Potty training in Different Cultures..

[aliceinwonderland]

This waiting until 2 or 3 to potty-train HAS to be a product of the disposable diaper invention, no??

Any experince with differnet cultures' approach to this??

Logically, I do not see why a child old enough to sit-up well cannot be trained. But I am very ignorant on the issue(hence I ask), so please spare the flames :):)

[toomanystrollers]

LOL - our son wore cloth diapers and I didn't p-train him until he hit 3. It was over in a week :)

Check out "elimination communication" for parents who don't use diapers on their children at all.

HTH

[KrisM]

I am planning on starting at about 1 year. I have the same thoughts as you. I've read that at about a year, they are eager to mimic you and what you do, so it is a reasonable time to start. I figure, it can't hurt to try it.

There is a book that talks about starting early: Potty Training Your Baby by Katie Van Pelt. She says it may take more months at a year than at 3 years, but you'll be done at a much younger age.

[egoldber]

I think it has to do with a lot of things: diapering in general (not just dispoable diapering), spending lots of time indoors or in not easily cleaned places, spending more time away from home, being in a society where "accidents" outside the home are socially unacceptable, etc.

Lots of people in other cultures have their children spend relatively little time in diapers from a very early age. So they learn to read their children's cues about needing to eliminate much earlier. Thats the (simplified) basics of elimination communication I believe. Those who do this with their childrne from birth get very good at reading those cues. Thats not something we typically do here.

If you don't do that type of "training" pretty early, then it gets to be much harder. Age 18 months to 2 1/2 or so is a HARD age for parent initiated potty training because while kids may have the physical control to PT, they are generally in a very independent phase. And you just can't make a child use the potty if they don't want to. Its also easier when they become really verbal, which is often closer to age 3 for a lot of kids.

And then there are people like me that are basically lazy and would prefer to change diapers until they are 4 rather than clean up any accidents, LOL! (Although DD basically spontaneously potty trained a couple months before her 3rd birthday.)

[aliceinwonderland]

Interesting. My mother said she was attuned to our(I have 2 sisters) clues by 40 days old.She is now the primary care-taker for Erik, and asked if she can attempt to help him clue her in. I said fine, but no crying, discomfort, too much trying. We bought that Royal potty, which he does not like, but she says if she holds him over the toilet with the faucet on, he happily pees. LOL

I am not pushing the issue either way, I'm glad she has the energy to do this (and have a full, home cooked meal for when I make it home at midnight)

[pixelprincess]

In India, diaper training starts pretty early. My mom tells me 4 months onwards...through sounds (don't laugh), etc. Most of the homes have tiled floors (no carpeting), so clean up is a lot easier when messes occur. Check this out....A friend sent this article
http://indiatogether.org/2004/aug/chi-diapers.htm on decommissioning the diaper.

[psophia17]

Can I invite her over to my house for a couple of weeks? DS has pretty good cues for both pee and poo, but I haven't had any luck getting him to the toilet in time...

[NEVE and TRISTAN]

I remember reading some stuff on the web about elimination communication and for some reason thought I'd try it...and then I remembered (or it was brought to my attention) that that means car rides would consist of "I need to go to the bathroom"...from an early age...

I'd rather change diapers, launder his diapers and all then pull over all of the time to get him to a bathroom that is probably very dirty, that I'd have to hold him over...that he'd want to touch everything etc... The thought of that nipped all of that in the bud for me...

Tristan loved sitting on his potty (he has one) when he was like 13-14 months old...but now he blushes when I saw "do you want to sit on your potty"...

No rush here due to the above mentioned...
Neve and Tristan born Feb 25, 2003
* EDD 3/19/05 Baby girl BRONWYN
* Adopting siblings in Ukraine 12-10-04
http://home.nc.rr.com/ourbabytristan

[MamaKath]

Thank you for adding the link to that article. I have a few friends who have married Indian men and their MILs are always mortified that the babies are not trained by age 1. I never understood how you could have a 1 year old trained, but now I do. Maybe this will give me some courage to finally train my 2.5 year old (blushing, he is so showing signs of readiness). very interesting!

