To potty train at 16 months.

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I read that in the 50s the average age to potty train was between 15-18 months whereas now it's 3.5 years!!

DD is 16 months and showing awareness of bowel movements, e.g. pointing at her nappy and saying "po po" (although not consistently) and taking herself off to a corner to do her business.

So we thought it would be good to at least start the process of getting her used to potties by having them in the house for her to get used to seeing. Although that's as far as we've got so far... But hey, it's a start!

Anyone else started potty training at a similarly young age?

@BumbleBerries Thank you for that link!

My SIL is from a different country/culture and vocally horrified at how late we train DC in this country. She's going to do it from birth. I thought DD was early at 17 months (clean and dry day and night) but SIL assures me that she was very late indeed DS was around 2.4 ish.

Mine was completely potty trained during the day at 26 months, he did it himself and literally went from missing all cues one day to being completely dry the next. It took him another year and a half to go dry at night and again that happened quite literally overnight, wet one night dry the next from there on.
There's is no harm in trying, but don't push it if she gets upset. In my experience, girls seem to get it a bit earlier :-)

Honestly, I'd rather change nappies than traipse round all the toilets in the city.
Once they're out of nappies, you can guarantee that they will want the toilet everywhere you go.
All of mine so far have been dry in the day by 2.5 and dry overnight by 3.5 and that was definitely early enough!

I remember on Room 101 the comedian Catherine Ryan claimed she trained her daughter from 6 weeks! I thought she made an interesting point - that by the time babies are usually starting to be trained here they’re aware that someone is changing and cleaning them so they’ve no incentive. The other guests (and Frank Skinner) were astonished but she claimed it could be done.

You may not be able to fully train this young but getting your DC used to sitting on a potty and maybe even pooing on it so young would be great. Nearly all of my friends who potty trained their children when they were 3 or older had problems with them pooing (withholding etc). Those of us who potty trained at around 2-2.5 did not have any such problems. In my experience, older children develop a fear of pooing that younger toddlers don't seem to experience.

I potty trained DD at 2.5. I was lucky, she hated being wet/ dirty and we barely had an accident.

DS is only 14 months. Had this conversation with my mum. She had me and my older brother (born in 1979 and 1982) trained at about 20 months. We were cloth nappies and apparently it was a doddle. My younger brother was born in 1994. He was 3 when potty trained. She thinks that she didn't put the work in early on (it was worth the effort when it massively reduced the washing), and my brother was comfier in his disposables than we were in cloth.

I've had 4 kids and they've been toilet trained between 18 - 24 months.
I used to put them on the toilet (sat between my legs, reading them books) whenever they looked like they were going to poo (start to tense, go a bit red etc). Started doing that when they started weaning at 6 months.
Meant I very rarely had to change a pooey nappy after about 7 - 8 months. They were reliant on me taking them to start with, but sometimes they would crawl / toddle to the toilet.
Then the wees were easier to train - one just got it naturally at 18 months, 2 took a bit of effort of a few days of wees on the floor before they got it and 1 I tried a few days without a nappy periodically and she got it by 2yrs 2 months.
If you have the time to watch your child for clues and are happy to spend a bit of time waiting for them to try on the toilet then go for it.

Give it a go. I have 3 DC and one was dry and clean by day at 15 months. The other 2 were older (2 and 18 months).

My DD who was trained at 15 months was very self-motivated and could do her own leggings and knickers. My DD who trained later still expects help now and she’s just finished reception! There’s no way to tell unless you give it a go.

Night-time dryness is completely different, and not really trainable. One of mine was still in night nappies at 5, the other two were dry at night within days of starting toilet training.

I think kids can feel when they're already weeing and pooing before they can be aware in time to get to a potty and sort themselves out etc. I don't see any harm in trying but definitely don't force it. My friend tried to potty train her 2 year old before he was ready and it created massive issues - he was terrified of going out for months and started withholding his poos. Bloody nightmare for her. I waited until mine were 100% definitely ready and the whole process was really easy - barely any accidents all done in less than a week.