Should I start potty training 17 month old?

[Wassa123]

DS1 is 17 months old. He poo's A LOT, like 5 times a day. Because of this, for the past few months I have been telling him to do a poo before we go out so that I don't need to change him on the go. He always does a poo when I tell him to or will always push if he doesn't have one ready. I was thinking I could just put him on a potty and tell him to do this instead?

I know there are different potty training methods and that this way sounds a bit weird but I think it could work. I am also Pakistani and Pakistanis usually have kids potty trained much before age 2. Not sure how they do it though, will probably have to ask someone. Does anyone have any idea or has anyone trained this way?

I would say that you know your child best and there's no harm in trying if you think he's ready. If it's too soon, you'll know soon enough and you can try again later.

I potty trained my son quite early because of the number of frankly enormous poos he was doing and I didn't regret it.

My youngest was about 18 months. She was starting to potty train herself as she has an older sister. The health visitor judged me surprisingly harshly but I wasn't bothered when it was, just when they are 'ready'.
If it doesn't work after a week or so I'd leave it a few more months.

You could start with the Oh Crap book as it talks a lot about younger trainers although it does say that very few can manage before 20 months. A lot of really early potty training is actually elimination communication where you’re trained to read their signals rather than them being active in the process, so doesn’t actually count as trained- the oh crap book also covers this and apparently it doesn’t give an easier ride into potty training even if it does mean fewer nappies to change. I trained my youngest at 21 months and it was easier than the older one at nearly 3 because he was more accepting of it! There’s no way he would have had the understanding at 17 months though.

Thirty years ago most children were potty trained at around age two ( when I had my children)
According to my DM I was even younger ( I'm early 60's) no washing machines and cloth nappies were probably a great incentive!
The bodies of children haven't changed but it's more common to see 3 and 4 year olds still in nappies nowadays in the UK, I honestly don't understand why.
GS was over 3 and non verbal ( severe language disorder) and DD wanted to wait until he'd had an operation he was due at age 3. As soon as his penis was healed he was toilet trained within a week.
If your child is showing signs of being 'ready' go for it, it's really not unusual in other parts of the world

It sounds like the Pakistani approach might be similar to elimination communication?

It's worth a try if he's responding, why not?

I used to put mine on the potty when they were very young, before 12 months. I wasn't expecting them to do anything, it was to get them used to the potty. Eventually they started to do a wee or a poo, they were both happy to always use the potty by 2 years.