Anyone successfully potty-trained at a young age (before 18 months, say)?

[LucyJu]

Wondering if anyone has been successful with early potty-training. DD1 was potty-trained at 2.6; dd2 is 15 months old, and I'm considering having a go at starting now.
According to my mum, I was potty-trained at 10 months. Now, my mother is known to talk a load of b**cks in many instances, and I take that piece of information with a pinch of salt. But nevertheless, I know that a few years ago babies were normally potty-trained at a much earlier age. For example, in the 1950s, around 97% of babies were potty-trained by the age of 3; nowadays I think the figure is 55%. I wonder whether we're all being brain-washed by Huggies and Pampers into believing it simply isn't possible at the early ages that were formerly the norm.
So, anyone had any success?

Anyone?

This thread is not making me feel good! My ds is 3.6 & still wears his pull-ups.

I'm not an expert on early TT but there is a big difference between full control "training", where a child is able to hold on until an appropriate time AND deal with that situation, versus a parent putting the child on a potty/toilet at certain times during the day and the child performing.

The latter is most likely what your mum did. It's clearly not feasible for anyone to be able to do the former at 10 months. Perhaps you were a genius child ( ) but there ain't that many what can take themselves to t'potty, pull down their own pants, do their business and deal with the aftermath at 10 months. My son couldn't even walk then, and was rather more interested in booby than potty (mind you, being a bloke, what's to be expected?).

Old fashioned terry-ing was a pain, so getting babies to go on the potty meant less hassle. Modern nappies - dispikables and cloth - are soooo easy to manage that it's much less hassle just to let your child stay in nappies until the point that they are ready to manage their own toilet duties. Much less stress on bairn and parents.

This is different again to EC, of course.

Emma

Hello, I agree with makesachange - "there is a big difference between full control "training", where a child is able to hold on until an appropriate time AND deal with that situation, versus a parent putting the child on a potty/toilet at certain times during the day and the child performing."

I started PT'ing my DD around 16mths & i have had complete success. My DD can hold herself AND deal with herself.
Also my DD did not talk at the time of training (well hardly does now hehe) But we do talk in our own way
Anyway I bought 2 e-books from ebay. They helped. I dont mind emailing them to you and anyone else who reads this Either put your email on this thread or CAT me

What's the rush? There's no award ceremony for the youngest baby to piddle in a pot!

Very early toilet training has been associated with serious psychological problems in later life. It causes unnecessary anxiety for parent and child, and is pointless in any case, because children's brains and bodies mature at their own rate whether we obsess about it or not.

No rush greensleeves - I was not thinking of PT till over 2. She was the one telling me she was ready. Thought i would try it, if it didnt work then i would stop but she was gr8 with it. As soon as we started there was no looking back from her at all

Thanks for your responses.

Let's make it clear - I'm not in some sort of competitive-mum mode, wanting to boast that "dd2 was potty trained by 18 months". I was mainly wondering whether it was possible for a baby to be potty-trained much earlier than what we nowadays consider "normal" - say from around 2 to 3.5 years plus.

There seems to be a lot of conventional wisdom around that babies/toddlers will toilet-train themselves "when they're ready". Yet 2 of my SILs have struggled to start get their sons toilet-trained by 3.5 years - they have simply showed no interest whatsoever. In fact, I would go so far as to say that, they have seemed reluctant to be toilet-trained and the whole thing has been quite stressful for my SILs, wondering quite when their respective sons will be "ready" - or, more to the point, willing. (Maybe it's a boy thing? But that's another thread...)

The other thing I'm thinking is that, at the moment, it is quite obvious when dd2 is doing a poo. So why not try sitting her on a potty, to see whether she could do it there. And maybe, after a few weeks of using the potty, she might, possibly, start to tell me before she needs it? Is that so far fetched? Not talking about stopping nappies completely here, just perhaps using a potty for poos. Using it for wees might - or might not - follow on from that. I don't see the harm in trying. I don't see that it would be likely to cause my dd any psychological damage as long as I am not forcing her to use a potty or punishing her for any "accidents".

Any other experiences or comments welcome.

using a potty for poos - entirely possible. a friend has been doing this with her sonfor months, he isnt' yet 2. his speech isn't that great ( in terms of telling his mum he has to poo) but they've worked out a system and he hasn't had any dirty nappies for a long time. he's on the potty a few times a day now (he's v regular, haha) and it's quite something to watch

LucyJu - I started with DD (mabe 4/5mths old cant remember) When she went to do a poo in the bath i would put her on the loo - TBH it was really just for cleaness for me, she seemed to love pooing in the bath every day. I just got fedup with poos in the bath [yuck]. Never entered my head to do it for the poos in the day or wees.
As she got older older when in the bath she started to point to the loo or winge and pull a funny face (lol) Then around 14ish mths, when we were down staires she would run to the staires and point up and winge.
Then around 16mths some of the pointing turned out to be for wees not poos. It just went from there.

I think its a good idea to use it for poos.
My DD loved it when she poo'd in the Potty / Loo ................ Well TBH (lol) she still does (lol) she seems to think it amazing

Girls have more sensitive skin(as in more nerve endings, apparently) maybe they are less happy to sit in a wet nappy? Ds1 wasn't trained until about 3.5

the only person that I know personally who tried to potty train at this age had the most dreadful time, masses of accidents and mess for over 6 months.

Had she waited until her child was actually ready it would all have been over in a matter of a few weeks.

For the vast majority of children the nervous control that allows them to know when they need to go simply isn't in place until they are 2 or 3 years of age.

What you mother is describing is potty timing not potty training. If you know when your child tends to poo, you can put them on the potty. But when this happens all that it shows is that you are potty trained not them!