How old was the youngest child that you toilet trained?

Silver Member Joined: Apr 26 2010 Posts: 983 Location: NJ

I'm just curious. My DD#2 is showing some signs of readiness but I think she's just way too young. (DD#1 was almost 4)
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Gold Member Joined: Aug 19 2011 Posts: 2019

You can always try and go back if she's really not ready. My dd trained herself when she was 25 mo. I had very little to do with it and wouldn't have dreamed of starting so young. My others were older - 2.5 and a month over 3.

I train them at age 26 months usually.
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Gold Member Joined: Dec 10 2009 Posts: 1386

if they have more then 2 accidents a day then I wait a week and try again. one accident here and there is normal and also if they run to the potty very very often then their little bladders may not be ready,...I found waiting a few weeks helped with that.

My oldest (and only girl) started showing interest in using the toilet at 12 months and used it for the first time at 13 months.
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I tried training my older son when he was 2, but he refused. I finally just stopped, and after his upsherin, he trained himself. With my younger son, I didn't even bother trying. About a month after his haircut, he just got on the toilet.
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Platinum Member Joined: Oct 14 2009 Posts: 5893

I don't think there's any such thing as "too early" if the child is showing signs of readiness. My mother always says that if you skip their signals and wait until it's easier for you, then they get all rebellious about it, and indeed I've seen that happen with several nieces and nephews. OTOH my DD started showing INTEREST waaaaay before she was really READY, and as a result we have wasted away days' worth of our lives sitting on the potty. But supposedly it will all be worth it one day.

I did not answer the poll yet because she is not yet fully trained, but now she is 17 months old. She is aware of when she has to pee, says "make," goes to the potty, asks me to take off her diaper, pees in the potty, wipes herself, and brings the bowl to dump in the toilet. That's quite a bit of progress. However, she also pees in her diaper plenty without letting me know; sitting on the toilet seems to be more of an optional, recreational activity for her. As for poop, she definitely seems to know what to do and when she has to do it, but physiologically she seems confused and can't seem to do it sitting down. She always does it in her diaper standing or squatting, and when she's on the potty she seems to want to but can't get it out. She's done it maybe two or three times out of months of sitting on the potty.

Senior Member Joined: Jul 27 2007 Posts: 239

20 months. it was so (unusually) simple and straightforward.

These were the contributin factors: My daughter was waking up dry and then was soaking a few minutes later. At the same time she started taking off her diaper on her own during the day. This kid is by nature extremely self disciplined and organized. Once I noticed this pattern, I put her on the toilet each morning. Her bladder was obviously quite full and it was inevitable that she would go. Once she got over the being scared aspect (I did a whole little dance showing her how proud I was), it was smooth sailing. It took two days and she was trained for night too.

I have another daugher who trained at 24 months. same idea. she took off her diaper and I said - no more kiddo. night training I didn't attempt for a while as I had an older daughter that hadn't mastered it yet so I didn't even think to try.

My other children trained after age 3.

My son is now 22 months and I am very tempted to teach him how to make in the toilet. He started removing his diaper and making on the floor. I just have so much going on that I don't have the self-discipline and time that it would take to follow through. If I don't catch the window, I think it will wait till he is 3.

Silver Member Joined: Aug 24 2009 Posts: 653

My older son 90% trained himself at 21 months and needed just a gentle push from me to complete the process. It took about a month until he was 100% reliable without any prompting, both day and night, and was a stress-free process for both of us.
I wouldn't have thought you could realistically train a child properly at that age, much less a boy, but it started kind of by accident and then I decided to follow ds's cues and it all just took off from there.

What happened was, at about 4 months ds started becoming very selective about when and where he'd poop. Only at home, only once a day, and only when his environment was calm and quiet. When we traveled, he wouldn't go at all - once this was for ten days.

By about 7 months, he improved upon his earlier methods and took to pooping only in the bathtub every evening. We'd fill the tub, put him in, he'd go, we'd empty the water, and repeat, sometimes as many as 4 times because we thought he was done when he wasn't.

When he was nine months old, a lightbulb went off in my head - why not put him on the potty once he started to poop so he'd at least finish on there and we'd only have to fill the tub twice instead of several times. So we bought a little potty, set it up right by the bathtub, and started putting him on it at the first sign of an imminent deposit. We'd put him in the tub, and as soon as we saw the signs, sit him on the potty right by the tub. It was usually too late for him to hold it in by then, so he'd finish his business on the potty.

By 11 or 12 months, we could put him on the potty before putting him in the bath and he'd happily go. At some point he discovered he could pee in there, too. At around this time he started to wake up with a dry diaper every morning and not fill it until about 1/2 hour later, so I sometimes put him on the potty at that time, too.

He was about 17 months the first time he asked to go potty, but it was a very occasional thing after that. Then it gradually it became something he really liked doing and he started to ask more often, sometimes when he didn't really need to go.

At around 20 months, he was asking a few times a day, and telling me when he'd gone in his diaper. So I decided to try putting him in underwear. It was a disaster. He used the underwear just like a diaper and then got upset as if he didn't understand why he felt wet or dirty. He could use the potty and even ask for it when he felt like going, he just needed to learn to do this consistently, all the time. I thought there had to be a better way...after all, he seemed so ready. I thought that maybe this was a window of opportunity and if I didn't grab it now I'd miss my chance and it would be much harder to take this step later on when I thought it was time. Knowing my child's unique personality, I knew that he was fully capable of regulating himself once he got the idea, but if he thought this was all my idea, he'd just dig in his heels and refuse to cooperate, so I was eager to teach him when he seemed to be taking the initiative. I didn't even want to think about trying to impose my will on him during the "terrible twos" when he'd already lost interest, and waiting until after his third birthday would mean he couldn't wear tzitzis when he turned three.

I did some research, and came up with something that I thought could work, and modified it to fit our needs. I blocked out 3 days where I would do absolutely nothing but potty-train my son. He was dressed in just a shirt and underwear, no pants, shoes, or socks, and I stayed next to him at all times as he went through his day. As soon as I'd see him starting to "go", I'd model saying "potty time!" and rush him off to the potty. I tried to be as quick as possible. It worked because my child was already happy to use the potty, he just needed help being aware of when he needed to go. If I was a bit too late and a puddle had already started to form on the floor, I'd show him and remind him that pee needed to go in the potty. Then we'd clean up together. We went through a LOT of underwear those first few days, but I was prepared for that and had plenty Mickey Mouse and Sesame Street ones on hand. It was all very low-key and no pressure or disappointment.

By the end of the three days, he'd gotten the idea, he just needed some practice. So we kept up the underwear but no pants and I continued to monitor him, though not quite as closely as before. I also started to use the characters on his underwear to help him, reminding him to keep Elmo dry because Elmo didn't like to be wet and would cry if he got wet or dirty.

He continued to get better at this new skill every day. By the end of the first week, we were down to no more than one tiny, barely-there accident per day. We were able to go out and he had no accidents because he'd be less relaxed than at home so he was more aware of needing to go and would tell me. He was able to hold it in until we got to a bathroom.

After two weeks, he was consistently dry all the time.

After a month, he was dry every night with the occasional bedwetting accident about once in 3-4 months, usually when his routines were changed. And by age 2.5 this, too, stopped. And we've never looked back, b"h (he'll be four soon be"h).

Silver Member Joined: Aug 24 2009 Posts: 653

Oh, sorry for the book.
For some odd reason I seem to have an uncontrollable need to share all the intimate details of my son's potty training experience Rolling Eyes

Mommeeeee, that was epic.