Potty training

[mother-to-be]

This is going to sound weird because I haven't even had my baby yet, but when do you start potty training? I only ask since a friend of mine told me about this diaper free movement and that it's actually possible to train a 4 month old baby to use the potty. Have you ever heard of this?

[belle51rams]

I also read about this when I was pregnant and I will tell you honestly I don't think a baby is anywhere near ready to physically potty train at 4 months old. My daughter is 17 months now and I'm going to start trying next month. Your baby can barely sit up and support itself at 4 months - how on earth do you think they can actually potty train. It's ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. Let your baby be a baby and do things when they are ready. There is no need to rush - they grow up too fast as it is!! Good Luck!!

[cutley]

In a baby, the kidneys are not physically mature to begin potty training until around 2 years old. The concentration of the urine is not quite what it needs to be until then. The can not physically hold their urine which is why they potty often. Therefore, it is quite useless to begin younger than 18 months. In fact, if you try on a child any younger, the child is actually training you. What I mean by that is you are running to get them to the potty at certain times, versus them actually becoming trained to go on their own.

Until, a babies kidneys are mature enough, keep those diapers on!!

[mama22]

I highly recommend reading "Early Start Potty-Training" by Linda Sonna Ph. D. I didn't know about infant training for my first, but read this when the first was 12 months old and began telling me she was wet (with sign language). I figured I better get on the ball. She was day and night-time dry by age 2. I couldn't have gotten through it without that book. It covers infant training as well as late-start training and everything in between.
Basically, when to start is completely up to you. The idea of "waiting until they show signs of readiness" is a fairly new concept within our culture. Most of the world trains much earlier than is common in the U.S. Ask your grandma when she trained her kids and I guarantee it will be earlier than the current trends. After learning that, I figured why can't I save on diapers too?
Since infant training seems to require dedication I wasn't prepared to give when my second came along, I started later than is possible, but crazily early by American standards. My 14-month old is well on her way. Today she signed to go potty twice. The first time she sat, nothing happened. At supper, she signed to go again. By the time I got her to it, she had tinkled a little (the diaper hadn't even absorbed it yet), then she peed some more and POOPED!!! Yea for her.
And by the way, no matter when you potty train, it's still the parent who gets trained. Show me any parent of a potty training child who doesn't RUN when their child says they have to go. It's all about getting rid of the convenience of changing them when YOU can. It saves a ton of money though and is much healthier for them the sooner you do it. Good luck and have fun with it! It's a great bonding experience (you know all that entertaining singing you'll be doing while they sit there

[jenbaedke]

I don't know why I am obsessing about getting the chair, but I want my daughter to want to use it and not be a waste of money. What are good seats that either you have bought or have heard are good? Please let me know. Thank you!

[blessings4us]

I introduced my daughter to the potty chair, a real cute Winnie the Pooh one, around 18 months. It made noises and all kinds of neat stuff. Well, she wanted no part of it. She wanted to use the big potty. We ended up using the potty ring. She still uses that sometimes now. She became fully potty-trained around 2 years and 9 months. She wasn't into it at first. It was like a light switch with her. One day she just decided to start using it. She hasn't had any accidents either. I tried not to push her. I did mention it a lot throughout the day. I kept asking her until she said yes. She's done great ever since. It was an adventure though.

[nmknoepfle]

I've read articles that you can potty train your child when they are 6 months....that is if you want to watch them every second of the day to see how they react when they pee or poop....who has the time for that one!

We started by buying the potty for Christmas and she was almost 2, it was the best gift. She is now almost three and learned about a month ago - it is all about when they want to go, you can't force it. Definitely don't put it off but I wouldn't start at 4 or 6 months!

[sturtevant_family]

I have 2 boys. People say they train slower than girls but the way I have gone about training has seemed to work very well. I am not shy about bringing the kids in the bathroom with me to explore what I am doing there from before the time they can understand. It seems to get them interested in using the bathroom. I try to start catching them when they are going in their diapers and bringing them to the potty to show them what to do. I make sure it is a positive experience. When they start to tell me on their own I take 1 weekend and put them in undies. Peeing in their pants bothers them and by the end of the weekend we're successful...I have never waited any longer than 18 months because after that they are kind of attached to the routine of going in their diapers and as time passes it only makes it harder to break the cycle. But again, this is only what I've found in my life. Good luck to you!

[proudmommy]

My experience with potty training has been the earlier the better. My daughter is just turning a year and is almost fully potty trained. We started signing with her around 6 months and began potty training around 7 months. The first couple months were mostly us (my husband and I) doing all the work. I started with observing for a couple of days when my baby peed, times after/before certain activities ie. eating/bottle which required her to be bare bum for a while, once I got an idea of her pee/poop schedule we started doing it at first by time, and then not long after she would sign poop when she needed to go poop and we would go to the potty and she would poop (* since then around 71/2 months have only pooped in her diaper when it has been totally inconveinent to get to a potty, or just have missed her signing about a handful of times). The pees for us were more work and she had been hit and miss for about two months but in the last month, she started signing pee (toilet) when she had to pee or had already peed in her diaper. If I am good with watching her communicate with me she stays in a dry diaper all day, and yes she does actually hold her pee in time to get to the potty. She will even wake up in the night to pee, and frequently goes all night dry. I am not sure how easy early training is without the signing, but doing both has been great for us, and she is a happy baby for it.
I also helped potty train a little girl I watch three days a week who I started with at 18 months and she was less work time wise but at this age was already fine with having a wet/dirty diaper and would sometimes tell me she needed to go and then decide she wanted to pee in her diaper instead. Pees were easier but poops were met with more resistance. Just thought I would share my experience. All in all I will definitley train all my future children early (before 1 year).

[cravener]

I honestly feel that these days alot of parents are just lazy. All my siblings including myself were all potty trained at 12 months. I think that is a great age. These days many parents wait around till the age of two if not older. Its like they feel diapers are fine. I also have a friend that was potty trained starting at 2 months old. Im not joking, i was skeptical until i saw pictures. He was completely trained by 6 months. Unbelievable but true. Even though in those cases the parent is actually the one trained not the child. I have a baby who is 5 months and i am determined to have her potty trained at 12 months as well. Why postpone it when they can walk and take some sort of direction that should be the first thing you do, in my opinion