When Is It Time to Potty Train My 18 Mo Old?

I am in what appears to be the slightly less popular camp that believes in starting potty training very early. I began potty training all my children when they were around 12 months of age. It's not an issue I force, I just believe that if children are given the opportunity to experience the potty sooner rather than later, they are less likely to resist it - many believe there is a "window of opportunity" that closes sometime during the second year of life, making later potty training an unnecessarily difficult time.

Naturally, your child needs to be physically capable of training - him recognizing that he's urinating is a very positive sign.

Personally I prefer to start early and take the extra time to work with my children and have them out of diapers earlier. It's always been a very relaxed process in our family and my daughter was diaper-free at 18 months, my sons at 27 and 24 months. The baby's just 5 months old, so she's got some time yet ;)

Best of luck!

1 mom found this helpful

If he shows an interest in it, that's fine. But he's still quite young for you to push it if he's not ready. Most boys potty train around age 3, as an average.

Your son sounds very much like mine at 18 months. He wouldn't hold still for diaper changes and when I tried the potty chair he used it to store his toys.
We took it really slow, he's 25 months old and still in pull-ups but has had several dry days/nights at home and the sitters. What we did was just talk about it and ask if he wanted to potty. He didn't like the potty chair, or the child sized seat that you can use on a reglar toilet. He wanted to use the regular stool. We started out just trying to get him to sit on something... it took a long time.
Use patience and don't be upset if he won't cooperate or if he has accidents. It will come when he's ready, just making the potty an option is the way to start. Don't pressure him just make sure he know's its there if he wants to try it out.
Once my son got used to the idea of sitting on the potty, I would sit him on the potty when I knew he had something to do, like first thing in the morning, or after his nap. Then after a couple of months of that, I stayed home one day, turned up the heat in the house,and let him have a naked day. We had a couple of accidents but by the end of the day he was asking to go when he needed to.

Patience and Persistece are the keys.

Good Luck.

I have ran a daycare in Brownsburg for 14 yrs and my experience with potty training is when they show you the interest. If we try and get them to go potty before they are ready then for some reason it just prolongs the process..when your child comes to you and uses the words "potty, pee, etc." thats I would start. Boys take longer then girls so don't try and rush the process along or you will get very frustrated.

Good luck
T.

i think he sounds very ready myself, but it will take time and accidents are a way of life, he's young, so let him play with the potty let him thinks it's cool, maybe try some pullups and if he goes make a big deal out of it cause it's great and if not don't stress, he will when he is ready, if he likes to and can spend time naked a potty chair that is closer than the bathroom might help as well. let him have fun with it for now, there is no hurry at his age and it will make it easier later. good luck.

It is time to potty train him when he is ready to do it. Otherwise, you are only "potty training" yourself. My opinion is that 18 months old is about 18 months too soon. You will have many wet and soiled pants and accidents, whereas if you wait until he is ready at 3, you will have very few.
Our mother's generation did "potty train" themselves- that is to say that they took us to the toilet every 15 minutes because they had the time to do so!

My advice comes from my experience raising 2 boys and 6 years in the toddler room. I feel the doctors are trying to soothe too many mothers with busy lives instead of using a routine to make a successful transition to being a big kid.
Your ready and he sounds ready. We did every hour a trip to the potty, then had lots of special play for 10 to 15 min. then I finished whatever I was working on. Yes, for about 3 months I was trained not him, with my second one. Once I knew we had it down, I let more time pass, giving him a chance to tell me. It was his job, his responsibilty and a way to help our family. All children want to belong, and help. We used the cold pull-ups for outings, and the cloth training pants with plastic covering for at home.
You can do it, it will just take lots of routine, smiles, and time.

If he knows what he did then it is time..take him as often as you can and talk to him and praise him , give him rewards for going. he sounds very smart and will pick it up. but it will still take a lot of time kind of like a pet when you do them . it always takes time and accidents to learn any lesson for any of us .. good luck ,,,,R.

It is very hard to do the whole potty training thing. I have two kids and trust when they are ready they will tell you. My son was potty trained right after he turned 3 and so was my daughter. I know it is very hard because you have your parents saying "You potty trained when you were one or two" but guess only the child can tell you when they are ready. I tried so hard to get my son potty trained when he was 2 and it just didn't work. All you have to do is just keep asking him if he is has to go potty. When you go take him with you. Eventually he will pick up when he has to go. If he says no don't push the issue. You don't want him to hate it all together. I hope this will help you.

with all 3 of mine i let them make the decision when it was time my oldest 2 were just shy of 3 . with my daughter ( the oldest ) she wanted to be in dance but the school's rule was no diapers , so when i told her that she potty trained herself , she hasnt had any accidents since ( she is gonna be 8 ) my middle son same thing he wanted to go to my brothers and visit but my brother wouldnt take him until he was out of diapers , he just started going as well , he did have accidents but it was at night . my youngest was almost 4 i worked full time with him and had to take a week off work i got the potty and set it in front of the t.v. and told him he was a big boy no more diapers , so if he messed his underwear it was gonna feel yucky , he went one time in his underwear and relaized he better sit on the potty . he also had a few accidents at night .

my point is if the child is ready there will be few accidents, if the child isnt ready you are only gonna make yourself crazy trying to train them . put him in a pull up and see how he responds you will know without a doubt when he is ready by how he acts

A.,

I have a 16 month old daughter and I bought her a potty chair when she was roughly 13 months old. (maybe 14 months) But anyhow, I let her discover it. She would sit on it and play with it. I let my child get comfortable with her potty chair. Now she will go to the bathroom with me all the time. she takes her pants and her diaper off and she will sit down. If she does nothing it is okay we still praise her for trying. When she does go potty she stands up and waits to be wiped off and then she does a lil' dance while clapping her hands. (really cute to see) I have not yet let her run around with out a diaper on. I hate the idea of a mess but I know that is what happens when it is time to potty train a child.

