Average potty training age

[monsterad]

What the average age a child is potty trained during the day? I know night time is different for a few reasons

In my experience and those of my friends, somewhere between age 2 and 4 for most children
with a few outliers either side of that bracket and exceptions for individual children (e.g., additional needs).

My four DC potty trained at 2, 3, 3 and a half, and 2 and a half.

The average isn't very important. Signs that a child is ready are important. Such as hiding to poo, mentioning that they are weeing or stopping what they are doing to wee, long gaps of dry nappies because they are withholding.

Readiness definitely the most important factor and - generally speaking - the more ready the child is, the quicker and easier it is to potty train them.

I remember my nan telling me "the sooner you start, the longer it takes".

My twins were 2 years 10 months, we had tried before but it wasn't happening.

If you believe my mother and mother in law we were massively late and clearly my husband and I were potty trained out of the womb

I potty trained my daughter at 2-2.5 years old. I’m also a teacher and have multiple children starting nursery not potty trained (3 upwards) however in my experience most are usually more than ready by then (not including SEN)

It was 2 years 6 months for girls and 2 years 9 months for boys when I potty trained my kids (it always sticks in my head because my older two are boy/ girl and coincidentally potty trained really easily at exactly those ages, but then my 3rd child just wasn't interested and I gave up several times before finally succeeding when he was nearly 3 and a half!)

In the end it's a pretty useless factoid though, it doesn't really matter as long as they're out of nappies and secure about going to the toilet before they start school (unless there's a developmental delay or physical issue etc. making that unrealistic).

When my DS1 turned 2, I felt a lot of pressure to potty train. Very stressful! Then I just relaxed and went with it, all fell into place. Am doing the same currently for DS2 . I hate the pressure of potty training, not for parents or the children. They will get it!

I remember my nan telling me "the sooner you start, the longer it takes"
Excellent advice.
It really depends on the DC my DS was easy to train for urine as he rarely needs too he has 3 massive wee's a day, he wouldn't potty train for a poo, we still have issues he is terrified to sit on a toilet.

If you believe my mother and mother in law we were massively late and clearly my husband and I were potty trained out of the womb

Haha! My in-laws were like that. I remember FIL showing me a photo of DH riding a bike with no stabilisers and proudly telling me "he was so clever, can you believe he was only two years old!". Unless he was on a diet of anabolic steroids and growth hormones, DH in the photo is clearly aged five or six.

My daughter is 26m and we have been potty training for about 2 weeks now. It's going well enough that we are definitely not going back to nappies and Im confident she was more than ready for it. I don't know that many people with small children but of the ones that I do, none of them have tried to potty train until about 2yrs 10m+. I think people tend to train later nowadays than in the past as when I speak to older people they always seem a bit shocked that so many kids 3+ are still in nappies. I don't think there's a right or wrong answer though, depends on the child and the family etc.

When they're ready to potty train it only takes 2 or 3 days and is easy.

When they're not ready it drags on and on and is frustrating.

However some children (like my dc3) are ready really but just not interested and need the right incentive! Telling the difference can be frustrating in itself.

Anywhere between 2 and 4 is average. My dc were toilet trained between 3y 9m and 4y 9m.

I should say actually when I say 'ready' im not sure I mean 'ready' the way other people I do. I mean more 'capable' - physically and emotionally of course. For example my daughter often doesn't want to walk up or down the stairs or wants to be carried about even though she is perfectly capable of walking. I don't consider whether she's 'ready' to stop being carried when I say no, I consider whether she's capable of doing it. I'm not really sure what ready means.

I also don't know anyone who trained with zero accidents ever in a couple of days even children who were 3.5+. I have a lot of family and friends who work in early years who describe children 3+ frequently soiling themselves when being potty trained etc. Which is fine, it's all normal. But waiting longer does not necessarily mean no accidents or that it will happen quicker or easier. It might, but equally it may not. It depends on the child.

