What age did your DC potty train?

[andanotherproblem]

I saw another thread about children starting school in nappies, I do think this is really bad and I always said I would start when DD turns 2. Is this realistic? She’s currently 16 months and I already know it wouldn’t work at the minute, although she never does a poo when we are out of the house, only in the house, perhaps she is starting to realise? I knew a young DC who’s mother waited until she was 4 I do think this is too old.

Curious when everyone started potty training, how long it took them and any tips and suggestions are always welcome

2 years 3 months for day time and wees. Poops took to 2.7. I wish I'd have started earlier. Kids used to be trained a lot younger years ago with cloth nappies allowing them to feel wet. Our babies are much more capable than they're given credit for. My daughter took about 6 weeks, first week was accidents, then withholding, then knowing needing to go but the time from I need to go to going was zero seconds then she got there, but accidents all help them learn and we never cared if she wet. It helped nursery were fully on board with us and didn't care either

Oh wow that’s incredible, would you mind sharing how you did this?

Absolutely. I was told that when they can walk then they can control their pelvic floor muscles (unless there are other factors) so all things being equal they can be potty trained. Decades ago this was the norm (to potty train asap) now kids seem to spend their toddlerhood in nappies!

Potty-trained at 8 months old? You're taking the piss. The majority of babies so young are not even walking!

FFS

Aged 3. Tried for a week at 2.6 and again at 2.9, neither worked but at 3 is just clicked and away we went. I have a DD. I know it can be later for boys, especially at night.

DC1 just before starting preschool at about 2years and 3 or 4 months. DC2 at 22 months - they wanted to be grown up like DC1.

DC2 wetted themselves regularly towards the end of the school day, even in year 1 because they didn't like the school toilets.

I'll copy/paste what I just posted on a similar thread.

I have 3 sons and all of them were different. My last 2 were easy, my middle child was in underwear when he was 3.5 (with a few accidents at night), and the youngest was a dream. He refused to wear nappies soon after turning 2 and by 3 he was using the toilet even at night (again with a few accidents here and there)

My oldest however, had us in tears because he wouldn't get it. We were seriously considering deferring him because well into his 3s he was still being timed for potty training. The best advice I received was from my aunt, who told me to leave him in peace for a few months and try again. It worked. Maybe it was taking the pressure off him, or that he was ready to finally crack it, I still don't know.

Both were over 2 and a half, but under 3.

DD was in the midst of it when DS was born (great timing!) so possibly didn't get quite as much attention and help with it as she deserved. I remember her being brought to hospital to visit me and she toddled into the side bathroom and took off her pull up and performed on the toilet without prompting. But she was a bit hit and miss for a while.

DS was fully trained in the summer holidays before he turned 3 in the September. He got it straight away, never had an accident.

They both quickly became dry at night too, which was unexpected but very helpful.

Started my little girl at 2.5 and she nailed poos instantly, but is still having wet accidents daily, more than once, and she's now about to turn 3.

We started due to pressure from nursery saying she was ready but hadn't noticed anything at home. Wondering if it would have clicked quicker if we'd started later?

She will use the toilet but often refuses prompting, and very rarely ever says she needs to go herself. More often than not, she at least starts weeing herself before she says anything, if she does actually say anything and not just try and get away with it. The only way to get her to stop is keeping her naked on the bottom half, but obviously that's not possible with nursery.

At my wits' end tbh 🙈 Getting so frustrated with it.

Just after 3 for my DCs. I was planning a week off to tackle it with one of them and they took their nappy off a few days before and said I don’t want to wear this. They were sorted within a few days including dry at nights.
The other took a couple of weeks and was wet at night until about age 9, but that runs in our family and I was happy to accept it’s hereditary and did t worry about it.
Wore pull ups at night and it suddenly stopped at 9.
When potty training dont put them in leather shoes as when they have accidents it’s really hard to wash leather well to get the smell out and have them dry again for nursery etc the next day.
If did it again I’d have them in cheap quick clean shoes for a few months until the accidents phase had passed

What are the signs they are ready please? I have a just turned 2 year old. He’s not showing me signs of anything much

I was looking for this comment as I don't know why I (perhaps naively) thought we'd be finished with nappies by 18 months. 😂 I have a 7mo DD and she's my first so I am still learning what to expect but I was shocked to see that around 2-3 yrs seems to be the average! I didn't realise we could have a couple of years of nappies left! My parents always made it seem like it was done and dusted much younger

Nope. She is just very advanced clearly 😉

Yeah they are all so different. My dd who was 4, it wasn’t even reliable at 4. She’s very bright, wonderful teen now, but man was it a pain in the arse getting her trained.

My three were between 2 years and 2 years 7 months. I didn't really wait until they were 'ready' - I just chose a time that was convenient for me (i.e. I had time to focus on it) and then persevered until they got the hang of it.

Tbh I think potty training started much earlier in our parents' time. Pretty sure my mum started me around 18 months.

