Potty Training- Boy 18 months

[Jen841]

Is is realistic to start this now? At Jude's 18 month appt the Ped told DH that it is time to start this process. I think he has no concept of potty training now, other than he HATES diaper changes. When did you start?
What did you start with?
Potty seat or something over the toilet?

I may just be out of touch with reality. Life has been so busy with the move her etc. that I have not picked up a parenting book for months, and I don't even know where they are!

I would definitely tell you NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) With my dd & ds, the diapers came off at the third birthday party - sort of a little "say goodbye to your diapers" ceremony. They were both pretty reliable after 2 weeks. They wore the inexpensive Gerber cotton training pants and realized after a day or two that getting wet is no fun.

Now my girlfriend's mom harped on her to start training her DD right around 18 months. Well she trained all right - close to another 18 months of training.

IMO, it's so much easier when your child has the verbal and physical skills to potty train.

[stella]

You know, my daughter is showing signs of readiness at 2. My son is 3 1/2 and we are JUST now starting to poop in the potty with some semblance of regularity (sorry for the pun!).

He has been tee-teeing in the potty well since he was 2 1/2. But he's in a pull-up at night. For him, it has been a matter of big boy underwear (ninja turtles, thomas, batman) and rewards that has helped to potty train him.

I think 18 months is awfully early. Not that we're not awfully late over here - it has just taken forever and many battles of the will - where I have just had to back down and repeat to myself that it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter...

I think that with a boy you are in for some frustrating times if you start at 18 months. What age is your pediatrician? That sounds like old thinking to me.

You can tell that I am in the throes of pottytraining and fairly miserable with it. I would make sure my child was good and darn ready because it has been really tough on us and there is no way that my boy would have been successful at that age.

Good Luck!

[aguinn]

hi, we only just had our 16 mo appt, so that didn't come up for us, but we have started to talk about going potty with our DS. when we notice that he is having a BM, we ask him if he is going potty and we give him some private time (usually he will walk off a ways from us and look away). when he comes back we say "potty" and do the potty sign and then he usually signs it back to us. i'm not sure if he is just mimicking (sp?) our sign or if he actually realizes that he's gone, but it's a start. when we are going potty, we sometimes have him in the bathroom with us, watching us do our thing and tell him that we are going potty. we recently bought a potty seat for him, and he's sat on it a couple times with clothes on, but we tell him it's his potty chair and he'll use it to go potty on (just to get him comfortable with the seat). we'll probably start having him sit on it right before bath when he's naked and just about to get in to the bath. i'm not expecting him to go at all, only to get used to the idea of "what happens when" sort of thing.

hth,
amy
proud momma to DS

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030729/1/5/1/-5/.png[/img][/url]

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo...n_gold_12m.gif Weaned @ 13 months

[jk3]

My DS is showing absolutely no signs of any awareness of any aspects of the concept so we are definitely holding off on this one. This is my first so I'm not quite sure how to tackle this but I think I'll wait until he shows an interest.

Jenn
DS 6/03

http://lilypie.com/baby2/030603/2/5/1/-5/.png

[daisymommy]

I have read in many-many-many places that the new recommendation is to wait until 27 months to start formal potty training. Obviously if your child really seems ready interested before then, go with their lead. But experts are saying most children aren't ready before 27 months, and it can take an extra 6 months to potty-train if you begin too soon.

BTW there is a good potty forum on the BBB Toddler Boards.

At 18 months I started pre-training both kids. This means that I let them come in with me and watch me use the potty. I let them flush when I was done and we waved bye-bye to it. When they had a poopy diaper, we would take it to the potty, dump in the poop and wave bye-bye and flush. Then we would wash our hands.

Before bathtime (or if the chld was interested) I would put them naked on the toilet. With DD she would often pee. DS has not, but he enjoys being on there.

I didn't start DD's REAL training though until she was more than 2. I'm hoping to start DS shortly.

[Momof3Labs]

We started pre-training Colin at about 18 months but have kept it VERY low pressure. Watching us go, flushing his poops (from his diaper) bye-bye, having a potty seat (we use a toilet insert, not a little seat) sitting around. After several weeks of that, we noticed that Colin was consistently peeing in the tub. So we started putting him on the potty seat to pee there before his bath. He now does this every night, and is very reliable about it, but doesn't ask to go (nor does he resist going). It hasn't gone much further than that, which is fine with us. It is still awfully early, particularly for a boy!!

[lisams]

Pushing PT when they just aren't ready or interested can make this a l-o-n-g struggle. Experts now know that it isn't a good idea to push PT until the child is physically and emotionally ready - so I'm not sure what your ped. is thinking. You can get a little potty and maybe show him what it's for. When DD was that age she enjoyed sitting on it reading books while I was going potty jus tfor practice.

I wouldn't push it. I've heard too many parents say it took months, even a year to PT which to me seems like maybe the child just was't ready enough.

Lisa

I am going to start soon. At least to plant the seed by getting a potty. DS is almost 18m, and I come from a country where PT starts pretty early. I am not sure how far I'll get, but it might be worth a shot.