What age did you start potty training??

[Louisa111]

I've started my dd, she's 20months but I'm not pushing it too much at the moment. She has a potty with a flip lid like a proper toilet and every time she's gone on it with lid down, i haven't been quick enough to catch her. I should've just bought a plain old potty.
Any helpful tips would be appreciated x

My dd is 3 next month and no where near ready for toilet training, she is very stubborn too which makes it harder.

20 months is very young to be encouraging a child to hold their wee on a very immature bladder. It could cause bladder problems later on in life if children are trained too early.

A few days after dd1 turned 2, but she wasn't ready so we held off for about 6 months and she was more eager to try then

I started with my DS when he was 2.5 Admitedly boys are often later than girls

We encouraged it from about 15-18 mo. Nappy off time etc.

Both training 18mo ish.

Simple is good!

Potty wise I mean. We kept it in the kitchen so easy to get to.

DS was almost 3, it didn't go well. A few months after 3 it went great.

But if the lid is a problem do get a basic potty. Try to make sure it's comfortable to sit on.

But I wouldn't wait until she really needs a wee. Instead I'd see if she can wee when you know she is full but not desperate. She should recognise the feeling of being full but not bursting out, which causes accidents.

I just wait until they are ready to do it - it's so much less stressful for everyone to do it this way. So around 2.5 for my first dc, and 3 for the other two. They have all been relatively accident free after about a week, though ds2 took a little bit longer with pooing. If they are ready then go for it but otherwise it can turn into a hellish battle.

My mother was of the old school 'stick them on a potty as soon as they are able to sit unaided' but all you are doing at that age is training yourself.

I think I feel abit behind as my friends Dd is clean and she's only just two I might hold off for a bit then.
I gather you end up with lots of accidents on the carpet??

DS was 15 months. Using the toilet by 18 months.
DD is 21 months and she is training. You don't get many accidents if they are ready. DD only has a wee on the floor if she is distracted by something she really wants!
She is quite gross though and finds it hilarious to try and pee on my foot when I'm feeding the baby!

When ds was ready we basically only had poo accidents for a couple of days. Till I told him in no uncertain terms that it was NOT ok to poo in his pants.
But I had to keep reminding him for a few weeks. Better than waiting for the big urge.

We sat DS regularly on potty from about 12 months at key times - after meals, naps, etc.
Put him in pants at 18m - in hindsight should have done it at about 14-15m as that's when he was most interested.
At 21m he started asking for potty himself, and has been pretty much accident free since then.
He's 22m now and has had a dry overnight nappy for the last three days, so I hope we're about to say good bye to nappies for good.

I thing is, if you start young it can take months of putting them on potty, getting them 'ready'. If you wait until they're actually ready it takes two days.

Courses for horses, but I'd rather spend months putting my child on a potty than keep scraping poo off his bum for those months. Also I very much doubt that my DS would have been potty trained already if I waited for "traditional" signs. Traditional only in this part of the world by the way.

I waited until DS was ready, at 2.5. He was trained in two days. My friends who started earlier spent weeks and months messing around - what's the point?

DS2 is 2.9 and i'm still waiting for him to show he is ready.

Training before 2 seems a bit old-school to me.

The best sign of readiness imo is them telling you they want to wear pants and wee in the potty .

DS1 at 2.2, DS2 at 2.4 and DS3 at 2.5.

All done & reliably clean & dry within a couple of weeks - within three days with DS3, who was dry at night as well immediately, much to my surprise.

I think the key with all of mine was that they were showing an interest, and that definitely makes it easier.

Mine are young adults now so my potty training days were long ago. I get the impression from MN that people seem to potty train much later these days.

15 and 18 months. Began with them on toilet before 12 months though. Straight on toilet with seat not a potty

Mine are lazy so would never have said they were ready. Best to do before they can debate and argue back imo!

3.2.

But then DD has a really annoying habit of not in any way telling you that she is ready to do something - move to a bed, potty train, stop using the bottles etc - but turning it to be ready for it when you try!

So we put off potty training for ages because she had shown no interest in toilets or pants, but then she managed it in the standard 4 days and went dry at night as well.

3 years here. Done in a couple days for wees, had about a month of pooing in nappy at night but now using potty for that too. No hassles at all and very good bladder control. Don't rush it!! But equally you can try and go back to nappies if you want to.

We did it at 2 years 3 months, she would have been ready earlier but I liked the ease of nappies!

2 years 0 months, and that was a BIG mistake. She got the idea and managed it for 2 weeks. Then decided it wasn't for her. She eventually trained at 2 years 7 months.

Don't rush it. I wish I'd just left DD in nappies that bit longer.

About 2.8? Not sure really, we were going with the flow (letting her use the potty as and when, or a nappy) and all of a sudden we realised she's been dry for about three weeks!

Dd1 was trained by 2.5 after about 3 weeks. Dd2 just turned 2 and fully trained but has been using the potty for months, copying big sister as only 18 months between them.

Waiting til they're ready is a relatively new thing, I bet most adults on here were trained by 2 at the latest, I'm assuming driven by the desire to stop washing nappies before disposables were around.

3.5

Lanbro - exactly. Mine used reusable nappies. Hence both were trained and out asap. I wouldn't have wanted another 2 years each worth of washing!