People used to routine train in the days of cloth nappies. It's easy to routine train by putting a child on the potty for 5 minutes every hour. I know someone who did at about 16 months due to her child having incredibly sensitive skin and horrendous nappy rash pretty much permanently.

However when she started preschool she was always having accidents - she wasn't really properly toilet trained, just able to "go" on demand when put on the potty hourly, and was actually really late to be independently clean/dry and to actually recognise for herself when she had a full bladder/ needed to urinate.

I'm a 70s child and although I doubt anyone started school in nappies in my class (it was still 95% cloth squares then and one teacher to 30 children, I don't think anyone was changing terry nappies) I remember classmates having accidents as completely normal at the start of school, and one of my sisters always came home with a plastic bag of wet clothes when she started reception.

My daughter is 27 months and I am going to give it a go this weekend...

Between 2 and 3. We left it quite ‘late’ (32 months) because I didn’t feel like I could cope with any extra stress during lockdown. I’m glad I waited, it was really easy, no stress and no accidents, she was just old enough to want to. I’m sure she could have been trained a lot earlier if I’d been inclined to put a lot of effort into it.

MeadowHay my older two had one accident each. DD at toddlers group when busy playing and ds1 when he'd announced needing to go but didn't make it in time. DS1 was also night dry from the same night we started daytime training without ever once wetting the bed (he's a teenager now) which was remarkable to me because DD and DS2 wet the bed occasionally for ages. DS1 just looked at me in disbelief when I tried to put a nappy on him for bed after his first day without nappies and said "[his own name] doesn't have nappies!" I did the towels and double sheet thing on his toddler bed fully expecting to change the bed in the night, but no - he toddler himself to the potty in the bathroom at 5am and considered that morning, but he never wet the bed, ever!

My experience has been that if the child wants to potty train it's easy. If they don't it drags on.

I’m quite surprised that ppl haven’t even started by 2.5. My girls were toilet trained and dry by just over 2 and DS by 2.5, never used a potty. 3 & 4 yr olds in nappies is unnecessary unless SEN.

2 and 9 months for both of mine - boy and girl. Earlier attempts failed. Both were clean and dry day and night within a week.

DD is 2 years 7 months and we gave it a go the last 2 days. There were some accidents obviously but a few successes too where she recognised she needed to to and went on the potty.

However yesterday every time she sat on the potty and was weeing she was in absolute bits in tears. Not sure what was happening there but she's got a bit of a cold and might not be feeling 100%. So she's back in nappies for now and we'll give it another go soon. She's talking about the potty, knows what it's for etc but we don't want to pressure her or have her upset about it, so are taking it easy.

My eldest was almost 3, although it took until she was 3.5 for poos.

DD2 is 6 weeks away from her 3rd birthday and has just shown an interest in the toilet, so now that I have a long weekend off work, we will start properly going for it.

@SBTLove

I’m quite surprised that ppl haven’t even started by 2.5. My girls were toilet trained and dry by just over 2 and DS by 2.5, never used a potty. 3 & 4 yr olds in nappies is unnecessary unless SEN.

All children are different......

We tried to potty train my little girl at 20 months around the start of lockdown, as she was showing signs of being ready and we thought we would give it a go. Plus she was very advanced in areas and met other milestones early like crawling/ walking. Poo was fine and she had no accidents, we had a few dry days but otherwise at day 10 she was still having wee accidents so we stopped.

At 2 years 2 months she asks to use the toilet and would probably be ready now but we are moving soon and she will be starting a new nursery. So I think we’ll wait till 2.6 to make things easier for her. I don’t regret trying and I think she learned a lot and still remembers most of it.

I wouldn’t take much notice of what’s average tbh! You just have to go with what you think and hope for the best. I think a lot of it is to do with lifestyle- the older generation were mostly SAHM’s and not having to worry about nursery/ just generally spent more time at home than we do now.

@PinkSpring
Yes I’m well aware, I’m just surprised at no attempt even by 3, it seems quite a recent thing, my youngest is 15 and starting at 2 was commonplace when she was little.