Mom's in the Seattle Area

Let the child lead, they will let you know when they are ready. My oldest was 18 months, my youngest was over 2.5. But if you force it, it will not work. My boys preferred to use one of those seats that goes on the big toilet rather then one of the training pottys, and it was nice for me becasue I did not have to clean it out :)

I honestly couldn't tell you what potty seat is best to use - I have three boys and they have ALL preferred a different potty or potty seat! I'd tell you if one is not working, to purchase a second, different style and try that. My third son has trained himself mostly (shocking!) and will only use the big toilet which he is too short for - he hoists himself up and onto it, amazingly enough!

Good luck to you!

Hey A. - I've used the same inexpensive One Step Ahead potty chair with all three of my girls. It's the style with the lid, removable pot, and converts into a stool when you take the seat off an put it on the "big" potty. Each girl has been different about whether they wanted to use the "little" potty, the seat on the "big" potty, or just the "big" potty with no seat at all.

I come from the tried and true philosophy of younger is better for potty training. Most children show the first signs of being ready between 15 and 18 months, but now days most parents either don't notice or ignore the signs because it seems 3 is the new age to potty train.

My first daughter was home with her dad the month she turned two and when he explained the potty to her and she put on a pair of panties she was trained! It was a miracle - no accidents, just understood and switched from diapers to panties, even overnight!

Second daughter was a different story. I ignored the cues because it was during the Thanksgiving-Christmas holidays, so when I decided it was time to "train her" in about February she had lost interest and it was a battle. She wasn't consistently dry until 3 and not overnight until just past 4.

Now I'm potty training my third daughter who used cloth diapers and started wanting to go on the potty at 16 months. We're doing better each week and I'm sure she'll be in panties full time before she's 2. A huge relief for me!!

Watch for the signs of being ready - the first one usually being telling you when she needs a diaper change. It's not that hard to do when you are ready to be patient and consistent!

I recommend you check out "Diaper free before 3" by Jill Lekovic. The average age of potty training has gone from 18 months before the 1960's to over 36 months currently. Why? Disposable diapers. Before them, our mothers and grandmothers had to wash cloth diapers so they were very motivated to potty train their children. After disposable diapers appeared on the market the concept of "waiting until the child is ready" was pushed by the disposable diaper industry.

In her book Dr. Lekovic illustrates that there is no scientific basis for "waiting for signs from your child". She recommends that you should treat potty training like any other activity that you want your child to learn (washing hands, getting dressed, feeding themselves, etc); you just incorporate sitting on the potty into your daily routine. So, for example, before bathtime set you child on the potty. You may have to read to them in the beginning but after they sit for that one then add another time during the day - when they wake up in the morning or from nap, etc. She suggests that you can start as early as the child can sit up by themselves (btw 6-9 months).

As with all skills that we teach our children it takes time and patience.

Anyway, it is a good read and worth some thought. We recently started with my 18-month old son. It is going slowly and I wish I would have found this book sooner as I would have started working with him sooner.
Good luck

There are three things you can not make a toddler do--eat, sleep, or pee and poop on your schedule (sigh). Unfortunately.

I had one that trained himself in one day when he was motivated at age 4.

The other was 18 months when she trained herself during a vacation at Victoria and Vancouver B.C. when we had no car. Only public transit. Don't ask. We visited every public rest room on the ship, ferry, bus, and train.

Wait til' your daughter is ready and wants to train herself. Otherwise, you will be trained to take her to the bathroom on schedule.

We started at something like 18 months, with panties for part of the day. At 2 years my daughter reliably keeps them dry all day. But i do feel like it requires that we remind her, which i doubt would happen if you waited until you had an older child to train. Worth it to us to not have to do all the cleaning, dealing with rashes, and paying for 24 hrs/ day of diapers, but maybe not worth it to eveyone.

One thing i would recommend - let your child see you use the bathroom. Talk to them about it. Let them sit on the potty. Respond to any sign of interest from them with encouragement. Etc. The reason we switched to pants at 18 months is that my daughter knew about the toilet, liked sitting on it, would usually pee and poop while on it, and would sometimes ask to go. I feel thankful that she never had any fears over the potty, and that it was largely self-motivated on her part. I think, even if we had waited to remove the diapers, we would have benefited from this early exposure and low-pressure encouragement.

Btw, we also used a boon potty seat, which i liked because it doubled as a step stool. What didn't work is that it was too wide for our really small bathroom, so we ended up switching to a seat that sits on top of the regular toilet, with a small step stool for access. Guess my advice is to think about how whatever you choose will fit into your house.

:).

After Almost Successfully Training our first around age 26 months (and trust me, Almost Trained is much much worse, because they Usually stay dry ... but then not always, and you NEVER KNOW WHEN they WON'T, ARGH!!!!) ... which then lead to about 18 months before she really was reliable ... I waited for the next two, and am still waiting for the last, to show me when they were ready!!! #2 and #3 were a couple of months after 3 years old ... I had a friend, as we were (somewhat anxiously) waiting for #2, who told me she waited until her first was ready, and he went to past 4 yrs (making it not OK to have him in preschools, so that's something to consider too).

We got a Potty Pal seat that installs on a regular toilet ... no more stuff cluttering up the house/bathroom, and I really just didn't like dealing with the poop in a pottychair situation. I love it, and the kid-sized part of the seat (it has a lid, a kid seat, and a grownup seat) is small enough that no kid has yet ever feared falling in). I really love this product--but it's a little hard to find (in Portland, only the diaper delivery service is licensed to sell it).

If I was starting a family now, I would do the diaper-free thing ... but I didn't hear about it until #3, and (being now divorced will explain why) I was under too much stress to get my parenting that together at that point ;). (SIGH.)

No doubt my daughters will be totally uninterested in trying it and I won't be able to live vicariously through them when they grow up either, darnit ;).

We started offering the potty from the first day home from the hospital. We practice "Elimination Communication". You can find more information at www.diaperfreebaby.org.

My 7 month old daughter loves her Baby Bjorn little potty. We have a different potty on each floor of the house & she goes on the toilet with the Baby Bjorn seat.

Good luck!