To think most children aren't potty trained by 18mo?

[icovetthee]

I was at my dad's talking to his DP about my daughters progress, how she's interested in the potty, sits on it and has started to tell us when she has done a dirty nappy when she says "She should already be trained. Both of mine were out of nappies by 18mo as is every other child. Children today are much more advanced than years ago too". I told her the average age is 3 and she told me not to be so silly and to ramp up the training or DD would be teased.

DC1 did it in her own time at 3.2 and was trained within a week which I thought was fine. It worked for us and that's fine but it has got me wondering.

AIBU to think most children aren't potty trained by 18mo?

My nan said toddlers were normally just left without a nappy for much of the day (to cut down on washing). And she did a lot of elimination communication (but before it was called that ). So the term "potty trained" may have been used more loosely than it is nowadays.

My brother, sister and me were all potty trained by then. My DS was trained at 19 months and I started sitting him on the potty at 8-9 months to get him used to it decided to fully go for it when I had some time off work and all done and dusted in a week.

I used real nappies though and they are not so comfy as disposables.

Yanbu! I had this with the mil. It drove me mad, she even tried to force ds to sit on a potty which put him back months!

Your dc will do it when they are ready!

Both mils children have adult toilet issues and I'm convinced its due to forced potty training!

My nan said 6 months, she would take the potty in the pram and sit her babies on it every half hour or so... Guess that was a lot easier then washing all those nappys!

I always thought DD would be later than DC1. We had tried and tried with DC1 from 2-3 but she was having accidents at least once every day until suddenly she didn't anymore. I think its because I put less pressure on her.

Both of her children were born mid-late 80's as they're of a similar age to me and my dad turned around and said "Icovetthee never used nappies as she could walk to the toilet by 3 months"

My nephew is "potty trained" ie he wets himself about ten times a day but doesn't wear nappies. I have known a fair few like that.

My DC was quite late to be trained but I realise that despite not wearing nappies from just after turning 3 she was properly trained at 3.8 when she could take herself to the loo, tell me when she needed to go rather than rely on me to ask 50 times a day and virtually never have any accidents. She was dry at night at the same time but I think that may have been coincidence.

I just think there's so much pressure and she's only just turned two, bless her. I'm more concerned with playgroup starting in January than throwing away the disposables and hoping she can get out the word "Potty" in time.

How can you bare to change a 3 yr old and overs pooey bum though? I found 18months hard enough as its proper poo then but I couldn't imagine having to do a 3.5 or whatever every day.

stifnstav I started putting mine on potty at about that age, while I was changing their nappies.

Often, stuff came out. Any poo caught in potty being one less to wash off a nappy. People did think I was bonkers though.

Easier to change a pooy bum than to have clothes/floor/walls covered in the stuff because the child isn't ready!

All 5 of mine trained just before they were 3. OH tried to do it at 2.5 for my SS but he just wasn't ready and had constant accidents, was fine when I potty trained him at 3 though.

YANBU!

Do it in your own time and save yourself a lot of stress!

Mine were both about 2.6 and then we successfully did it inside a week. they were always wearing 'real' nappies anyway, but I waited until they started communicating to me their nappies were wet and also we did sit on the potty every day or night and there were clear signs that they understood what was required and we'd had plenty of successful potty trips!

The 18m thing is probably true, achieved by sitting the kids on the potty much more frequently than we ever would these days, and without them asking to go. Really they were not necessarily potty trained as such but 'reflex trained'

I have been having this from all the family this Christmas too... DS is 2.5 and in fact I think he is ready and we are going to start tomorrow (wish me luck!), but i don't think there is anything wrong with him still being in nappies at this age!

Mine were both 2 1/2 exactly - with DD1 I made the mistake of starting earlier because of peer pressure but it was a disaster and I gave up after a day. 3 months later DD1 refused the nappy completely, we let her get on with it and she was sorted in a week - dry, taking herself to the toilet independently, poos, everything.

With DD2 we just waited for the nappy refusal and did the same thing. No effort on our part involved at all. It's so much easier when they're really ready to do it.

I know of a couple of 18 month old trained kids but it isn't the norm in my circle of acquaintances.

Both of ours dry daytimes at just shy of three years old, DS1 was dry at night quite quickly after that, DS2 not there yet. Both needed a little encouragement aka bribes so we didn't wait for them to show us the signs really.

In the olden days I believe there was more urgency to get them out of wet terry nappies which gave them nappy rash which is comparatively rare with disposables so you'd get more placing on the pot after feeds and drinks and more bribes and more barearsed running about I daresay.

It's not just really old school mil advice! My ds1 was trained at 18 months, dry day and night a couple of weeks later, he's 12 now. I took two weeks off work to do it and he took to it straightaway ish.

I now have ds2 who's 5 months, not sure what I'll do when the time comes as people now seem to think it's weird to do it before 2.

My mum says I was trained day and night by 18 months but she also says its purely because I was in terry nappies (think disposables were available but too expensive in 1974) and she didn't have a washing machine so it was all a bit of a nightmare

I have known a couple of kids who were trained before 2 and to be honest they all had frequent accidents. My DD was 2.5 and that's fine by me...

My dcs (now 30 and 31) were trained at 2.2 and 2.5 respectively. They wore terry nappies which really weren't anywhere near as much hassle as people think. So I certainly didn't train them to avoid washing nappies but instead, waited until they had the communication skills and interest. My former MIL who had her babies in the 1950s was of the generation that started potty training at about 6 months. However, it was much more a case of conveniently catching poos and wees than it was conscious potty training.

My dgd will be 2 next week and is now quite interested in potty training. She regularly asks to go for a poo and sometimes actually produces one on the loo. You could take her out of nappies right now but the number of accidents would prove that she's not quite ready yet and it seems silly to rush the process when she's well on the way.

I'd say 18 months was early to be trained both now and when my dcs were at that age. My MIL and her sisters had miracle children of course who came out of the womb clutching potties....