I'm guessing there were more accidents along the way? But the expectation of wearing nappies daily seems to have ended much earlier when I was little.

I also went by signs. Ds was slower, closer to 3 to be totally reliable. I had to have a puppy pad on the car seat fir a couple of months as he would say he needed to go, but pee about 40 seconds later. Dd was just turned 2 when she saw pants she wanted. I bought them and said she could wear them when she was using the potty. She took off her pull up, put on the pants and that was it. Maybe ds was not quite ready enogh when we started.

I suppose in our parents time they often had more DC, my parents had 4 of us fairly close in age and I suppose they didn't want to be changing 4 DC nappies all day everyday! 18 mo seems like the age I expected based on how that generation talk about it

My girls were 2 and potty trained in a couple of days. My son was two and a half and took a little longer than the girls.

With ds1 I tried a couple of times before he turned 3 but it was a disaster (and we did give it several days before giving up). We then left it a few months because I was heavily pregnant and didn’t want him to regress when a new baby arrived. Tried again at 3y 3m and it was hard work for the first few days but within a week he’d got the gist. I was inspired by the oh crap book, I took a firm line that it was time for him to be done with nappies during the daytime, that nappies were for babies etc and it was time for him to wear pants. I honestly think he would have happily stayed in nappies for much longer otherwise! I remember being very aware of where the toilets were and keeping track of when he’d been to the toilet when we were out and about for a good 6 months after. He still had the odd accident for about a year after. Nighttime dryness is different, but within a month of him being dry during the day he started waking up with dry nappies consistently so that was that. He wet the bed maybe 3 times over the following year.

With ds2 I’d learnt my lesson so waited until he was the same age then took the May half term off, partly for childcare (ds1 was at school by then and ds2 at preschool) and followed the same line. No more nappies, you’re a big boy now like your brother and you can use the potty/toilet. He got it much quicker with very few accidents. We had a heatwave that week so were lucky with the weather and he could just run around in the garden with no pants. It was easier as well because of his older brother too I think. Preschool very shocked that I’d potty trained over half term. When he did have accidents they were few and far between but he did still have them occasionally until about age 6. He showed no sign of being dry at night and was always waking up with full nappies until at age 4/5 he went to his dads for the weekend (we are divorced) and his dad forgot to put him in a nappy at night and he woke up dry. I think he’s wet the bed once.

I was also 3 when I was potty trained in the 90s but my mum said that loads of her friends kids were the same, they just didn’t talk about it because it was embarrassing apparently

DD: started the summer she was 2, took 2 weeks.

DS: started the summer he was 2, took 2 years.

3 with both of mine and they picked it up very quickly

neither showed any signs like not wanting to be in a nappy , I just did it when I was off work for a long period and convienent to me ie summer time .

I personally wouldn't entertain potty training until 2.5

I'm always a bit wary when people say to 'wait until they're ready' because although I don't doubt their own experience of their own DC, you get an equal number of threads and posts from people who have waited and their DC just ... don't ever seem to be ready. And people's perception as what counts as 'signs of readiness' seem to vary as well.

OP, as you've got plenty of time, I'd probably start by reading the Oh Crap! book - not everyone loves this method, but it's worth reading the rationale and knowing what the author recommends and why. We used the method for DC1 and it worked well, though I felt we'd left it a bit too late (out of necessity; no opportunity to take time off work/nursery till just after 2 and a half) which made him a bit more stubborn. He got the potty training part quickly, but did not like to be reminded to go.

In terms of signs of (over-)readiness I've observed with my two: DC1 used to adorably toddle up to us and say 'if I want to change my nappy?' when he'd done a poo. Later, because he was already well over 2 and quite articulate, he would sit doing a poo in his nappy at the dinner table (yuck), announce he was doing it, and we'd say 'oh right, have you finished yet' and he'd go 'no, I'm still doing it.' Not my most cherished parenting moment. DC2 is 21 months, and for quite a few months now he's said 'poopoo' when he's doing one (or sometimes when he's just got a bit of wind) and if you say 'have you done a poo?' he will say yes if he has. Neither seems/seemed to have any awareness of wee actually coming out until we started the potty training process, even though we used cloth nappies for both (they did/do know if already really wet). You might also see your DC hiding in a corner when doing a poo.

Very dependent on the child, my DDs were 2 + 6 months and 3 + 2 months. Both times waited until they were happy and enthusiastic about it and it was very easy and stress free, both trained within 5 days and hardly any accidents after.
I agree for most children 4 is late for a first try, but also just turned 2 is young, it could work but also don’t stress it doesn’t and you end up back in nappies.
Remember that most children are physically ready sometime after 18 months however they do need to be emotionally and developmentally ready too.

The danger of insisting on training a child who is just not on board with it is that they start withholding and end up with real problems. Also who wants to be cleaning up wee and poo accidents for 6 months really when you could just wait a while and get it done so much quicker.