Signs of potty training readiness?

jnnfrrose6

I've read that people start potty training because their LO is showing signs of interest in it, but what are these signs you're looking for? I'm not in any rush at this point to start DS, but I'm wondering if there's something I need to be watching for and/or encouraging, or if it's one of those "you'll know it when you see it" things. We do ask DS if he's pooping when it's obvious that's what he's doing and we talk about going to the bathroom around him when we need to go, but just curious what others are seeing/adoring.

laurelita42

My DD started taking off and heading into the next room, like she wanted 'alone time' when she knew she was about to go. I had heard that was a sign of readiness, and so we started working on teaching her how to pull her pants up and down. She is still on the fence about using the actual potty... sometimes she will ask to go in the bathroom and sit with success, but other times she won't want anything to do with the process. I haven't really pushed her about it yet since she's still young and I don't want to make her dislike her potty or anything like that.

*LrCg*

For us, we CD and at 1 year I remove the fleece liners from their diapers so they feel the wetness. Within a month they would either get fussy when wet or tell us. In addition they started staying dry for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. We PT 2 of them at 15 months old & 1 at 17 months old (he was trained so late because he was our first & we waited until we were on baby like leave). All were very easy to do (especially when I compare them to my friends who waited until their child was 2-3 years old) and took just a few days. For me, I think the key was doing it early prior to the no phase. I'm also old school in thinking so I treat it as a regular milestone. 30+ years ago kids were trained by 17 months so there's no reason they can't now. I've also never experienced regression issues with any of them.

ashiscute

For my DD the biggest sign was staying dry for 2- 3 hours at a time.  She was not telling us when she had to go (although she was very delayed in speech and didn't say much of anything at this point).  We started putting her on the potty before bath time right around 2.  Not long after she peed the first time she started peeing more frequently and we went from there.  

I think everyone might be a bit different in what signs they look for.  

jnnfrrose6

Thanks everyone. DS is in daycare FT so I'm sure I'll be working with them when we're ready to start. As I said, I'm not in any rush to start him if he isn't ready, I was just wondering what others noticed with their kids as signs because sometimes I feel like some of what he does just goes over my head and I don't pick up the subtleties since I'm not with him all the time.

minervacullen

DD stays dry for 2-3 hours and hides when she poops. I'm going to buy a potty for her and see how interested she is. I won't push it, but if she's interested I'll give it a try. She's pretty verbal, so I'm sure she'd be able to tell me.

Sprite2012

@*lrcg*  you have a PM from me!

ETA:  edited to tag correctly, I hope

ETA again:  Apparently, I don't know how to tag :-(