Potty training 18 month old?

[noramoo]

Hi everyone,

My DD is 16 months and lately has started to answer "yes" or "no" when asked if she is doing/has done a poo. She also goes to get her own nappy and wipes when we say "shall we change your nappy now?" and will then say "yes! nappy". She knows what the toilet is for and finds it funny when we go to use it.

So my question I suppose is this - are these signs we could gently introduce the toilet/potty in a couple of months time at around 18mo? Or is that just premature and setting us up for failure?

Has anyone done this at 18 months successfully? If so, how?

We are very fortunate to be around all day (3 weekdays she is home with me, 2 weekdays at home with my DM) so in that sense it could be easier than if she was at nursery from a practicality perspective.

Tbh we are not in a huge rush either way - just wondered if this could even be done!

Thanks x

I think you do it now or wait until 2.5. I do have friends who potty trained around 18 months, successfully. It's a longer process though, not quite a weekend and you're done type thing which you can do with a 3 year old.

I am sort of in your situation. All my friends with older toddlers have been having a rough thing potty training their 3 year olds. At the 12 month check, the HV said to start putting DC on the potty once a day for a few minutes to get them used to it. We are now at 15 months & most mornings, if we get DC straight up and on the potty, we get some wee and then a delighted toddler who says "bye bye!" As they flush.

But DC can't say yes or no and doesn't say or otherwise communicate about weeing or pooing yet, so I have no idea where we go next! It was not our plan to potty train early.

Yes go for it. We introduced our son to the potty at 18 months so he knew what it was for but decided to wait until spring before we went for full training. He was then dry within two days aged two and four months. I felt a bit guilty that we’d left it as he was obviously ready!

Our daughter will be 18 months at Christmas and we’re planning on the same approach with her.

Yes absolutely start potty training now. DD1 was trained at that age. Really don’t understand the fashion for leaving it so late these days.

One of mine trained simply and easily at about that age – if she's showing signs of being ready, it's definitely worth a try. We'd gently introduced the potty at nappy changes and when she clearly needed to go, and by 18 months it was obvious that she was ready to switch to pants.

We introduced a potty at 6 months and she was doing well at using it but unfortunately a hospital admission at 10 months meant that she then stopped using it and she was 2.5 before we could potty train

My mum finds it odd that now potty training is so late, she had to have us potty trained before 2 otherwise we couldn't start at the play group.

I'd introduce the potty now, not worry so much a full potty training but just see how you get on. It's never too early to introduce a potty in my eyes, I'm expecting my second and they will be introduced to the potty when they can sit.

The one issue of potty training early is clothing, we actually had to delay potty training until my daughter fitted into the smallest knickers I could find. She was on the 1st percentile and I couldn't find any 12-18 months knickers so had to wait a few months so the 18-24 month knickers fitted her. Also a lot of the outfits in 18-24 months still had poppered vests with them which was a pain as they either showed underneath if undone or were difficult for her to undo i do them up.

Definitely introduce the potty now, you don't have to see it as 'potty training' or put pressure on to get rid of nappies, just use the potty on waking, before bath/bed, after meals.

A friend of mine “toilet trained” her D.C. at 18 months.

What it actually meant was that she was very good at “catching” the child and sticking them on the loo just before they wet themselves. The child wasn’t ever asking to go.

At 3yo the child was still leaving wet patches in my carpet and hiding them from her Mum.

My DC toilet trained when they were ready (about 2.5yo) and were dry in 3 days.

It’s up to you but by observation a quicker process, when they are really ready, is better for the child.

Just introduce the potty now? I don’t see how it can go badly really, just don’t expect to have her ‘trained’ in a week. Just put it out and pop her on it sometimes, maybe when you’re already changing her nappy or times you think she’s likely to go anyway. Worst case she’s familiar with it when you come to ‘train’ and best case she picks it up with the gentle approach and starts using the potty

We used a potty from 6 months using elimination communication, then when she started walking at 12 months she would sometimes take herself. She stopped pooing in nappies completely around 18 months and would ask for the potty instead. So I think an 18 month old can definitely learn a bit about using the potty. But we didn't take nappies away completely until age 2 because of nursery, convenience etc.

It’s likely to be hard work if you do it at this stage. It can be done though my nephew was fully trained at 18months for pees and poos. He just didn’t want the nappy anymore and used to take it off!

You could gently introduce it. My youngest seemed so ready and super keen. She did her first pee in the potty just before her second birthday. I should have probably got the potty out everyday to see how interested she was.

I started training just after 2 as had some time off work. She seemed so much more ready than my first who was fully trained at 26 months. It didn’t go well. To be honest she just didn’t want to do it. She wldnt tell me when she needed it and I kept asking and then she wld go off and id find a puddle or worse a wee poo somewhere 🙈 she got better with the pees after a few days but was pooing in her pants and I just cldnt take it anymore. It was 3 days of hard work for nothing. We tried again 3 months later and she got it very quickly this time. Poos took a few more weeks though for her.

