Potty Training 18 Month Old

Hello,
I will give the same advice someone gave me, I know this is going to sound really weird but here goes. while you guys are around the house and you are trying to do the whole potty thing, keep her undies off. Someone told me that and it worked. I was having the hardest time training my son to go potty so I tried it. It worked, he didnt like having nothing around his bottom so when he felt he had to go he would go find his potty. Try it,it works, but you have to be consistent. My friends daughter took about a week to get it.
B. D

Go for it if she is interested. My son also showed interest at 18months and we bought him a potty and he used it, just for urinating though. We went through some weeks/months when he wouldn't so we tried not to force him. There were times my husband would try to get him to do a BM on the potty and he wouldn't and then would hold it for that control- what a pain for him and us. Our pediatrician had said to talk to him that this was a choice for him to make and give him the control over doing a BM in the potty. Right after he turned 3, he just decided he was done with pull ups and hasn't turned back since. It took awhile to totally potty train him because he showed that interest at 18months and we went with it. He did great urinating but the BM took much longer. So be prepared there might be stops and starts and certainly accidents along the way, but when they are ready- they'll do it! Good luck!

Yup, I'd go with Yael's advice - if you've got the seats and she's telling or showing you for doo-doo, then go with it! I trained my guy for doo-doo first, then for urine; it's a great way to go. Praise her w/stickers or a little candy (don't worry it'll pass - or she doesn't need it anyway). Then you can try to get some urine success while she is still in pull-ups: we started before bath and worked up to after b-fast. Make it fun - it's a great achievement but it can also be frustrating for them. Love her through it all! :)

Hi B., I have two daughters. Opposites in every way. I bought a pottie for my second daughter at a very young age and just left it sit in the bathroom. She would follow me into the bathroom when I went and liked to hand me my paper! lol. Us single moms never have a moment to ourselves. When she hit about 13 months old, she decided one day that she wanted to sit on her pottie. I never made a big deal out wether or not she "went pottie" or not. If she went I didn't give treats or anything. I treated it like it was a normal thing. The only "problem" I had with this was that after breakfast her show came on and that's when she did her morning #2. I brought the pottie in the livingroom and let nature take it's course. She had her accidents, but besides that, she had trained herself from this point on. I had been blessed. After spending 7 yrs with many doctors and in several hospitals trying to get her sister pottie trained, maybe that was God's way of saying "I'm gonna give you a break!" lol.
So, I say why not "train" your daughter. If it works at this young age, fantastic. If it don't, it will come in time. Best of luck.

My daughter was 17 months old when she started wanting to use the potty(to be like her big brother)-she was solidly potty trained by 19 months. I will say up front that it was not an easy time. We had 2 issues-1 was that she would recognize that she had to go potty but she would tell me at the first inclination and then she would sit for 5-20 minutes before she would actually go (this was tough at bed time-sometimes I was quite sure that she was using sitting on the potty to delay bedtime LOL)so we sat in the bathroom a lot and to keep my frustration level down, I made sure I had something to read for myself. I shared the pictures with her but did not read kid books to her (she was already wanting to spend so much time on the potty, I didn't want to give her another reason)she was happy to emulate me and flip through a parenting magazine. The second issue was being out in public and having to use public restrooms for such a small/young child-yuck! I bought one of those fold up potty seats that fits in your diaper bag and tried to make short trips out-making sure we tried to go potty before we left the house. I kept a travel potty in the car too and a training potty in each bathroom in the house. Like so many other responses I say go for it and just follow her lead. Everyone told me that my daughter would probably lose interest but she did not and I am so glad! She is 3 now and being diaper free has been great!

You can potty train a child at any age as long as you recognize their cues telling you when they have to go. Some cultures don't use diapers at all.
My second child was potty trained by one year! So if she's interested, take advantage of this 'window of opportunity'!

Hi B.,
My daughter was 14 months old when she really started to show interest in potty training. We read books all the time and she went with me and her big sis to the bathroom all the time. The way it all started was with my walk in shower. I woke up one morning and she was in her bed with her diaper off, so naturally, I got up and told her to go get a dry diaper so that I could put it on her. Instead, she ran to my shower and stood in it and peed. That night I went and got her a potty chair and put it in my shower. She immediately started sitting on the potty and going almost every time. She was almost completely trained in less than a month. She would even use the potty at day care. We did have accidents, but that is to be expected.

I would use this as your opportunity to start training her. Even if she does not get it right away, she is starting to show interest. A sticker chart works great, because it gives her the chance to see how good she is doing.

Give her this chance to be a "big girl" but be patient with her. Good luck!

potty training doesn't have to be some big formal 'event'. since you're lucky enough to have a little who is so bright and interested she's actually training herself, and since you're smart enough to let her, why not just go with it? you don't have to 'teach' her anything (she is so young after all), just keep encouraging her and my bet is that she'll figure it out.
i love your current approach, you've got potty seats and pullups for her and you're following her lead. no pressure, no tears, no angst. yay!
:) khairete
S.

Sounds like she knows exactly what the potty is about and that you should follow her cues rather than listen to people who tell you she is too young. I listened to people who told me my son was too young and I missed the window...

Take her when she asks and also offer for her to go right before bath, right after she wakes up in the morning and right before she goes to bed. If at any point she loses interest and seems like she doesn't want to do it anymore, then back off, but it sounds like she is more than ready. After a couple of weeks of seeing how it goes, you can even ask her if she wants to wear big girl underwear. That way she'll wet herself a couple of times and will also get the whole pee concept of it all and you will be able to be done with the whole thing. Lots of luck. Sounds like your girl is more than ready and you should definitely go with her cues rather than what other people tell you.

GO FOR IT! The only thing I'll add to the other posts is that when you want to try pee, try first thing in the morning and right before evening bath. You may also want to teach her a sign for it so she can get your attention, or tell you when she's going...it helps you know that she's aware of what's going on. Good luck!

I B. if she is interested def. start!! I daughter should interest early and was completely potty train by 2!! I would let her wear pannies all the time!! Of course we had accidents but after awhile it stopped. If we went somewhere I would put pannies on her and then a pull-up. If she couldnt feel the pullup she wouldnt pee!! Worked great for my little one.

As a preschool teacher, absolutely, you should go with her interest. Buy lots and lots of underwear and be prepared for accidents but I would put her in underwear only and let her go. My oldest daughter potty trained early and even though we had a few accidents and I washed a lot of clothes, it wasn't a struggle at all. One piece of advice, once you go to underwear, don't go back to pull ups or diapers. It will confuse her.

Good luck.

yes, go with her cues. I missed that window with my first b/c I thought surely 18 months was too young. Then, the interest didn't return until almost age 4! Ugh! I always kicked myself for not going with it back then. Good luck.