Potty training AIBU to think friend is telling a little porky?

[Sockmonster23]

She said her daughter now 17 was potty trained at 7 months 🤔 now I've had 3 kids and none of them at 7 months were even remotely able to go to a potty. She insists it was 7 months! 12 months maybe just but 7?

My son is 2.5 and a great speaker, he tells me when he has done dirty nappy but will not sit on potty or toilet but I will keep trying.

My DS was doing all poos on potty from about 6mths once he was no longer only breastfeeding. He could sit up then so I would sit him on the potty every time we did a nappy change while I sorted out the change mat & stuff (had a folding potty for out & about). He was sorted for wees as well by 1st birthday, as in would stay try between taking to the toilet when out or taking himself to potty at home. This was only day time, as night dryness is controlled by a different body mechanism and can't be taught in the same way.

I used washable training pants which are waterproof to prevent leaks but inside doesn't have the gel so the wearer is more aware of the wetness when they've weed, which in theory is supposed to help. I think it does, because in the past when people used terry cloth nappies the children seemed to be toilet trained earlier - maternal desire not to have tonnes of cloth nappies to launder probably helped too!

I imagine she stuck her daughter on a potty endlessly throughout the day and also cleaned up after loads of accidents. After all, how is a seven month old supposed to take themselves to a potty or toilet, take down their clothes and go?

Potty trained is not something that a child can be until they can walk and actually put themselves on a toilet or potty. Hovering your child over a potty to do the toilet is not potty trained! I would imagine that is what she did. Seems silly to me when there's more important to things to focus on at that age like learning to crawl, eat solid foods etc

Dangling a small baby over a potty several times a day in attempt to get them to hold their bladder sounds ridiculous and a recipe for bladder problems and infections.

Don’t be so narrow minded and judgemental. Actually it is a much cleaner, more natural, healthier and perfectly sensible way to respond to a babies toiletting needs , which works with their natural reflexes and their instinct not to soil themselves. Using nappies as a toilet is a contemporary invention that makes life easier for parents.

Using nappies as a toilet is a contemporary invention that makes life easier for parents.

Yes, a lot easier! I'm really not trying to be rude but do you really not have anything better to do with your day than spend it taking a baby on and off a potty?

Funny as I was told by drs and hv that children don't have any bladder control until around 2 years old.

Of course bladder control is something that develops as babies get older, but it’s not an on/off switch (zero to hundred) - it develops gradually over time. Even newborns have an instinct not to soil themselves, that’s why they often go the second you take off their nappy.

Yes, a lot easier! I'm really not trying to be rude but do you really not have anything better to do with your day than spend it taking a baby on and off a potty.

Yes agreed. And indeed I do have many, a lot of better things to do. I also have a lot of better things to do than bf-ing all day, or singing ‘the wheels on the bus’ for the umpteenth time, or preparing food that my baby chucks all over the floor, or any number of things that I do for my baby. Practicing EC is a parenting choice like any other. There are many benefits including for me- for example I very rarely have to deal with pooey nappies, which are beyond disgusting. I don’t do it as religiously as some- we still use nappies as a back up - as catching all the wees at this age is a challenge especially when out and about.

EC is quite legitimate. I'm not sure I would call it being potty trained in the conventional sense (as that, to me, would involve the child taking themselves to the potty), but it's entirely achievable and used worldwide. You generally have to start very early though.

My son was 2 years old when he was fully toilet trained and I thought that was brilliant! Turns out my mum was fully toilet trained at 12 months! Apparently the older generation did it asap. Each to their own

My mum did us early as cloth nappies and no washing machine was a faff and I was born late 70s almost 80s.

My sister born in 86 was the same.

Potty training at 2.5 or 3.5 is more of a newer thing.

I started my kids early so they got used to the sensation of sitting with a bare bum and it was easier than my friends whose older children had gotten used to a covered bum.

We did EC (which as others have said, is not toilet training), and my daughter was reliable from 14 months apart from periods of illness/teething. She could indicate that she needed the toilet from birth in various ways, if I paid attention, though it wasn't till 8 months she started making an actual sign (spontaneously; I didn't teach her it) of pointing downwards when she needed to go. Apparently it's not uncommon for ECed children to do that.

Seems unlikely but I couldn't get bothered about this!

What are the advantages of EC?

Lies

@Sockmonster23 Of COURSE she is lying. NO baby is potty trained at 7 bloody months FGS. You can't seriously have believed this?!

