A question on starting them at 12 months?

[Mum2FunkyDude]

Has anyone ever attempted or successfully potty trained from 12 months old?

Can it be done?

Why would you want to?

.

I don't know if this counts, but I started my DS on the potty at 14 months, it was mainly around 'critical' times, when I thought he was likely to produce something. I would put him on the potty after naps or first thing in the morning and after eating.
The benefits have been that he is familiar and comfortable with the potty and has been pretty much getting on his potty seat by himself whenever he feels the urge, he is now 23 months and I still use nappies at night and when we go out, but mainly because he is pretty difficult to understand and I don't know if I could rely on him to actually tell me he needed to go when we were out.
To begin with I used to sit with him while he was on the potty, reading and playing games. He went through a phase when he wouldn't sit down, but that passed and now he is quite content sitting on the potty, especially if I put on 'Big Cook Little Cook'.
If you know when your baby is peeing or pooing it helps, and if you can have a cue sound that you make when they go, it can help to get them to do the business when he/she is on the potty. We used to say 'pooooop' when our ds was obviously doing one in his nappy, and it got to the point where he would go when we made that cue sound. Obviously we would only say it when we were fairly certain he would need to go anyway, but it's useful to link this cue to when you put your baby on the potty. So they are kind of prepped and know what's expected.
Why we have found it useful to start young...
We have saved money on cleaning nappies (we use washables)
And the savings to be made for disposable users are obvious.
He has not had to wear pooey nappies for months - which I think is better for him and his skin. I kind of reasoned that if he didn't get too accustomed to wearing poo, he would be keener to avoid it and go to the potty instead.
I like that he is too young to argue about going to the potty
I don't feel overly concerned about him still being in nappies when he starts nursery in a year's time. Although I could be horribly wrong.
I hope that helps a bit.

Pesha, why would you not want to?

Mum2Funky, I have been potty training my DD since she was 9mths. At 13mths she will only poo on the potty and now only wears nappies to catch her wee.

I think this has been a massive benefit to her. She have stopped the habit of defecating inside her clothes at an early age.

A couple of generations ago babies were started on the potty much sooner than today. I guess because mums were using cloth nappies which took a lot of work so they were keen to get babies out of nappies asap. There is some 'expert' currently talking about the benefits of allowing your baby to poo outside of their nappy from birth. It makes me laugh because I think this will be the next popular idea but my mum did it with all of us, that was back in the 60s and 70s.

Personally I really don't understand why people leave it until 2 to start potty training. I can see no advantages to leaving it that late. It's unnecessary.

009 just wondering why not just put your daughter in knickers then?

009 - the benefits of a nappy for me is that I feel it makes my life easier. My dd has just come out of nappies during the day at 3y4m. She came downstairs in the morning, nappy off, knickers on and declared that she didn't want a nappy anymore. First day lots of 'accidents' of the wet kind. Days 2 & 3 a couple.
Thereafter, she has taken herself to the toilet and no accidents since. She wouldn't entertain a potty. All poo has been on the toilet.
So for me and her, nice and easy.

Just wanted to kind of post the opposite side to maisiemog - just for balance!

We started putting ds on the potty at nappy changes when he was 8m. Worked really well - he'd often wee, and most poo was in the potty. Then he gradually stopped doing anything in the potty, and actually got quite resistant to sitting on it. So we stopped using it at about 13m.

Thinking of trying again soon (he's now 17m), so not resistant to the whole thing. But it hasn't gone as smoothly as the stuff I read led me to expect!

The reason I waited
cos dd trained in a day at 2.5
I loathe pottys also, toddlers pick them up and tripse around with them dropping wee everywhere
Straight onto the toilet
no accidents
I have not got the time or the patience to follow a young child around with a potty.

Mazzarella, I don't put her in knickers because she is not yet toilet trained. She has no control over her bladder and I don't expect her to have control over it for some time. She has control over her bowels, pretty much, and I see that as a good thing - that she doesn't soil herself anymore, her skin is not in contact with faeces.

More than that she has broken the habit of soiling herself. This is a habit we expect all humans to break in their childhood whether it's at 1 year or 3. I'm not saying that being potty trained at 1 is any better than being potty trained at 3 but what I do believe is that we have a window of opportunity to train a child to poo outside of their nappy at an early age, that age being between say 8 and 15mths. If you miss that opportunity another one will come along at 24 - 30mths and if you miss that I'm sure another will come along later. For me it was a priority to take the first opportunity as I think potty training is easier if started earlier.

