Have we lost the art of early potty training?

[morningpaper]

Have we lost the art of early potty training?

Our grand/parents claim that we were all out of nappies by 12 months etc. etc.

BUT ... Maybe they are right?

Various old-lady-friends advised me to put dd on a potty when I changed her nappy 'to see if there was anything there'. So I did this from 9 months. All her nappies day and night were dry by 18 months.

DD2 is 3 months and I am putting her on the toilet (with toddler seat) when I change her nappies. I think that perhaps the sitting/squatting position and pressure of chubby thighs against abdomen helps with bowel movements - whatever, she is probably doing 75% of her bowel movements in the toilet after about 5 seconds of sitting there. This saves me a lot of washing/soaking of shitty nappies. And I assume she will also train fairly early.

Have we lost the art of early potty training? With disposable nappies have we lost a lot of the incentive to early potty training? Is it all a scam by Pampers to get us to buy another two years worth of nappies? What do you think?

I think it is such an individual thing. I have been an ardent follower of Tracy Hogg's methods and so far everything we have tried has been really successful. But when i read her methods on potty training in 'Solves all Your problems' I just knew it wasn't for us. My DD is almost two and shows no signs at all of having an control, or desire to use the potty. She sits on one when it takes her fancy but if i suggest it to her she is very adamant that she does not want to. She has weed and pood in it but by sheer chance. Sometimes she will sit on it for 15 mins reading a book, while i am on the loo reading the paper. She is quite happy doing this and then gets up and goes and wees in the bedroom. She also seems perfectly happy being in a dirty or wet nappy. I hasten to add, i change her as soon as I know she is dirty, and at very reguarly times in case she is wet, but often she quite clearly tells me she doesn't want her nappy changed (they are cloth ones). I think if you know your child, you know which method will suit you in the end, at at what point to start. Well that is what i am hoping anyway. I might get back to in desperation if she is still in nappies this time next year!!!!

Hulababy. When you say your DD was PTd in 3 days led by herself - what did she do? I am fairly sure that my DD will at some point soon decide she wants to be out of nappies but I am interested to find out how other children have indicated this and how parents responded. The idea of leaving it to her decide when and how and it happening really quickly sounds very appealing. Although i appreciate it may not happen like that.

She decided one morning she didn't want to wear her pulls ups anymore - she'd been in pulls ups from 16 months as she refused to put a proper nappy on. She was a little bit sore, so I figured ok - no problems as we were staying in anyway and it was a bank holiday weekend so longer time off work than usual.

First day she had no pants on and just kept the potty close by - she wouldn't accept help at all and just went for it, with just a couple of accidents caused by not getting there in time. Second day we put pants on, but no trousers/skirt. Again good. Day three - no accidents from that day onwards, and wearing proper clothes and going out. To start with she wanted pull ups on for naps - but only with her poants on underneath But she wa dry then too, so left pull up in that time too with no accidents.

She is still very independent. She wanted to do it, wanted big girls pants - which she insisted on going to choose - and as she was determined it happened, with very little help from me

HUlababy - both my dds where the same. DD1 was pt at 18 months led by herself , and dd2 again at 18 months announced she was going to wee onthe potty and has not had an accident since. both had been in disposables, perhaps early pt is genetic because mu dm says I was the same at around 18 months.

Mummdoc and Hulababy. That is really interesting. Thanks. My DD is still in proper nappies (prefolds) which are leaking regularly so i am thinking of changing them anyway. Would you suggest pullups them. i am not that keen on using disposables but would do for a short time if it will help her.

I just wanted to bump thus up again.

I'm really sorry I didn't start EC earlier. DD will be one in a couple of weeks. I've been putting her on the potty but not regularly. She usually sits o n it for ages (say 5-10 mins) but then wants to get off and does a wee on the carpet. She also did a poo on the carpet but tried to put it back in the potty!

So I guess what I'm asking is how do I tell her cues? What do you guys look for? She's already taken her first few steps so is never lying down so I can't look for wriggles etc.

And also, how can I associate the potty with the place where she eliminates? I let her watch me on the toilet but she gets distracted easily (being only one and all!) My grandmother suggests running the tap while she's on the potty. Would this actually work?

It might be too early to start but I just want to at least get her to associate the potty with eliminating.

By the way, we only wear her when she's too fed up to be in the buggy, we're currently using disposables and she's on solids and bottles. We co-sleep a lot but not all the time so we're not exactly what you'd call natural parenting. I'm sure that will make some difference... She's VERY independent!

If you're interested I would definitely try it. I've done it with 4/5 of mine and it's just been so easy. The potty is not an alien thing introduced at 2, it's part of the scene from as soon as they can sit up in our house. My mother suggested it with ds1 and I thought it was a very strange idea. However tried it with dd1 and from 7 months i put her on the potty 2 or 3 times a day. Most people 'go' at the same time each day, don't they and she usually pooed after breakfast so I'd always pop her on after then. We used cloth nappies with her and it cut down on washing significantly. With my 3 younger boys did it too. Mixed cloth and disposables and use far fewer disposables if using them. It's just something we do and it works for us. All dry night and day by 2nd birthday. Ds1 wasn't hard to potty train but the others I didn't have to potty train.

Flowermum have you tried giving her a book or setting up a few toys for her to look at?

DS is 22 months and showing absoltely no interest in potty training. I was going to leave it but this thread has got me thinking. Should I start putting him on the toilet now or have I missed my chance?

I don't think early PT was that common TBH,. Maybe a long time ago, but, for example, I know DH wasn't PTd till he was 3. And that was pretty normal amongst their peers.

Isn't this type of early potty/toilet use now called Eliminationn Communication.

For me this would not have been practical - what with PT work, being at nursery, being at MILs during the week, and being out and about an awful lot. It wouldn't have fit in very well and for us would have become too restricting I believe.

We were lucky I guess though as DD PTd herself at 24 months and was sorted within 3 days.

i dont think pampers et al will be at all upset that disposable nappies are used longer than oldstyle terries etc wouldl be...and with pull ups etc..they seem to want to keep you consuming / landfilling.. as long as poss....

there doesn't seem to be the incentive to do it earlier; i have used both cloth and disposables and am sure cloth gives obvious incentive to parents and child to train up earlier...i wish i had tried EC didnt know about it!

the main problem here seems to be people not around to do it, whereas most mums were at home til kids hit school circa 70's ...

have kept potty in toilet since ds was 8 months but refused to use and went straight to toilet...when ready..when it was his idea....