working with him. He was just over 3. The way I did it with him was repetition. We would go potty every 30 minutes, whether he had to go or not, then 45, then on the hour. After a few weeks, I didn't have to remind him and he just went when he had to with next to no accidents. Good luck!

Go for it! it's definitely not too young. My daughter started at about 15 months but regressed after being diagnosed with diabetes.
I am unclear why Rebecca S found your post so funny. We CAN start our kids on our timetable. Especially if they are young. Even if it takes awhile you can still go forward if your child is willing!
Good luck to you! You are doing a great job!

Please forgive me if I laughed a little bit when you said you would like to start potty training your daughter. It's not that I think negatively of you or what you are doing. It's that I see myself and sooooo many moms in that statement, but after years of parenting I see how silly we really are. We are trying to potty train when WE are ready. The problem is, it's not WE who need to start peeing and pooping in a whole new way. So it's not WE who need to be ready. :)

So you can tell what I'm getting at, I'm sure. Potty training will be easy when your daughter is ready. If you start before she is really ready, you may actually have success. But you will put in a lot more work. For lots of moms that is a good choice. They are ready to really give it their time and energy as long as they can get it to happen when they want to. When I was doing this my grandma said "you don't have her trained, she has you trained." This was a little true. As long as I put her on the potty at all the right times, she did great. It sounds like your daughter may be ready for that kind of thing if you are really up to it. And, anyway, it sounds like she is being so cute about it. Maybe it's even fun for you in a way. In that case, enjoy these exercises and she may "train" this early.

But if you want training to be easy, I would recommend that you wait until she is showing definite signs that she wants to use the potty, doesn't want to wear a diaper, etc... It doesn't sound like she is there yet, and it would be surprising if she were at that age. That does remind me, though, that very wise parents have told me to start introducing my girls (in exactly the way that you are) to the practice at this young age. The reason is that they will probably surprise me at how much earlier they train than my boys.