Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months

Potty Training Age- why too early?

Been reading a lot of potting training posts lately.. Just wondering why some people say certain ages are too early. Can the baby not process the concept, yet? I know our moms potty trained us early and it all worked out.. I didn't know if I was missing something here.
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Re: Potty Training Age- why too early?

  • I don't know for sure, I just know all the kids I know that are about 6 months to a year older then my LO are still not potty trained. I do know that my LO daycare is excited to help, because they majority of the children in the room up from him still have not started to potty train. We just started really potty training this weekend, but I asked for help because he still does not sense the urgency to potty and he goes and does not care that he is wet.  

  • Before a certain age (18-24 months I think it is) babies just don't have the capability to control it. Nothing they can do about it, and it would be cruel to try and force them to do something they just aren't physically capable of.

    Also it can be difficult to pottytrain if they aren't very verbal and able to reliably tell you when they need to go. This one is easier to deal w/ just take them every hour or so but it is more training the parent then the child.

    W/ this being said, I put DD on the potty for most of her poops. She has a pretty recognizable poop face so I just take her to the toilet and sit her on it. I'm successful about 75% of the time. Pee is harder it's much more hit and miss but I'll sit her on the toilet at diaper change time and after waking (morning and naps).

    I'm not trying to pt her just get her used to the potty. I hope to pt around 2 but I'm going to see how she reacts to it and back off if she has a lot of trouble.

    Before 2 or so it's more elimination control then actual potty training but there's nothing wrong w/ EC if it's something that interests you.

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  • In all honestly because disposable diapers took off and they want to make money so they put out "studies" that show that its good to wait until they are older, they aren't able to night train until their at least 4, it will take longer if they are younger, etc.  NEVERMIND the fact that every other country besides the US PT their kids by the time they are 17 months old and they are completely fine (or the fact that before disposable diapers came along the US would PT their kid much earlier).  My kids were PT at 15 & 17 months old (the only reason why we waited so long with my 17 month old was because I was pregnant and we were scared he'd regress- he was fine & we PT him a month after I gave birth).  Right from the start they were PT for daytime, naps and bedtime.  I personally think the earlier the better- its a lot easier to break a habit of peeing in your pants when you've only been doing it for 15 months vs. 2 1/2 years.  And at the age of 15 months- its fun and its a game there are no power struggles.  It took 2 days for my 15 month old and 3 days for my 17 month old to be dependable on staying dry.  And it wasn't EC- they told us when they have to go- thats all part of PT.  We also CD so I think that helped a lot.
  • My Pedi told me to go ahead and introduce A to the potty.  She has a potty and we practice just going in and sitting on it for now.  I was told to go slow and introduce it one step at a time.  I hope to have her potty trained by the time she 2.  It may happen, it may not.  I am not going to stress over it.
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  • I think it's just easier for the parents to wait until LO is older.

    People who I know who PT young had a more difficult time/more regressions than those who waited until 2.5.

    With that being said, I think this falls under the "every baby is different" category, so I wouldnt rush early PT, but if my child showed signs of being ready I'd encourage. Plus, I am all set with even wanting a PT child. Running errands/going out to eat becomes a lot more challenging with a PT child. I am in no rush.

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  • Well, like with everything else, every kid is different, but the child needs to have muscle control of their bladder in order to potty train and that is something you can't really teach to another person, they have to learn it on their own, so no matter how early a parent would like to see the child trained, until they have that control, there is nothing you can do to make it happen. So for some kids there is such a thing as too early....

    I started training my son shortly after he turned two.  If I sat him on the potty, he knew how to release his bladder and pee into it every time.  If I did not physically put him on the potty though, he did not understand the feeling of his bladder being full and needing to tell me that he had to go, so he would just pee in his pants. He didn't "get" the full bladder feeling until he was 3.

    Now, my DD already understands the concept of what the toilet is for.  If she is in the bathroom while one of us is going, she will point and say pee pee, but if I sit her on the potty she just smiles as me. She doesn't understand yet how to let her bladder go and I'm pretty sure she does not understand the feeling of her bladder being full yet and needing to tell me she has to go.

    Since I've been through this once before, I do not plan on beginning real potty training until my DD verbally  tells me that she needs to pee pee in the potty. Before that, I know I will just be putting unneccessary stress on the both of us.

     

  • Well, early as regards to PT depends on whom you ask. FWIW, the worldwide average age for PT is 18 months. The average age for PT in the US alone is 36 months. Yes, that's right, the US PT children much later than in other places generally. So early here is late in other places.

    So I wouldn't consider 14-15 months too early, depending on the child of course.
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  • Most of us were in cloth diapers as babies, which makes it easier to potty train early. Kids actually get the feel of being wet. Disposable diapers are too good. They keep baby so dry that they never feel the wet after they pee.

    It's so difficult to even change DD2's diaper that I don't think it's worth fighting her trying to get her to sit on a potty for any length of time. Plus at her age, it would be all on me to help her. I'd have to help her with her clothes, remind her to go, etc. etc. My daycare doesn't do any sort of potty training in the infant room either. Right now DD2's room is infant to about 1 1/2 years. The next room up is about 1 1/2 - 2 years, and they're not doing any sort of potty training either.

    We started potty training DD1 when she was 2y4m. That was the point when she started telling me she had to go before her diaper was wet. She was mostly able to pull her pants up and down and get on the potty herself (with a step stool).