As I'm sure all mums of toddlers are aware, 2 year olds are very willfull and also have an increasing amount going on in their lives. So I think it can be difficult to potty train a child at 2. So many distractions but mainly because they are in the habit of soiling themselves - it becomes perfectly normal to poo in the nappy. At 2 a child is very aware of themselves and of routines and so when we suddenly start asking them to poo in a potty or toilet or wherever (outside of the nappy) that must seem like a strange thing. You are trying to break a very ingrained habit.

Of course there is the argument that you should wait until the child decides they are ready and if that suits you then fine. I'm sure that is a perfectly good approach. But I want to stop washing nappies sooner than that and I don't want my DDs skin in contact with acidic poo any longer than necessary. That's my reasoning.

Piffle, I don't follow her around with the potty. I put her on after mealtimes and she does a pee and a poo. The I empty potty, wash it and that's that. I have never made a fuss about it to DD. I just stick her on and give her things to do or talk to her. But she has just recently started to point at the potty when I take it away. So I show her and say "that's great you did a poo in the potty" and she laughs and claps her hands.

I am very aware that this success might be short lived. She might decide she is not going to sit on the potty anymore, particularly when she is more confident on her feet. So I won't make a fuss then either we'll just cross each bridge as it comes.

You can I'm sure sit a baby on a potty and catch a wee/poo but it doesn't mean the child is potty trained. I think 12 months old is too soon to try.
My younger DB & DSs were born in the 60s and I remember their highchair had a hole in the seat to take a potty. Mum would take their nappy off and baby would usually 'perform' thus saving her the hassle of a messy nappy.This was of course pre disposables. All terry nappies had to be sluiced(if messy), soaked, washed and dried(no tumble driers then).
You can only say a child is potty trained when you can stick them in pants and take them on a shopping trip!

If you wait until a child is older say 2 or 2.5 you will probably find training only takes a week or even less.
It's some time since I had one in nappies - youngest DS is 9.
The easiest to train was DD. She was dry/clean at 21mths (over 1 weekend) with very few accidents.
4 of the boys managed it just after 2nd birthdays.Took 3 or 4 days, maybe a week.
Other DS wasn't ready until he was nearly 3. All children are different.

My thoughts are along the line of making life easier if you plan on having your second child close to the first one. I understand it is a hit and miss situation and can see that it will depend on how much time and effort you are willing to spend. My ds is clever enough to notice us going to the loo and is forever interested in what is going on. I thought it could be a good idea to introduce him to it (he is 11 months) and see how he reacts.

My grandmother had 9 babies and she potty trained from 12 months by putting them on just before a bath for example. Unfortunately she has passed away and I can't sk her how it went. .

Thanks maisiemog, I think your approach is good, and comparing it to my brother who's ds of 3.5 yrs has only just come out of nappies. I think mainly due to the fact that they didn't have enough time to spend with him to train him.

I'm a SAHM and I do not have such an active social live that I can say I will not have the time to persevere.

If I do go ahead with this I will let you know how it goes. You never know, he might take to it or like in the case of cornflakegirl I might have to stop and try again later.

pesha, unfortunately it is not a case of why do I want to or not want to, I think more along the lines of my ds best interest. If he manages then great, if he doesn't then I will certainly not push him.

Thanks to all that responded.

Notagranny, you're right, if you start early all you are doing is catching a poo or a wee but it is a start. You are begining the process of training because it becomes the normal thing for the child to do. I don't expect my DD to be 'trained' fully until she's around 2 but in the meantime I expect her bum to have less rashes.

Mum2Funky, I can't rely on my mum for reliable evidence as she tends to remember things as she wants, but she claims we were all out of nappies before 2. My sis started early she has B and G. B out of nappies by 2, G out of nappies by 18mths (though she did go through a stage of refusing to sit on the potty at 15mths).

As an ex NN I have potty trained lots of children at different ages with varying degrees of success. So I know it just depends on the individual child. But with my own I wanted to start early because I think it's in her best interest. AND so far it is going very well. So I'd say def. worth a try.

Blimey, I'm just not that bothered about poo. It's only poo. I never think of my child as 'soiling herself' or 'soiling inside her clothes', that just sounds so disgusted and appalled and I don't feel that horrified by it. And she never has nappy rash. I always change her quickly and anyway she tells me when she's done a poo (but left without a nappy on will poo on teh floor by accident). Also I don't call pooing a 'habit'. It's pooing!

