Potty Training at 13 Months??? What???

It's not so much about training the baby as it is about mom being trained to read baby's cues and hold them over the toilet when baby is about to "go". How that transitions over to the child being able to use the toilet independently I have no idea. But my understanding is that initially you almost have to have the baby strapped to you 24/7 - no thanks!

Mompetition. Ain't it grand? Go at your own pace. No worries.

It's mommy training and it was common back in the 40's and 50's. You run the child to the potty or sit them on it and or in those days held them over the big stool and they would go. I don't know if that's exactly how they do it now but it is not training a child who is too young and has little control over the bladder, etc. I would wait until older and able to understand and talk, etc. Some on here have done this but it's just a lot of work for you and usually the kids are not ready. Why would you do this so young anyhow? I don't see why we rush our children to grow up now days and miss so much of them being a baby/child. Just my opinion.

My MIL has told me on numerous occassions that her oldest son (my BIL) was potty trained at 9 months old - I sometimes question her memory on certain things! Neither of my daughters were walking at their first birthday so I couldn't even imagine beginning potty training at that age! I waited until after their second birthdays to even introduce the potty =)

Forget about those losers. Some parents think it's something to brag about that they "potty trained" their kids by 2. And some kids sure can, it's not unheard of. But truthfully, how many of those kids are actually asking to go. Most of them just hold it until the parents bring them to the bathroom. They are not potty trained, only potty holders. Or maybe they are "trained at school" but not home. Wait until your child shows signs of readiness because if you see from the posts on this site, the moms who started too soon find that both they and the children are anxious and frustrated, it takes months, if not a year or more, and then there is often a lot of regression. I waited until my son was almost 3 and he trained perfectly in a matter of weeks. He trained on poop in just days.

There is some movement out there that potty trains from birth with some kind of cue thing. It sounds crazy to me, but these women swear by it. I don't know how much success these women will have before age 2, so it seems like a waste of time worrying about it to me.

I totally think it depends on the kid first, and the amount of work the parent wants to put into it secondly.

With my first - there was NO way she would train even by 2 1/2 or 3. It wasn't without my lack of trying, either. I now see it clearly- she has a gross motor delay and it affecting potty training.

My second is 20 months old. She seems very ready and we are working on it. I think we could have started earlier, but this mama has moved across country, had a hysterectomy, and started a new job just since August. That wears me out just thinking back on it!

Follow your son's lead and don't worry about everybody else. It's so easy to get wrapped up into comparisons. :)

Sure, I started potty learning with my kids around 12 months, and by 18 months they were in trainers and fully trained (including night) at 22 months.

It's about laying the foundation: reading lots of pottying books, introducing the potty, helping them to get in touch with their muscles, etc.

The idea is that you can teach the concept of potty and all the skills necessary to be potty trained. You don't have to wait till they are 2.5 or 3, you can "teach them" this stuff earlier. And you can! In fact, 90% of the rest of the world has their kids trained by 18 months. Once upon a time (prior to 1950), kids in America were trained by 2. And trust me, it wasn't mommy training. These kids were trained.

Toddlers do in fact take themselves to the potty! Sure, mom suggests going from time to time (like before leaving the house to go to the park), but what mom doesn't do that for young preschoolers?

There is little work involved. I let my kids run around naked, taught them where to put their pee and poop, and by 18-19 months, they were diaper free. Yes, we had accidents for a while, and my just 2 year old son still does occasionally (the I waited too long, pee all over the bathroom floor 2 year old distracted kind!). But it's all about the type of work you want to do. Do you want to change diapers for 3 years, or do you want to invest a little time (10 minutes a day) and have them in undies by 2?

Whatever your approach, I think all households should have a copy of Potty by Leslie Patricelli for their 12 month olds. I started reading this to my son at 10 months,and by 15 months, he was taking himself to the potty trying to pee in it! By 18 months, he refused diapers and wanted to be naked so he could use his potty seat. My son trained himself, because I had lots of potty books and pottys around. It is super easy to motivate little ones to use the toilet --all on their own. You just have to give them the opportunity to learn.

Being one of the "loser, crazy, older" moms on here I will say that it is based on following your child's cues (faces, grunts, trying to hide, or sign language you've taught them) that they need to go and taking them whether they can walk or not, and sitting them there until they go so they "get the idea" and eventually start doing it on their own. (Check YouTube for videos of parents and babies doing it, I ran across them when I was looking for videos for my guy to watch when he was potty training.) It's practiced worldwide (some parents don't have access to disposable diapers like we do and I can sure understand them wanting their child trained,) it definitely is the parents being trained until the child gets it, and is actually currently being promoted as "pre-training" these days here in the U.S. I saw an ad yesterday in a magazine for a reusable diaper, it was green and blue or purple I believe, and it said something along the lines for your baby to train early they needed this diaper to "pre-train" and it sure surprised me. I'll update my answer if I recall where I saw it.

