Is my 12 month old ready to be potty trained?

[newmamabear4]

Crazy FTM here… but my little boy, who has this week turned one, has started crouching down and weeing when his nappy is off. He’s still producing wet nappies but we have had the odd dry nappy overnight and dry nappy during the day. I believe 12 months to be too early to even think about potty training but could this be a sign he may be ready? I’ve thought about buying him a potty and letting him sit on it after his nappy changes but with no expectation of us/him actively potty training. Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether this is a good idea or am I totally crazy? I can’t see the harm in sitting him on the potty myself even if just to get him familiar with it.

Just try it and see. Then you'll know! Never too early to give it a go.

No harm in buying a potty so he's familiar with it but I think it's too early to start potty training him

Yep, gently, just hold him in a squatting position over the basin/loo and pee should automatically come if he needs to. If he doesnt, no stress. It isn’t training, it is just aiding him to use his body as he wants to. The natural mechanism is there, and can either be aided or surpressed( problems later). It is all up to the child, child-led and guided. He is training you to help him really.
Repeat the holding and make a whooshy, swishy noise each time you take the nappy off. Use nappies when you go out etc.
Being able to be nappy free for a few hours is great in summer heatwaves when most babies have nappy rashes and are slathered in chemical creams. Up until plastic nappy culture a few decades ago that was the norm, nothing strange or odd about it. We have just been socialised that babies should supress their natural urges because nappies were once posher.

There’s a big difference between doing some wees in a potty and doing all wees in a potty and holding perfectly the rest of the time. But definitely get the potty. My daughter had a wee in the potty before her bath for months (if not a whole year) before she was ready for the next step but she was completely trained in 2 hours when she was ready.

Or let him sit on the potty, make whooshy noises and read him a book. As long as you follow his cues and needs, there is no harm in it.

I think nowadays people wait longer but from memory my parents started potty training my siblings when they started walking and so did many others. Disposable nappies were expensive back then and most used reusable nappies and wanted their dc out of them as soon as physically possible.
Definitely worth a try.

I had a potty in the bathroom at this age and just sat them on it when they were stripped off for the bath. If they did something we made a big deal of it.

Yeah go for it.

My boy potty trained at 16m - it only took about a week.

I think it helped he started using the potty at 9m and stopped poking in nappies at 11m.

It's more elimination communication at 12m but if you are in tune with your baby it's possible.

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. We’ll buy a potty and let him sit on it and maybe introduce a sit before bathtime too.

Use pull up pants during the day and get a potty but just let him do it in his own time.

Some do it really early and others late so be relaxed about it.

My DS has be been using a potty since 9.5 months. I bought him one because from about 4 months he would let me know when he was going to poo (would start pulling a face) so I would take him to his changing mat and take his nappy off and he would poo. I use cloth nappies so it was easier to clean them without him pooing in them and easier to clean his bum. He sat on the potty the first day I bought it and used it. From then to now (he's nearly 15 months) I just put him on the potty when he wakes up and everytime I change his nappy, he uses it a lot but can't tell me when he wants to pee. I'm very casual with it, I ask him if he wants to sit on his potty. Give it a try.