why does potty training have to be 'quick'?

[horseymum]

loads of people seem to stress the benefit of leaving training as late as possible so it can be done 'quickly' ie in a week or less. Whenever you say you are using the potty for young children, people just say you are 'dragging it out'. Is it not ok to want to have fewer wet nappies overall, even though the 'process' from starting with potty at say 5 months, till completely nappy free at around 2 is taking much longer.

I'm really interested in this - what's the advantage to you or the baby in doing it early?

Have a look at this thread

Some people on it are doing it the gentle way - I have an 18 mo who now understands what wees and poos are, and he knows that's what we do on the toilet. He also now tells us when he's done a poo.

After a few months of this we brought his potty out two weeks ago so now he sits on it (exclaiming "potteeeeee!" excitedly) when we're on the bog. He only stays there for a couple of seconds, fully clothed. For us it's the start of a gentle introduction to eventually not using a nappy.

One of the women on the above thread used this approach and never needed to 'train' her child - once they were able to control their poos and wees, they simply did them in the potty.

As throckenholt says, it's whatever works for you. Nobody taught me this approach, it just makes sense to me. I daresay there are loads of parents out there who've done the same and found that it works. Good luck!

The gentle way?

personally i would say the advantage is that the child is more aware of weeing/pooing if they do it in potty and you see it so can say - well done a big wee or whatever. This maybe means that when they are older, they might begin to ask for it beforehand a bit earlier. Also they are not in wet nappies as much and rarely in poo nappies (if you are lucky and they are fairly predictable that way. The disadvantage is people think you are nuts mentioning potty and baby in same sentence, they say it is parent training not potty training - so what's the problem with that? Hopefully avoids the whole potty phobia and the fact that loads of kids seem actually to be scared of doing anything on it and actually need nappy back on to poo. It is really not much hassle. maybe if i had laminate floor throughout i would be bolder and go nappiless more but we are happy just now!

I think you should go for it. My SIL did this (a sort of watered down elimination comunication) with her DD who is the same age as my DD1. She started around 9 months and by 11 months her DD never did a poo in her nappy again. Basically she regularly put her DD on the potty and used washable trainer pants around the house and pull up nappies if out (so no weeing or pooing on the floor etc). Her DD was fully nappy trained same time as my DD (just after 2). My DD1 trained v successfully in approx 10 days but I'd been changing pooey nappies for over a year longer than my SIL.

With DD2 I meant to start this around 5 or 6 months (which I'm told is the best time to start), but never got around to it. A friend of mine who has a DD exactly the same age as my DD2 started around 9 months and just like my SIL since about 11 mnths she has had no pooey nappies and very few wet ones to bother with. She puts her daughter on the potty after naps and every 2 hrs or so throughout the day. Inspired by my SIL and my friend I also tried around 9 months but DD2 screamed and crawled off whenever we went near the potty. However she is now (at nearly 16 months) obsessed with the potty so yesterday I started sitting her on it without her nappy and she just did her first wee!! I have no intention of trying to fully potty train her just yet, but I'll see how it goes and if I can do trainer pants in the house and nappies out and about and at night I'll be v happy.

I am being very thick. I can't see any reason why you would want your dcs potty 'trained' erly. Apart from the cost of nappies, I suppose. Can somebody tell me?

Seeker, every parent will have their own list but my benefits of ECing (which is not toilet training include)

Benefits for baby/child include :-

Good way to communicate and bond with parents
Virtually never sitting in a wet/soiled nappy
Loads of nappy free time
No nappy rash even whilst teething
Never 'nappy trained' so don't have to relearn the right way to deal with eliminations when a toddler
Another 'need' met by parent on demand (like breastfeeding/cuddles etc)

Benefits for parent include :-

Good way to communicate and bond with your child
No potty training a stroppy toddler, eventually misses stop happening. Usually ECed children are relatively clean and dry by 12 months and might have the odd wee accident after that.
Less washing (if using cloth nappies as backup) or saving money (if using disposables nappies)
More sleep, full bladder is one of the reasons a baby will wake up at night. If you potty them before they go to bed, they sleep longer and much easier to get them back to sleep, we potty, nurse back to sleep.
Quicker and easier to potty a baby, than all the faff of a full nappy change
Don't have to deal with poo !!! Most ECed children get clean first, then dry. I haven't had to deal with a poo miss in a nappy since July 07 i.e. Nearly a year ago !!! For this point alone, I have decide to try ECing with my next baby.

HTH

seeker - saving on the cost of nappies was a huge reason for me to potty train my children (successfully) before the age of two.

Also it's very good for their skin - no more nappy rash!

Agree with what BE says as well.

What BabiesEverywhere said.

For me, the main reasons are that I think it's cleaner and healthier for the child and the environment. We did do an awful lot of nappy laundry in the beginning, but in the long run we're doing much less laundry and poo goes into the potty or toilet 97% of the time. I also look forward to not having to do conventional potty training, and just let her be more independent about it when she's ready.

benefits include:
save lots of money on disposables if you use them,
lots less washing if you use cloth.

having not to clean out a smelly nappy since approx 6 months old.

no nappy rash.

and for me personally, encouraging a child to use its clothing as a toilet and letting them sit in their own waste until there is time to change is ghastly. but this might not be the same for everyone

workstostaysane i don't generally let my ds sit in his own waste until there is time to change his nappy.