RE: Potty Training

A. - I'm in the last stages (I hope) of potty training a 2 year old girl. It helped to use pullups to get used to being able to pull her pants down & up. After a few months I progressed to real cotton underwear at home on the weekends. I partnered with her day care provider and started using them daily. We started out just sitting her on the toilet (adult) after meals for about 30 minutes. She now has the hang of it and asks far too often to use the potty (a lot of times she doesn't really have to go but I let her go sit anyway).

A little about me:
Grandmother raising a 2 year old and working full time, but she's work every minute.

I think most parents of kids that are potty trained by 16 months are usually doing alot of elimination communication, reading cues, etc and have acted on those at very young ages to take advantage of the opportunity to get them in the habit of eliminating in the potty all the time.... This is a little different than the traditional style potty training where you generally wait till the child starts to show discomfort in being wet/messy, asks to try the potty, shows curiosity in you using the potty, etc.... If your child is doing these things now, then it's a great time to act on their interest and start! I would get some small easy to use potty chairs and keep them easily accessible. When home, they can stay naked around the house and then taken to the potty every hour to eliminate...as they start to get the pattern they will ask to go themselves. Always take them when they ask :-) even though it's often a pain, especially when out! Have a small reward system and I would recommend never ridiculing, punishing or getting angry with accidents. They are going to happen, probably for a while and it will only set you back to cause stress or anxiety. Get some cool undies for daytime...nite-time will liekly be diapers for a while. Two may be good, but it is young for a boy to be competely trained but starting is good :-) In my experience the key is taking them to the potty frequently whether say say they need to go or not and starting to look for signs of pee or poo... the more they go in the potty, the more of a habit it becomes and the less accidents :-) Good luck! :-)

I am the one who is working on potty training my 16 month old. I bought him a potty around 14-15 months to get him used to the idea. My has a lid so he got to sit on it (clothes on) when would frequently follow me to the bathroom. We then started to sit him on it when he was already naked (before baths, when we were getting dressed in the morning). Now, we have gotten to the point where we go first thing in the morning (this is usually an easy one as they should have a full bladder), and then throughout the day (how often, depends on how peed the previous time). We just started this. I know some people who let their kids run around naked. This did not work for us as he would pee on the floor (tile, luckily) and play in it!! I usually use a training underwear in the house and am just starting to use pull ups when we are not in the house (he is not ready for underwear outside the house yet). He has a private sitter who will also take him potty several times a day when I'm at work. I don't put any pressure on him but will encourage and if needed, help occupy him while on the potty. We leave a few small toys and books in the bathroom (nothing you don't mind sanitizing or throwing away). I have some adorable photos of him reading on the potty. Oh, when we have success (usually ~4 times a day) we make it fun and usually I will sing or dance (something my toddler loves). I only started because he was showing signs of readiness, and was telling me that he had to pee and poop some of the time so I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

I would wait until you move as you really don't need the extra stress and it is time consuming.

S.

Look for signs of readiness.such as your son showing discomfort at being wet or soiled.he may mention he's dirty or wet etc........ introduce the potty- show him the Elmo potty video and or book and tell him that's what big kids do... If he is ready he will start to show interest...My son was almost three when he was completely trained. PUll ups were only used for a short time and not much help since they are so much like diapers. I only bought one pack of pull ups and that's all it took.But remember he was one month away from being three.We had tried earlier at 2 1/2 yrs. but we were out of town and he then was sick so we saw it wasn't the right time.You have to see when things are going quietly and normal and then try it.Good Luck- oh and be patient.I have a 17 year old and a 14 year old and a now 3 year old so I know what you mean!!

he will tell you when he is ready. do not rush it and compare him to other kids. just start to put him on the potty and see how he takes to it

After reading all the post recently, I'm sure you also see that a 16 month old is far from the norm. Age doesn't matter, it only matters if they are ready! Here is my feeling: you can start early before they are truely capable and be training for the next year or you can wait until they are ready and do it in a much shorter period of time. My friend has been potty training her girl over a year, she started around 18 months or so. Her girl is just now fully trained during the day. I waiting until 3 years and 2 months until he told me he wanted underwear, we were totally trained in a week. I'm not saying this will happen if you wait, but there is a much better chance that it will. I'm not saying a 2 year old can't do it, I'm just saying that it is not their age the dictates when you start. Good luck!