What is so bad about early potty 'training'?

[mrsjuan]

I keep reading on here how it is so much easier to wait until children are older before potty training and how starting too early is just a matter of catching accidents.

But is there actually anything inherently bad about this? Is popping them on a potty when they look like they are about to do a poo (DD is 10 months and makes it fairly obvious ) any harder work than changing a nappy?

My nanna was telling me that she used to sit my mum & aunt on a potty for a lot of their waking hours and that they were out of nappies by the time they were a year old and I suppose when you have to soak and wash nappies by hand that gives you rather an incentive!

I'm genuinely asking btw -not criticising anyone's approach.

I have used the method Maveta did - from 4 months DS has gone on the potty every nappy change (at home - not at nursery) and we have a fair amount of success, he knows what it is for, he is perfectly happy sitting on it and it saves me quite a few nappy washes. He isn't clean or dry by any means (17 months) but he has started (occasionally) to sign potty, and to tell me if he has a dirty nappy, so he is definitely aware. I find it very easy, no stress. In the summer I will consider trying to get him to use it a bit more, but I have no expectation he will 'train' earlier than (say) 2.6, but what I do hope to avoid is all the problems you see with threads like 'My DS hates the potty'.

If you can potty train early on i think its great provided the child is happy and not forced to sit on it. I think there is pressure on people to potty train, and my lo is nearly 3 and starts nursery soon and we are hoping to get it done before she starts. I feel so embarrassed about it and why? Because of other peoples expectations, assumptions you are lazy or that theres something wrong with the child. My daughter is above and beyond her milestones but it has nothing to do with it.

It is something I would like to get done sooner if I had another child but with this one she just hasnt been ready sooner, weve tried many times and although i would use this experience to help me next time, theres no guarantees we could do it sooner with another child as that child may not be ready until they are older also.

V interesting thread. I am going to have a go with this with ds2 who is 13 months now. Ds1 is 3.3 and have been unsuccessfully trying to train him for 8 months (but that's another story). I wish I had started earlier. Ds2 is at a lovely stage where he wants to copy me all the time and to me it makes sense to take advantage of this phase before he becomes a stroppy little bugger like his brother .

Also hating the fact that gran in law appears to have been right all along about this. Grrrr.

Also, I wonder if we will see a change in fashion in the next few years - potty training seems to be getting done later and later, must be about time there was a backlash and it swung the other way.

The reason that potty training is getting later and later is that we train our children to piss in their clothes. The disposible nappy companies love this.

I am sure that in ten years time no one will consider it possible to potty train a child less than three years old. Thirty years ago having a four year old in nappies was unheard of unless there were special needs. Disposible nappies have made people lazy.

I think that sitting a baby on the potty shows them there is an alternative to pissing in your clothes. I try and sit my daughter after meals and on waking. Yes it is poo/ wee catching, but it prevents nappy rash without the use of strong chemicals like metalium.

The important thing is to realise a baby is a baby. Don't get frustrated if they doo poo or wee in their nappies. It will all come in time. Certainly I have no intention of ditching the nappies quite yet.

I think that these days people seem to see potty training as a single event (e.g. potty training in one week). I think that's why it gets later and later because if you expect them to pick it up from nowhere in a couple of days then yes it's easier if they are older. But it doesn't have to be so cut and dried. It doesn't have to be either EC or waiting until they are nearly 3. With DD2 I started sitting her on the potty regularly from about 18 months (after meals and naps) and sometimes we got something. from about 20 months I put her in pull ups so it was easier to take her regularly to the potty and she was fully trained at 22 months. It was a pretty gently process over 4 months or so. I wouldn't say it was much more work - yes I had to put in a bit of an effort to take her regularly to the potty, but that was counteracted by having maybe a year less of nappies.

Nowt wrong with it if, as above, your child has a 'poo' face and learns to use the potty/toilet, or if it is instigated by the child. IMO it's bad if the parents are trying to train when the child is obviously not interested/not ready. Then I think it's puts a lot of pressure on a very small child to take responsibility for their own movements which is very unfair.

Ultimately, you know your child, if you think they are ready then go for it. It's totally different to forcing (in as much as you can force it!) a very young child to be trained just because it suits you better or your aunty Agnes said you were trained at 3 weeks.

We're kind of doing what Nelly above is doing. We've had a potty in the house since DD was just under a year. She was happy to use it for wees pretty much since we got it. She always uses it before her bath and that's built up to her asking to use it at other times. If we're at home all day then I'll put pants on her and have the potty around. I'm using up the last of some nappies then she'll go into proper pull ups out and about. She's 2.2 and I'm in no hurry, happy to be led by her which hopefully makes it less stressful for everyone.

Nothing wrong with it all - people will just think you are strange! We did what others here have done - sat both children on potty from early age at changes - no extra work at all and much nicer for baby/parent as no poo to scrape off!We kept them in nappies till they were dry between changes. ds told us he didn't want them any more at 25 months, dd2 was out of them by 15 months. Each child and parent is different, do what works for you.