My older children were trained at what I thought were "normal" ages in the days we used cloth trainers and rubber pants before pull-ups came around, my son I trained a little bit before he was 2.5 and my daughter trained herself at 18 months, (here's where my being a loser shows but I loved it,) and my little guy didn't train until he was 2.5 a few months ago.

I don't see it as "rushing a child to grow up" but rather if parents want to take the time and dedication it takes to do it, so be it, I respect them for that, especially since babies and toddlers really are capable of and often ready to do a lot more than is expected of them. The parents are helping a child learn a necessary skill and he or she can then move on to mastering others. I personally didn't do it, but since so many worldwide do successfully it may have it's merits.

Wow - I'm a loser, crazy, older mom too. My first - pffftt..... he was just over 3. I thought I was way behind, and for that time (over 25 years ago) - he was old. My next two, both girls, seemed to be night dry soon after a year, so after their first birthday, when the weather got nice, I started training them. This meant with the older girl, she was about a year and 9 months when I started, and it took hardly any time to get it. The younger girl was a year and a half and done. My fourth - he was in daycare, and was potty trained at just under 3. I think having such a mobil society contributes to later training. It is hard to work on potty when you go places all the time. My grandson is almost done training, and he will be 3 in 9 days.

I have seen it before.. We had a neighborhood of little girls all born within months of each other.

The set of twins were potty trained at 13 months! They wore the tiniest little panties and asked to go potty.. I never could get the mom to tell me how she did it.

Now our daughter was not interested until she was almost 4. Not for the lack of me trying. No one can make our daughter do anything she is not ready for.. I would introduce it talk about it blah, blah, blah.. No way, So I just quit. I decided to let her lead the way.

This is a child that was fast to do so many things. At 6 months she walked totally unassisted. She could speak in full sentences at 1 years old.. But the Potty Training.. Ugh!!!

And then one day she came home from daycare and told me she saw the children looking at books while they were on the potty. I told her yes, some children do look at books and go to the potty.

I think she had noticed all of those potties lined up a lot of the kids going over there and pulling down their underpants and looking at books and she wanted to do that too.. It took her 2 days to be completely able to go.. No accidents.

Frankly, a lot of my friends' kids learned earlier (many of the early ones were in daycare) and I was getting to feeling like my 3 yr old was a freak. Well, she's not. If someone wants to train their child at a year old, then I wish them luck. DD was NOT ready at 1 and not really ready at 2 and while I gave her plenty of opportunity to learn, she just didn't make it. She cried and was frustrated. The potty was a battle. What was the point in that?

So now at 3, she's hit this point where she's doing fantastic all of a sudden. I think her brain and body needed to meet. I have not used pullups. Either she is in diapers or panties (I only have 3 thick pairs, the rest are normal). I think the pull on diapers are just another ploy and they are more $ than the same size diaper with tabs.

The other thing to consider is is it just bragging rights or is it really the accomplishment of the child? Is the KID trained or are YOU trained to take kid to the potty?

I think there are some kids that can get ahead of the curve...but there are many more that can't and they should be treated with the same respect while they learn on their own timeframe. My DD is quickly rolling on to be totally trained, day and night. She just needed to be ready for it.

I have a friend who did potty train her daugher at 18 months. She was in daycare, and she was able to do it by herself, and she just did. Some kids are ready earlier.

My daughter was interested in potty training at around 14-15 months. Seriously. She would go sit on the potty, sometimes she would use it! Since she was my third kid, I just went with it, but didn't push it. She has two bigger brothers neither of which were trained until 3, so I figured she'd either get it or not, but I'd leave it up to her. I think some mom's get super excited about this phase, and then push to potty train. But, my daughter was not really ready. She couldn't get her pants back on by herself. If she was playing she wouldn't stop to go. She did not ever tell me she had to go... sometimes it just worked.

But, when she was 2 1/2 she had lots of practice on the potty, understood what it was for, and we put her in undies (stayed outside a bunch - it was spring) and she was trained in a week with very few accidents.

Boys are generally ready later than girls. My boys were both 3.

Julie V has it right! 100 years ago most kids in the US were potty trained at 12-18 months -- think about doing cloth diapers without a washing machine, and you'd potty train early too!
They can even be trained where to go (in the potty) before they have the coordination to deal with their pants.
My DD is 16 months and we just got a potty to start. There are a couple good books out there (google Early Potty Training) and be consistent!!