MIL also claimed to have XH potty trained before a year old. I didn't believe a word of it, because she also insisted that he had full control of his bladder and bowels from birth and only had a wet/dirty nappy after a feed - like instantly after a feed and was bone dry in between times. He was a wonderful baby apparently pity it didn't last until he was an adult and slept all night every night from birth onwards. Yeah, right.

We did a form of EC, pretty much dictated by DD as she disliked dirty nappies from an early age (We used cloth so she was probably more aware). We also used baby signing so she would actually ask to go on the potty from very young - less than a year old. We started by sitting her on the potty at nappy change time - and it just seemed to happen naturally. She absolutely hated to poo in a nappy. Even then she was only reliable dry around 22 months, cracked both day and night simultaneously. She was a bit of a celebrity at nursery for going in pants at that age.

DS was not so easy, but was still out of nappies by 2.5.

@rosiejaune amazing!! The past few weeks I swear my baby has been telling me when she needed to go. This very afternoon she waved her hand at me in a way that I thought meant potty (I have been signing ‘potty’ but she hasn’t mastered the sign yet) and indeed she needed to poo and went as soon as I put her on! I wasn’t sure if I was just imagining/ reading into things/ it was a coincidence, but it’s been several times in the last couple of weeks that I’ve thought this (she turned 9 months yesterday). So cool to know that other babies have done this and it’s perfectly possible :).

Sometimes gravity just does it’s thing 🤷🏻‍♀️

She'll be talking about what is nowadays called Elimination Communication.

People like to diss it, but imho they're also the same people who like to be all dramatic about the disgustingness of a baby weeing on their hand when they do nappy changes. I can't be doing with that.

Me, I like to be practical. I know that babies wee when you take the nappy off, so instead of being really fast about putting the new one on, and then whining that it had been weed on not five minutes later, I gave babies an opportunity to wee and poo over a potty at nappy changes, before I put a new one on.

And they did! I congratulated them on weeing into the potty, the nappy stayed dry for longer, the babies were less prone to nappy rash, and the whole business naturally segued into normal potty-training as they became toddlers.

Ok so maybe not so uncommon. I just can't imagine mine at 7 months lol. Mine were all over 2 and my youngest now is 2 so we will be starting. He is ready just doesn't want to sit on potty but tells me when he has done it.

I know my mum said I was under 2 but she said it's not possible to at 7 months. Ehat possible understanding does a baby have! Never heard of elimination communication and yet I've lots of mum friends. Learn something all the time

@RiddleyW ahh many. I don’t want to sound like a zealot, but I had never heard of this method and then a friend told me and I started trying it and I’m such a convert. So here goes:

1. it’s much cleaner. They don’t get poo all over themselves (front/ back/ down legs). Usually all you need is a bit of toilet tissue and all clean.
2. reduces nappy rash.
3. we’ve never had to deal with a ‘poo explosion’/ leaking nappy.
4. it’s more comfortable for the baby - supports their natural reflexes to hold them upright in a squatting position with the air beneath their bum - helps them cope with issues such as constipation/ diarrhoea- helps them fully evacuate bladder / bowels in one go. Pooing can be tough for babies (especially newborns) and trying to do it lying down in a nappy doesn’t help.
5. it reduces the number of nappies you use. Saved money/ waste/ water/ more environmentally friendly.
6. it facilitates communication and bonding with baby. In the same way that you learn feeding and sleeping cues you become more attentive to your babies toiletting needs/ habits and you are able to respond to that need (active participant in the toileting process rather than just waiting for them to soil their nappy) - it gives you an extra tool in your box for soothing a distressed baby/ provides more information about what is going on with your baby etc.
7. Potty training tends to happen much earlier and naturally / gradually , rather than being a big drama you have to contend with down the line.
8. it’s really satisfying :)

I could always tell when DS needed to poo (from his face I mean) so he pood in the loo from six months. He rarely ever did one in his nappy (perhaps occasionally on waking from a nap, before I'd gone in to him).
Took him years to be reliably dry in the day though... still had damp patches into Junior school. He was dry at night at just turned two too. He just couldn't be bothered to stop playing and go to the loo in the day... grrrr.

DS has a friend who was out of nappies a while before she was 2 (she was fast/first at everything). DS was 2 3/4’s (with a lot of encouragement) before he was out of nappies during the day (but he was quick to be out of nappies at night). Whereas DD decided on her 2nd birthday that she didn’t want to wear nappies anymore (I thought it was a bit soon) but she was stroppy and didn’t wear a nappy again during the day. But it took her awhile to be out if nappies at night time. They are all different. But I think your friend is lying about 7 months.