[MamaKath]

Thank you for adding the link to that article. I have a few friends who have married Indian men and their MILs are always mortified that the babies are not trained by age 1. I never understood how you could have a 1 year old trained, but now I do. Maybe this will give me some courage to finally train my 2.5 year old (blushing, he is so showing signs of readiness). very interesting!

[kransden]

My dd claps and yells "Mommy Pottied!!!!" for me when we go to the restroom. It is pretty funny. I am glad I don't embarass easily.

Karin and Katie 10/24/02

[pixelprincess]

Kath,
I haven't been brave enough to try! We are going to India in mid Jan and will ask my mom for some advice. Though, we have a very active toddler so can't imagine him sitting still for even a minute.

btw, I was going to respond to your post on traditions on welcoming the baby, but couldn't find the post. this bb moves so fast!

pp

[sadie427]

DS is in Montessori daycare, and they start introducing the potty when they are walking and weaned to a cup, as early as a year, we started at 14 mo. They put them in cloth training pants for periods during the day (diapers for naps, etc.) and sit them on the potty.

We decided to do it at home as well--I know it's unconventional these days, but DS was showing some of the signs of readiness (knows when he's wet, goes to a special place behind a chair to poop, etc.). He doesn't go in the potty regularly, but he does it sometimes, and he doesn't mind sitting there. We use cloth traing pants at home for most of the day, diapers at night and when we go out.

It is a bit more laundry--I don't think you can put them on the potty much with diapers, because by the time you get the diaper off they've already gone. Training pants are a lot easier if you're really going to do it. And they don't feel wet in the disposable ones. But we do laundry twice a week anyway, so while it's an extra load, we do it at the same time as the other laundry so it doesn't feel like too much work.

This is a really good article:
http://www.littleredrobin.com/Toileting_the_Montessori_Way.htm

IMO this is a bit different than Elimination Communication, which is done with younger children, and relies a bit more on training the parents.

[starrynight]

I agree with Beth that a lot of things factor in, not just disposables.

Ds potty trained later than dd did because IMO his speech was not as good as hers at this age so it would have been hard for me to know when he had to go if he couldn't really tell me. He was also very stubborn for bm training. Alex was 2.5ish when he pee trained but he was 3 before he was fully trained including bms. He night trained very early though so I was lucky in that aspect.

Dd was 25 months when she pt'd and she also night trained very early. (even before I tried pting her)

The baby is still in diapers, we have to work on her walking first!! ;)

[Tondi G]

Here is my experience with potty training! My DS didn't train till he was 3... just after his 3rd birthday! One day he decided he didn't want to wear pullups... I said ok.... you want to wear underpants then YOU HAVE to tell mommy when you need to go potty. He did... we never looked back.... he has been trained since with very few accidents!

My SIL has been taking the other approach.... she isfrom Romania and I understand they attempt to tain children very young. They have been putting DD on the little potty since she was around 6 months of age I think. She was on again off again about it.... finally gave up for a while. Then when her DD was 1.5 or 2 she went back to attempting to train her. My neice just turned 3 at the and of October and she is basically trained.... accidents here and there!

From what I've gathered some children are ready sooner... some take a little longer to read their own bodies cues..... they train when they are ready! My DS was one of those toddlers that stripped the minute we got home..... he had lots of naked time.... and we had many puddles to clean up on our hardwood floors. I tried to steer him towards the potty... even brought it into the living room when we were the only ones home..... he didn't use the potty till HE wanted to!

Good Luck! Maybe you'll be one of the lucky ones who gets to stop changing diapers early!!!!!

~Tondi
Mommy to Mason 7/8/01
lil man #2 edd 5/5/05

[LucyG]

LOL! My DD's first two-word sentence was "Bye, TT!" as she waved at the potty! She loves to watch me go, offers to wipe me, flush for me, etc. She also enjoys sitting on her potty, but has not done more than that. At this point, I'm fine with where we are.


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21 months and counting!