Would also like to add that I've also had one child out of nappies day and night just before she turned 2 and one out of nappies during the day just after she turned 2. I do think a lot depends on when the child is ready. Just seems a lot of effort to me if they are going to do it in their own time anyway. Wearing nappies doesn't seem to cause them any distress or health problems so as I said it seems the easier option for us all round. Each to their own and whatever suits best.

Mum2FD - it could be that your brother's ds just wasn't ready until 3.5y and they have allowed him to do it in his own time. I am a sahm and would have had time with my dd but felt it was best if she wasn't pressured in any way until she was ready.

M2FD and Cornflake girl, I found that my DS went through a phase where he didn't want to sit on the potty and the whole thing was a bit of a fag, but it passed. I put him back in nappies for a couple of months, with a daily potty attempt, which was abandoned if he didn't seem keen.
at 22 months I took his nappy off and he just kind of clicked and started to use the potty by himself. He did used to try to carry the potty chair insert up the hall to the bathroom, but we normally intercepted him. Now he isn't that interested in what he has done and I just notice there is something in the potty, that's if I didn't see him sitting down.
My ds has pretty sensitive skin and this has been the best thing for him, he reacted to disps and cloth with red skin, I think it was his urine.
I wouldn't say he was fully potty trained, because he's nakeybums and doesn't have to pull anything down (because I can't be bothered with cleaning the mess ), but I'm not in a rush to get him into pants, he just gets a nappy when we go out, but I do feel a bit bad for not making the extra effort to take the potty out with no nappy.

I guess a lot of you feel really strongly about waiting or not rushing into potty training. I feel really silly now for saying "I don't know why people wait unti 2" when clearly a lot of you have mananged to do it successfully at 2. We all have our own ways and views on it.

Bibliophile, you seem outraged that I should call it soiling. You're right it is just poo, but it's also soiling, it's not nice stuff and the reason I started putting my DD on the potty at 9 mths was because her poo started to cause a nasty rash even tho I changed her nappy as soon as I was aware it was there.

I've worked with a lot of toilet training toddlers and have found it can take ages with 2yr olds, sometimes up to a year! But that has been in a nursery setting, not at home with mum.

I dreaded getting my child to 2 and then introducing the potty. I thought I would give the old fashioned way a go, starting early as my mum and sister have done. I'm really happy with the result. I didn't think of it as training in the begining, I thought of it as catching poo or wee and thus reducing the waste in her nappy. Also making it more comfortable for her to poo, I feel sure that sitting in a squatting position on a potty is more comfortable than doing it in the nappy. Now I think of it as training purely because the idea of pooing on a 'toilet' is the norm for DD. We have changed her habits.

Mine were both three, they took two weeks and a week respectivly, and went directly onto the toilet. A friend who insisted that her dd was 'ready' at 18 months took a year of horrible anxiety and messy accidents. Her dd was 'done' at 2.5, the point that she 'should' have waited till.

You can try at a year, but for most children of that age the nervous connections that link the rectrum to the brain are not fully formed. The child cannot 'feel' that their rectum is full and that they 'need' to do a poo. If you wait the connections are fully 'wired in' and it is far simpler.

I'm thinking about starting to introduce the potty now, DS is 9 months. He comes to me when he has done a poo and hugs me so he is aware that he has a poohnappy. He is in cloth nappys. He always poos at lunch and tea. I need a commode highchair as previously described. My mum says just try to catch a few wees and poos either on potty or toilet and then he'll get the idea!!

Have to disagree with your lazy parenting comment. I do not understand why would anyone would choose to spend months chasing child around with a potty, mop up endless puddles and wash piles of clothes (not to mention dealing with poo). To me it smacks of competitiveness. I couldn't have cared less what age mine were 'trained', they did it when they were ready.

what a stupid idea

what is the point in potty timing a 12 month old who can't take their own clothes off or put them on

dumb dumb dumb

DD potty trained this week (she's 2.7) .. took her 2 days .. she's using the toilet now

her digestive system is capable of doing it
her brain is capable of recognising the link and holding till she gets to the toilet
her fingers are dextrous enough to take off knickers and put them on again

it is not till they are approaching 2 that they are getting capable of the above

potty training a child too young for the above is just plain daft ... and probably says a lot about the parent