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    Before a certain age (18-24 months I think it is) babies just don't have the capability to control it. Nothing they can do about it, and it would be cruel to try and force them to do something they just aren't physically capable of.

    Also it can be difficult to pottytrain if they aren't very verbal and able to reliably tell you when they need to go. This one is easier to deal w/ just take them every hour or so but it is more training the parent then the child.

    W/ this being said, I put DD on the potty for most of her poops. She has a pretty recognizable poop face so I just take her to the toilet and sit her on it. I'm successful about 75% of the time. Pee is harder it's much more hit and miss but I'll sit her on the toilet at diaper change time and after waking (morning and naps).

    I'm not trying to pt her just get her used to the potty. I hope to pt around 2 but I'm going to see how she reacts to it and back off if she has a lot of trouble.

    Before 2 or so it's more elimination control then actual potty training but there's nothing wrong w/ EC if it's something that interests you.

    This, but also we wanted to get him exited about the potty so that it isn't something that mom and dad want him to do later in case he has a case of "No's" regarding the potty when he is 2.  We just want it to be something in his daily routine for now.
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  • It depends on what you consider potty trained.

    If ALL it means is that you get her pees and poops in the potty instead of a diaper, then there really isn't a "too early".  EC'ers, who are on the ball with it :), can do this at a few months old.

    If you mean that the kid knows before they have to pee, can tell you this, can wait a few minutes (at least) to get to a potty but remain focused on the fact that they have to go, can pull down their clothes/underwear on their own, pee or poop in the potty without assistance, and get dressed again, then yes, there's too early, as that requires a lot of fine motor skills, language skills, and impulse control development.

    Of course, there's a whole lot of room in between as well where you are providing various levels of assistance from the parent.

    It is NOT true that infants have no awareness or control over their bladder sphincter.  It is certainly nothing like that of an adults, but they are born with a small awareness and minute control that can either be developed (the whole point of EC - prevent them from learning to ignore their cues because they can pee/poop in a diaper and stay dry) or ignored and trained later.

    Earlier "potty training" will require more involvement on the part of the parent, of course, and really depends on what sort of commitment YOU are willing/ready/able to make!

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  • image*LrCg*:
    In all honestly because disposable diapers took off and they want to make money so they put out "studies" that show that its good to wait until they are older, they aren't able to night train until their at least 4, it will take longer if they are younger, etc.  NEVERMIND the fact that every other country besides the US PT their kids by the time they are 17 months old and they are completely fine (or the fact that before disposable diapers came along the US would PT their kid much earlier).

    This..  The average age for a fully potty trained child around the world is 18 months. A lot of them start between 12-15 months old. Only the US is the average age between 3-4 years old. I hadn't really done the research until my pedi asked if we had started yet at our 18 month appointment and was surprised when I said no. So I started reading a lot of articles (mostly from Europe and Australia but some from the US too) about age to start potty training and how. I was really surprised by what I read. Our kids had readiness signs for awhile but I was nervous. We started the plunge a little over a week ago and it is going really well. 

    It may take them a little longer to get it down completely then a 3 year old who can have a conversation about it but that is ok for me. You just need to decide which is best for your LO and you. There are pros and cons to both doing it early and doing it later.

    I found the article below interesting...

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kirsten-dirksen/who-decides-when-to-potty_b_265227.html
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  • Plenty of kids worldwide and in earlier times (like pp's mentioned) PTed at a young age. This works great for some kids, but I also know so many parents who said they started PT younger (around 18-24m) and it was months of accidents, messes, etc., where most parents who waited till their kids were around 3 said it happened pretty quickly and with few accidents. So I think it's a matter of what you as a parent have the time/energy/willingness to deal with along with your child's signs of readiness.
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  • I potty trained at 22 months (he tells me when he needs to go and rarely has accidents except at night, to me that is potty trained), and it worked great for us.

    That being said, I'd really like to see the data on all this "average age of potty training" and "we're the latest in the world", etc.  For one thing, defining potty trained is difficult.  As someone earlier said, if you mean able to go to the potty completely unassisted, you're looking at 3, 4 or even later (plenty of moms still have to help their 5 year olds wipe their butts after a poop).  Plus, it seems like data collection could be skewed because it's all self-reported.

    I hate conspiracy theories about "the reason we potty train late is bc of the diaper companies".  Let's face it.  Having a kid in diapers is convenient in a lot of ways.  I know I sometimes wish he was still in diapers when he wants to go potty for the fourth time in one grocery shopping trip.  

    Potty train when you're ready and your child is ready.  Usually that's around 2 years old.  Maybe 18 months, maybe 2 and a half.  Whatever works for your family is right.

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  • imagehopecounts:

    Before a certain age (18-24 months I think it is) babies just don't have the capability to control it. Nothing they can do about it, and it would be cruel to try and force them to do something they just aren't physically capable of.

    my DS is14 months old and he has started to want to use the potty... he knows when he has to pee and tells me most of the time by running to the bathroom... we dont make it all the time but he is getting there... so to say babies dont have the capability to control it i dont agree with... one morning i was feeding him snack while he was running around and he took a bite ripped off his diaper and went to the bathroom and tried to get on the potty... i helped him up and he ran out of the bathroom then pooped on the living room floor.BUT! he knew he had to go and where the potty was

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  • People are wrong, it's def not too early. Now, it does depend on your child. My dd just now has started to not pee at night, but I think she still needs some time. But we will start in a couple of months
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