Being to early or being to late........ I don't think that it is to early for a child to know what and were the potty chair is located in a home. Just don't push to hard. I have heard it is harder to potty train boys I don't know I only have girls. But my two older girls were potty trained before the age of 2.

Good luck with the potty training!! Make it a fun experience for your child.

I have two boys. What some of the previous respondents have said is absolutely true. Boys are ready later than girls, for boys it is usually 2.5-3.5 years old, because they lack the physical control. Of course your son knows what he has done, but that has nothing to do with being able to control his blatter. One reader advised that if you wait until he is physically ready it will take you only a couple of days. I can tell you from personal experience that that is true. Do not feel pressured by the current trends. You will know when he is ready and it will be based on when he is hiding to have a BM as opposed to having anything to do with peeing.
Good Luck!

I would wait awhile. My son is now 4 and just now completed potty training. We started trying to potty train him at about 22 months and I don't think he was ready. It is a long process. Good Luck

The answer is NOW! He doesn't like the diaper and he is aware tht he has peed so he is ready.

Everyone who says "wait until your child is ready" is ignoring the fact that your child has been ready to go to the potty since the day they were born. Do you give your child a choice to eat, drink or sleep? the answer is "no", you make it part of their schedule. Potty time should be part of their schedule too.

I have been using the potty with my daughter since she was 4 months old. She's 7 1/2 months old now and it's part of her routine. She wakes up from sleep or nap and sits on the potty, she sits on the potty before and after a meal and one last time before bath. Some days are better than others, but most times she will pee or poo in the potty. She is also noticeably upset if she's wet (I use cotton diapers so she knows).

If your son thinks it's a toy right now, fine. Just keep telling him it's not a toy but a potty and you sit on it to go pee and poo. Since you started late, he's used to using his diapers as the toilet and thinks this is normal. He has to learn that he can use the potty. The idea is to not make a big deal of it. Put the potty in the bathroom and take him to go pee whenever you do. He'll start to imitate you. Make it part of your routine. Don't ask him if he has to go potty, just say "We're going to have lunch now, it's time to go potty and wash our hands", or "Good morning, let's go potty, get dressed and have breakfast", etc. Even if he just sits there and does nothing, this is good and you should tell him so. Give him a book or a toy to help him be distracted. Never get upset if he doesn't sit there or do anything at first, just keep trying.

Get him some cotton training pants and get rid of the disposables. Disposables are way too absorbant and make it hard for the child to know they are wet. Let him know he's not a baby who needs diapers but a big boy who can wear big boy pants. He can help you throw out the diapers so that he will feel involved in the change.

You will have "misses" for a while, but just always have spare clothes with you and most importantly DON'T get all upset and admonish him when he has a miss and DON'T call it an accident. Just say "it's OK, we'll make it to the potty next time" and clean him up.

He's at an age where he will catch on real fast and you should be able to get him used to the potty in a week. He won't be fully trained for a while, but you will get him on his way. Good luck!

check out the book diaper free before 3. It's short, easy to read and has great suggestions. I started putting my daughter on the potty @ 9 mo. (now 12 mo.) She's not any where close to being potty trained but we've made it a fun experience and part of our play time. She uses the potty about 75% of the time I put her on it for both pee and poop.
I'm hoping that this will allow for a smoother and less stressful transition to using the potty full time as she gets older.

Hi A.!

I'd hate to say it, but it's what they do! My son HATED having his diaper changed from about 15 months til about 20 months. Now that he's older and knows about please, asking nicely, and being a good listener, I ask him to get his own diapers and lay down please with no fight.

Boys normally train later than girls. My pediatrician says the average potty training age for boys is 2.5 years old. Maybe you can try a pull-up type diaper. So that way he doesn't have to lay down to change him. Pampers makes "Easy Ups", which is just a regular diaper in a pull-up form. It has no special "learning designs" or "cool alert"; it's not a potty training diaper. It's just designed to make changes easier!

I am using a checklist I found at BabyCenter.com to see when I should start potty training my son. I found this list extremely useful and makes A LOT of sense. I had no idea so many factors were involved in potty training! Here's the link: http://www.babycenter.com/0_toilet-training-readiness-che...

Good luck!

Wait at least another year. I have never had a kid like diaper changes. If you start now, it will likely take you a year and a half. Wait a year and a half and it will take you 2 days.

If you go to baby center, they have a wonderful checklist of readiness for little ones to help you determine if your particular child is ready. I think some kids are ready when they're younger and some aren't. We can't categorize all children together. They develope at different rates, physically, emotionally, and mentally. I would go there. Good luck. Shannon G.