So... all those grandmas who potty trained by one year...

[beartime]

when did they start, and how did they do it?

dd3 2.5 was 20 months but not through any effort on my part, shes very stubborn and said no nappy one day and put on her big sisters knickers ! so i thought sod it let her have a go, had a few accident for a couple of days but has been dry since then, she wouldn't even wear one at night and we ve only had one wet bed. Think it really depends on the child ds1 was 2.6 and dd2 was 2.

I waited until ds was "ready" at 2.5. Now a year later he told me he needed a wee for the first time ever last week. He's more articulate than most of his peers but using the toilet just wasn't happening. My mum hasn't helped by telling him he's disgusting and dirty every time he had an accident, but something's finally clicked this week.

BUT I do think if we'd started ploppling him on the loo at 18 mths, we wouldn't have had the full-on parliamentary debates we've had by waiting til he was 2.5 (I'm too busy...I don't need one till later...you can wash my pants...smart *rse) It would just have been part of life and he wouldn't have contemplated arguing his way out of it.

And we'll be starting dd as soon as she can sit on a potty!

Mcmudda sympathise with you about the 'disgusting and dirty' comments. Talk about applying pressure.

They did it by sitting the child on the potty and not letting them leave until they'd done something. ...after every meal or snack and before bed. Mum says she'd sit there and read to us until something happened. Why? Life is toooo short....Of course nappies were a great deal more hassle then I guess (mum can go on for hours on how hard it was)

Having a 'debate' with mum atm as DS#2 is just 3 and we aren't potty training properly yet. We're introducing the idea but it's not met with much enthusiasm yet. But previous experience has shown me that there's no point in pushing for it to happen too early.

at the disgusting comments!!!

MIL said she did this with her older 2. As soon as they could sit on the potty (about 7mo), she would pop them on at every nappy change for a few minutes.

Eventually some kind of EC-style connection was made and they would wee/poo on the potty. She stopped putting them in nappies when indoors at around 16mo but used trainer pants when they went out.

Funnily enough, she doesn't remember cleaning up the accidents being much of a hassle, but I don't think she actually went out all that much.

With her younger ones, she did it "the modern way", so I guess it can't have been that great the old way .