What age does potty training start?

[NickyEds]

Ds is 16 months old and the other day a family friend said "you'll be potty training him soon". Will I? I know I sound hopeless but I thought this was for nearer 2-2.5 year olds? How do you know when to start? My initial move was to see if Mothercare sold little boy underpants and they do, in size 12-18 months! And they're bloody adorable. None of my friends are talking about potty training yet and ds just seems too small. Any advice gratefully received.

dd was 2 and a half but ds was a bit younger and was day trained by age 2 (started at 20ish months as he was showing signs that he was receptive to training)

The general rule is the longer you wait, the easier it is. We're just doing it now at 2.10 and it is awful. DS has taken to it fairly well but still no accident free days at 10 days in.

I think you're supposed to wait until they know and can communicate that they're doing a poo and a wee. DS never communicated the latter but is getting quite old so must be physically ready. We now sit him on the loo and he does a wee on demand.

they all do it when they are ready, I've got three boys my eldest was three my middle one was 3 and one month. my youngest is three in July he's got the poo part and we are working on the weeing. Don't rush your ds it can put him back even longer if he's not ready, oh and good luck for when you do start

Dd1 was 2.6, dd2 was 2 and 7 months, dd3 was 2 and 8 months. I left it until they were well ready, done and dusted in 4 or 5 days including nights. Out and about at parks, school runs etc on day 2. I think dd1 had two incidents of wetting on her first day and that was it.

Thank you! I thought ds sounded a bit young! MIL reckons when dp was little it was "all done and dusted by 2, preferably sooner".

People used to do it sooner, as before disposables (or modern washables) people wanted to stop using terry towelling nappies as soon as possible.

I've just done potty training with my DS who is 2.75, who got it within 3 days and is now reliable. Up until quite recently he was utterly surprised when he did a wee with no nappy on - he would look down with amazement! I didn't think it was worth trying until he could tell me that he'd done a wee and had an awareness of the sensation.

My MIL persuaded me to give it a go when DD1 was 18 months. I lasted 36 hours before thinking, what the hell am I doing?!!!

DD1 asked for pants not nappies at 2.5 years. So far, dry in the house but still in training pants outside the house.

People say the DC decide for themselves when they're ready and I thought it was bollocks but my DS sought out the potty at my mums house at dead on 2 (3 weeks ago) and has wanted to use it more and more since. He's now starting to object to nappies so we're going to start going out without them, just to the park at first.

My mum advocates sitting DC on a potty as soon as they can sit up!