With my first DD she peed 19 pants the first day, 3 the second and after that was fully trained. I nearly gave up after day1. Never had any issues with pooing.

They both only used the potty the first few days and then went straight to toilet with a little toilet seat.

My nephews and a friends' kids were trained around that time. I think starting at 18 months is a good idea but will require patience and perseverance. But when you are done with nappies before 2 it'll be well worth it!

Well you definitely could. My DD was potty trained for poos at 12 months as she just preferred to poo on a potty. We waited till language was very good at almost 2 to train for wees but it took like a day or two honestly, which is very quick at aged 2. Some kids are easier. Rather than formally potty train at 18 months, I’d keep the pull ups for now but offer the potty when she wants to poo or wee. We did that, a kind of gentle approach, which is why training took like 24 hours at the age of 2 (and like I say, she was doing poos on the potty much earlier).

I don’t really get why more people don’t do the more gradual approach of just letting them slowly get used to the potty before ditching the nappies.

Sounds much the same as my approach I described above! I’m glad someone else recommended this as I think it’s a great way of going about things.

Well it depends on the child. My child had great language skills and could say ‘poo’ meaning she wanted to poo on the potty aged 12 months. She’s not done a single poo in a nappy since she was about 14 months. She just would rather not shit herself 😂
Now at 24 months my child is fully potty trained and has no accidents, also dry at night. It definitely can be done. And she communicates with me whenever she needs a wee or poo.

If your child has poor language skills it might be different.

I don’t really get why more people don’t do the more gradual approach of just letting them slowly get used to the potty before ditching the nappies.

I think there is something in this. My suggestion for low-stress potty training would be to get a couple of packs of cheap pants and put them on underneath pull-ups.

My niece was potty trained at this age and is still regularly wetting herself at 3 as she knows when she’s going but isn’t always good at noticing when she needs to go.
I toilet trained my little one after she was 2 and was showing more of an awareness of feeling the need to go to the toilet. On the run up to this we were changing her nappy in the bathroom and washing her hands afterwards.

Thanks all this is super helpful! I think I will take the approach of letting her get used to having the potty around, and give her the option of sitting on it at nappy changing, pre bath etc for now.

Great plan. My DD was totally used to having the potty around and doing all of her poos and some of her wees on the potty so when we said ‘OK no more nappies in the day time now, we wee or poo on the potty’ she caught on instantly with minimal accidents. I think ‘oh Crap’ etc is overrated. Slow and steady works well!

Once we decided to properly potty training by daughter we started with an hour without a nappy on and built the time up. It was only when she could go most of the day willing using the potty we decided to take the plunge and ditch the nappies. If she wasn't in the mood to engage we popped her back in a nappy. She's the sort of kid that likes to understand how things work and I didn't think the immersive 3 days at home trying to crack potty training would work for her

I did a lot of familiarising with the toilet and potty until 2yrs 9months when I potty trained properly using the oh crap method. She was dry day and night within 3 days.

I think you can potty train earlier than this, I think I just takes longer and they are less independent the earlier you do it but if you have the capacity to manage this and it's something you want to do then go for it. I know people who do elimination communication from birth.

Many people find nappies really convenient which is why a lot of people wait later these days. I personally had 2 under 2 and I didn't think it was sensible for me to take on potty training (with no experience as she was my first) whilst heavily pregnant or with a newborn which is why I waited.

Wondering how you got on with this?

We're currently potty training our nearly 19month old, 4 days in and we've seen massive progress and he looks down at his willy before he wees and he holds his wee whilst we get him to the potty!

My eldest son was potty trained at 20 months, very quickly and easily and dry through the night very soon after. My second son was also potty trained quickly and easily at 20 months but wasn’t dry through the night until he was nearly 6 years old!! And not just the odd wee some nights, but a soaked nappy/pull up every single night. Then one night it just suddenly stopped and he’s never wet the bed since. This was 19 years ago now though but I don’t remember it being particularly difficult so I guess they were both ready,

We’re a month in, in terms of introducing the potty (daughter is 19 months). She will sit on it but currently she panics if she does a wee on it (despite us piling on the praise). I’m at a bit of a loss as to how to deal with that as her brother took to it right away and would sit for ages if we read him a book.

We’re not planning on potty training in full until Easter so fingers crossed she’s more comfortable with it by then.

She does like to copy her brother so we may buy a set of steps for the toilet and see if she’d just prefer to use that.

We bought a potty and she has been fascinated by it. We let her sit on it before her bathtime and she has done 1 poo and 1 wee. We were going to start putting her on it more frequently to see what happens but she fractured her tibia over Christmas in a nasty fall so we have hit pause until that is healed! She is now 20 months so hoping to restart in a month or two.