Is 18 months too young to potty train? DD seems keen

[Fizzywizzy2]

My eldest was a nightmare to potty train and had accidents until almost 4, only got her night trained at 5.5 and we still have accidents once or twice a month during the night.

So it's been a shock to see my youngest, who's only just turned 18 months, want to potty train. We have a potty in the bathroom and she's randomly started saying 'potty potty', then trying to take her trousers and nappy off and after we help her with that, she'll sit on the potty and do a wee!

She still does the majority of her wees in her nappy but seems very keen to use the potty sometimes. She tells me 'nappy change' when she's done a poo or her nappy is full.

18 months seems insanely young to me, but should I try to encourage progress since she seems interested? Should I put her in pants or is that pointless at this age and should just wait until she's over 2?

Would appreciate hearing from people who potty trained early. Thank you!

Nhs actually do recommend it. Imo I think when they're walking would be better

@Fizzywizzy2 have a read up on Elimination Communication, I unintentionally did a very lazy version with my first who from 7/8m old would only poo on the potty, and by 18m was completely dry in the day. This isn't intended as a stealth brag but encouragement to take your little one's lead. I was shopping (good old Aldi random middle aisle) when my LO was just a couple of months old and picked up a potty because I knew we would need one eventually. I sat her on it when she woke from her nap as she always tended to wee when she woke and she did a wee on it-we were flabbergasted. Reading up led me down the rabbit warren of full on EC which I didn't have the time or energy to do but it just made complete sense to me. When babies are born they have to learn everything from scratch and so essentially we are teaching them to wee in a nappy and we then have to undo that and reteach them to wee in a potty/toilet.

Apologies about the essay but I truly believe that lots of children can be ready to recognise the sensation of needing the toilet and holding it whilst signalling that they need to go much younger than we expect. As another poster mentioned, in the past cloth nappies encouraged much earlier potty training.

If you're happy to just go with it with no pressure on her then I think you'll be surprised.

@teatoast8
Just wanted to add personal experience regarding waiting until they're walking-with my second baby the poor boy was held over the potty from birth lol but despite being 70% reliable (and like my daughter 100% for poos) at 10/11 months, once he started walking he had no interest on sitting on the potty for a good couple of months. It's known as a potty pause and I was convinced he'd never use the potty again but at 13/14 months he just started picking it up when he needed the toilet and we carried on where we left off.

In the days of terry nappies which needed soaking and sterilising and washing on a hot wash and then drying, most babies were potty trained before they were two. My mum said I was potty trained before I could walk and both of mine were out of nappies before they were two. DS even asked not to wear nappies at night and never had an accident.

My DCs were both early 90s babies and I would add that disposables weren't vacuum packed and came in huge packages! With no car it was a real issue to pick up from supermarket and get home alongside groceries in the pram! Disposables back then were not as advanced as now and I think were uncomfortable if damp or soiled. We mainly used terries.

Both mine were out of nappies by 14-16 months and that was pretty usual at the time.

Ok. But I'm actually just interested to read where the NHS advises it. I did similar with my oldest (not born in UK), but recently trained DC3 and never heard such a recommendation here.

its the new ERIC guidance …..which has come about due to the alarming number of children starting school in nappies…..and the NHS are promoting this …..Health Visitors are now introducing this message to parents

its only been introduced to parents this year….by Health Visitors, from the 3 to 4 month contact

Thanks! That's really interesting. Certainly my personal experience is that this approach works.

Thank you all for your comments - very lovely to hear about all your experiences and reassuring that I won't be crazy to try to encourage the potty training. Didn't even know the NHS now recommended starting earlier! Everyone I know starts between 2.5 and 3.5...

I do think some kids just don't have the right brain to bladder connection to start - my eldest was certainly like this and we tried everything (and started at 2.5 which might have made things worse as she probably wasn't ready) but until her body was ready at nearly 4 she just couldn't do it. The accidents just stopped overnight close to her 4th birthday so I guess that's when her body was ready. I do hope these new NHS guidelines don't put more pressure on parents as potty training was soul destroying my first time round!

Will go ahead with my youngest and gently encourage her, and get her some nappy pants so she can take them off easily. I was absolutely dreading potty training but hopefully since she seems kind of ready and weirdly into it, it will be a completely different experience this time 😁

Thanks again, all.

My little sister was held over the potty after every breast feed from day one! She quickly made he connection and was trained very young.

I am not advocating this, but just wanting to say that there is no "too young" - children vary enormously in this, both in their ability to contain their bowel/bladder and their interests in using the potty.

My first was q bit slow, but the subsequent ones watched the others and wanted to give it a go, so trained sooner.

They always say you should follow your child and pick up cues from them when it comes to these things, so yes, do exactly that. If she's int3rested then go with it in a laid back way.

It’s potty learning…not training from 6 months…..so really just getting a potty from that age…..having it visible….having in in the bathroom ( ie not in the lounge….so a child associates elimination with the bathroom from a young age)…..and putting your child on potty after every meal…..no pressure, if they don’t ‘go’ it’s fine…..what research has found, especially with send children, is that routine is so important…..so if they start younger then the better……and the advice is to change nappies in the bathroom also….so that association is there