Is 10m too young to start potty training?

[kittyfish]

My dd is much happier sans nappy (like most babas I guess) and cries when she has pooped. I hadn't even considered PTing yet, but my mum suggested it and it got me thinking. What do you all think? Give it a go or forget it for a year? My dd is sitting up and crawling btw.

Rhubarb - my mum also told me how I was never happier as a baby than when I was squidging around in a pooey nappy so I am with your son on this.

roisin i'm sure that wouldn't be at all traumatising! Awful!

Some people say that their children are potty trained at 10mths, but then spend the next 2 and a half years running frantically after them trying to catch falling objects in the potty! Not potty trained by any stretch of the imagination. I left mine until they were 3 and I knew they were definately ready. No 'training' involved that way.

10m is too young for potty training but what kittyfish is describing is potty timing in which there is a lot of difference. I see no harm in potty timing and only benefits of getting them used to the potty!

We started potty training our DD when she was 10 months old. She is now 14 months old, and although she does all her poos and some wees on the potty, she is sometimes still wet. I would agree that it can't do any harm to start. It also has advantages - we can grab a shower while she sits there safely, and we don't have to deal with dirty nappies anymore!

sorry lockets pmsl at the baby peeing in a bowl

i don't think they can physically control their sphincter muscle at that time.

Bladder control isn't sorted until 18 months at least.

Before that it is NOT potty training. It is the parent who is being trained, not the child - trained to regularly and often sit baby on a potty and wait and to look for clues in the baby as to when they need to go.

I suspect this form of "training" takes a long time and that the baby is not really taking an active role at all, other that sitting there.

At 10 months the majority of babies have very limited language and communication skills if any, limited ability to understand and carry out even basic instructions, no ability to undress and redress themselves, often not walking so cannot get to the potty themselves, etc. Theycannot be potty trained in the true sense if they are unable to do these things surely?

I found that by waiting until DD was really ready for PTing it was a very brief and hassleless affair, with DD doing the work and not me. She was 24 months, and we had no accidents after Day 2 at all.

Give potty timing, or elimination communication, a go by all means. But expect it to take some time and to be messy in the process. Good luck.

yes far too young

I have recently started ds (15 months) on the potty, he isn't doing too well, but I think if you have the time it is worthwhile.
I was reading up on the topic of elimination communication and it seems that the majority of children in the US were potty trained by 2 up until the 1940's, but after the introduction of disposables the big manufacturers started infomercials in the US with a doctor telling parents, not to rush their children into potty training and that the children would be dry and hygienic with the new technology in disps. Since then the potty training has moved.
I think that there have been increases in understanding of children's developement, which perhaps have altered the age of potty training, but it has changed and presumably 70 years ago a lot of children trained a lot earlier, due I'm sure to the amount of washing generated.
There is a lot of interesting information relating to EC as it's called, and it seems to link to baby signing, basically babies can sign their needs at less than a year, which allows parents to take the baby to the loo/potty. Obviously this takes a lot of time, but if you have the time, I think it's a great idea, as most nappy rash is caused by conctact with faeces in a nappy, I can't see any benefit to wearing a stinky nappy.
I know a lady who started EC when her DS was 5 months and who now, at 13 months has no poopy nappies - all potty. He comes to her to let her know when he needs a poop, using signing. So it can happen.
Here's a link to an author of one book called "Early-Start Potty Training" Dr. Linda Sonna. It has a bit about the social history of potty training.

Oops! I was trying to preview, but hit post. I meant to say that the potty training age has moved forward since the 1950s.
It's amazing how much baby food/nappy/milk etc... manufacturers have changed the way that we behave. I was reading Dr (Mark?)Green's baby book and he wrote that in the 20's in the UK it was normal not to feed solids to babies until they were one. Then Cow&Gate realised that there was a market for baby food and started to promote earlier infant feeding, which as we know from our mums' suggestions became as early as a couple of months in the 60's and 70's.
'Oooh she looks hungry, you should give her a pork chop' and all that kind of thing. 'Muuuuum, leave it out!'
Oh and Father Christmas has a GREEN jacket not red thank you CocaCola!

angeliz- my mil is the same full of these stories it cracks me up some times. she claims dp brother was walking at 5 months? wtf???
keep smiling at her pmsl

kittyfish - you're at least a month too late i'm afraid! the babywhisperer - in her last book (the babywhisperer solves all your problems...) - recommends starting at 9 months - it's timing rather than training as others have said - but she reckons that they end up being trained earlier than if you wait till you think they're ready - on the premise of you don't make them stay horizontal until you think they're ready to walk...

we've just started with our 8 month old son - just putting him on the potty for a couple of minutes before bathtime - no expectations. have caught a couple of poos like that, we make a big fuss, show him that we flush them down the toilet etc etc

if you're thinking about it, there's a thread on babywhisperer.com of people doing the same sort of thing - most of them recommend not telling your rl friends what you're doing as you'll get the same sort of response you've got on here (no offence meant to anyone, as it quite possibly is a completely mad idea )

kittyfish - apologies - just read your original post again and realised you didn't say how old your daughter was at all - clearly imagined that one!

cornflakegirl, it's in the title

BTW, like the name, is it from the song?

okay, now i feel even more stupid!

yes, from the song, because never sounds like emma (my name) if you sing it like her!

Thanks everyone for all of the feedback.

Just thought you would all like to know that during a phone conversation with my mother yesterday she asked how the potty training (that I haven't even started) was going, to which I replied "The general consensus is that dd is too young for meaningful potty training" (or words to that effect) and my mum said: "Nonsense, why a child I know is potty trained and only four months old."

Needless to say I indulged in much eye rolling and silly face pulling at this point and decided that if I need advice in future I shall listen only to mners.