Is 2 1/2 too young? My son has shown an interest, but is he serious? Also, would you stay home for several days in a row if you were going to attempt this? With so many family events coming up and school just around the corner, I guess I'm afraid it would just be an exercise in futility. Any thoughts, advice?
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Take his lead. If he has shown interest then go with it! My oldest son potty trained at 2, my other three were 3. Just stay relaxed (easier said than done, I know) and make it a positive experience. I never had the luxury of staying home several days in a row to potty train, real life had me on the move and we still managed it. Plus, one of the biggest thrills of potty training for kids is using different potties. I swear, we could not go anywhere without needing to give the potty a try in that place. ;)
We potty trained my son when he was 20 months old and I can tell you what worked for us. The most important part of the process is for them to notice the sensation before they actually go. We did a bottomless day the first day of training and I watched him like crazy and moved him to the potty as soon as he started to go. The first couple resulted in a stream of pee from wherever he was standing to the potty, but after 2 or 3 times he got it and I had a few seconds to get him there. We never used pull ups, just stuck with diapers during naps and at night. The other thing that worked well for us was to go without underwear for the first couple of weeks. It made getting pants up and down a lot faster (just cotton pants with an elastic waist) and it's better than going naked because eventually they need to learn how to be potty trained with clothes on. I also didn't do any rewards other than high fives and cheering. More importantly there was no punishment or negativity when we had a miss. If he is going to get it you'll know by the end of the second day. We stayed at home for probably 4 days and then always carried a potty in the car. I never put a pull up or diaper on him to go out. Good luck!
If he's showing interest, it wouldn't be a bad thing to try.
My son (just turned 3) has been showing interest for a long while... But still won't go on the potty. He'll sit on it and do that often, but has yet to do anything on the potty other than pee a couple of times.
My daughter was fully trained, practically overnight at 3.5... She made it easy on me. : )
Ditto everything Lucia B. said. My son was trained before he was 3. I'm guessing he was around 26 months when we started (I really can't remember, he's 13 now and it was SO long ago....). I know he was fully potty trained (daytime) and dropped the seat on himself (OUCH!!) when I was very pregnant with his little sister. She is not quite 3 years younger than he is... so he must have been ohhhhh.... 30-33 months old when he was fully trained? He didn't start out standing up..that came after he was already trained for a bit... and he was definitely standing when the lid fell, LOL.
If he shows interest, GO FOR IT. :)) Lots of praise is the key. Get ready to do some potty dances, Mama!
And my daughter was the QUEEN of trying out strange potties in strange places... LOL.
I don't think it's too young at all, if of course, he's interested. I'm not sure how to negotiate leaving the house. I wrote a post about our kid-initiated and then kid-abandoned one day Potty Training Boot Camp. Enjoy!
http://momsnewstage.blogspot.com/2011/08/operation-potty-...
That is not too young. Make sure you feed his interest in potty training, it's not fun to "miss the window". If you start and then things start to get exciting or confusing around the house, there may be some setbacks, but I wouldn't stress about those, it happens. I would pressure your little guy, but I wouldn't try to hold him back either.
I never found the 'three day' or 'weekend' potty training very helpful but I"ve only trained one child. She took over a year to fully potty train during the day. With my son, we have the smaller potty (he'll be 2 next month) and have had it in the bathroom since he was born. About three months ago he wanted to start sitting on it. That was all he did. Now before bath and a few times a day I'll ask if he wnats to sit on it and he does and 99% of the time he goes and gets a m-n-m. (even just for trying). His sister (four this month) wants to get an m-n-m and I've told her she can only if they both go to the potty (or try) since she is not potty training. She's been very helpful in getting him to go because she wants candy!!! He will tell me when he's wet but cannot yet pull his pants down. So I would say that 2.5 is not too early but I am not expecting my son to just start being dry (at least at this age). I'd say have him go as much as possible at home and keep him in diapers when out and about until he is telling you all the time when he needs to go. Good luck!
Try it, but don't push it! IF you are going to do it, you have to do it with consistency- no running around, no "put on the diaper b/c we have to go"... really do it.
My son turned three at the end of May and was potty trained at that point, but only very recently before his birthday. He started showing an interest that February, so we bought a little potty, a bag of M&M's and a potty book. Needless to say, after the first day of trying he sat on the bathroom floor crying b/c he didn't want to do it yet. Literally one day in April he went outside to play with our neighbor's son (10) who told him that he was a "big boy" and didn't need to wear diapers anymore... walked in the house, took off his diaper and went.
We stayed home for 4 full days- did not leave the house at all and just did it. He was ready, I had a few days off- again, though, if you are going to do it, commit to it. If he's ready, you will be "done" within a week!
