Potty Training - Lenore,ID

18 months is really young. Some toddlers (almost all of them girls) do train this young, but it's uncommon. If you really think she's ready in every way, though, here's what I'd recommend:

Take her with you to buy a potty, and let her pick it out. If she's not excited about any of the potties in the store, get a plain one and let her decorate it with stickers. Go on and on and on about how beautiful and wonderful her new potty is.

Then, whenever she's in the house, let her just run around with no pants on. Be prepared to clean up one or two messes, but if she's truly ready, she'll find her way to the potty pretty quick.

Once she's got that down, she graduates up to wearing underwear (just underwear, not with pants yet). Let her choose some "beautiful big-girl underwear" and make a big deal out of how wonderful it is.

Once she can make it to the potty with underwear, she moves up to underwear with pants, and then she's trained.

Other things to keep in mind are to make the potty a fun place to sit (read to her when she's there), never, ever shame her or make her feel bad for accidents, and really celebrate "successes" -- lots of parents to the "happy potty dance."

I also want to say -- I swear by this method, but I swear by it for 2 1/2 year olds. The risk with an 18-month-old is that it won't work, and that will make the next attempt much harder. Kids who start too young often learn later -- and with more trouble -- than kids who start a little older.

I have 3 girls and NONE of them were really ready to potty train that young. My two oldest were just over 2 and my youngest is still in diapers at 26 months.

While other people were "training" their younger babies for *months* or years, I waited until my girls were ready and able to grasp the concept and they were both trained inside of 2 weeks.

IF she's really ready, put her in underwear. I've found that pullups just prolong the diaper stage. It's a little more work on your part, but it's worth it. Of course, if you're leaving the house use pullups in the early stages.

Does your daughter wake up dry? I started quite slowly with mine. He woke up dry, so I made a big deal about sitting on the potty first thing in the morning. Since he hadn't gone all night, it was likely that he would go while there (just by accident at first) and then I could make a big deal with lots of positive attention for it. Then, I put him in pullups for the rest of the day and just let him try when he wanted.

Of course, I started that part around 18 months and he did go on the potty occasionally starting around that time. But he wasn't potty trained enough to go out in public without pullups until he was almost 2.5. 18 months is still REALLY young to go full-out into potty training, IMO.

You can try it, but if either of you gets stressed, back off for a while.

Our ped recommends starting potty training at 18 months. I even started my oldest at 18 months. She is now 27 months and still not trained. But she did have it down until we moved.

Buy her training pants. They are like underwear but are absorbent like pull ups. They are also washable.

The daycare that trained my son (and me LOL) started us off with pull-ups so he could practice pulling his pants down/up to go. It worked well with my son. He was 3, though, because I was intimidated by the whole thing and I wasn't ready. I don't think it counts as really trained if you have to do all the work other than the actual going :) So start there. Let her practice and get that physical part down before switching to underwear.

Talk to her about what you are doing when you are pottying so she understands the process - let her come in the bathroom when you do. Perhaps have a training potty in there so you can both "go" at the same time.

Don't rush it. It's her body, and you can help her along, but pushing it when she's not ready will backfire.

I find that 18 months is pretty young but if she's verbal or can otherwise communicate to you that she has to go, here's what I did. Fully trained within 3 days!

No pampers or pull ups! She wore panties of her choosing. After day one, I wanted to give up. Pee'd everywhere! I couldn't get the timing down. Turns out, my daughter had to pee every 15 mins or so! Didn't figure that out until day 2. Seems ridiculous to have to pee so frequent but it was true. Less accidents after I realized her bladder was tini-tiny but wanted to give up nonetheless. Day 3....a Miracle happened....she was fully trained. Hallelujah!

I gave her lots of liquids so she could have more success on the bowl but cut off time was 7/7:30. And we stayed home for the full week to be sure. After that, road trips were kept very local and I carried a travel size porta potty (which I totally encourage you to buy) with wipes and a change of clothes. Never needed the change of clothes!

Good luck. Takes a lot of patience but be supportive and consistent and don't make a big deal when she has an accident. You'll have to watch her body language like a hawk since she's so young but it's doable. Many people have done it.

My 4 daughters were all different with how they learned. The first put on panties and never had an accident, including overnight, at 24 months. Another I started at 18 months and accidents didn't quit until nearly 3 and overnight wasn't until 4! But I always did the same thing when I thought they were ready - take off the diaper for sure. (We have the benefit of wood floors everywhere but bedrooms, so accidents weren't quite such a big deal.) Set a kitchen timer for 30 - 45 minutes and make a fun trip to the bathroom to sit on the potty and try. If she tries and nothing happens, then you just say, "Good girl to try!" and go out. If she pees she gets high fives/hugs/tons of praise and two M&M's (I only bribe during potty training!). At this age it's totally your job, the outcome depends on how diligent you are, and it can can feel like a suck-y job. But if you stay positive and consistent the reward of having a potty trained two year old is SO worth it! FWIW, I totally disagree with today's common opinion that 18 months is too young. If you research through history and many other countries, America today has absolutely the latest potty training recommendations. If you're in tune with your daughter's body cycles/schedules you should be pretty good at knowing when she'll have to pee.

I agree with going without anything on the bottom. Pantsless worked well for all of my kids (daughter was just 2, older sons almost 3 and youngest son 2.5). They rarely had accidents on the floor and could hold it for 2 hours or more. If they hadn't indicated a need to go after 1.5-2 hours I would have them sit and try anyway, they would usually go at that time. Over time they got to where they would tell me ahead of time (usually). During this period I would use diapers when we were going to be out of the house. I think pull-ups are generally a waste of money and prolong the process. You can't expect her to not think of it as a diaper. I could see using them if she was well trained and you wanted a "just in case" during a long outing away from home, but to start the process I think pantsless is much more effective.
We often had a bit of a "relapse" when first wearing underwear, they thought of it as a diaper and would just go. But since they got wet and messy it typically only took a few days for them to figure it out and stop.
I also agree that if you start trying and she is still having frequent accidents after several days then it is usually best to take a break and try again later. 18 months is not unheard of, but it is on the young side. Good luck!

If she is showing interest in it, get her a potty chair (let her pick out her own potty chair.) During the day, if your at home, have her go bottomless. And out and about, put pull ups on her. What I did, was from the beginning, announced when I had to go, 'Mommy has to go peepee. When I have to peepee, I go on the potty like a big girl.' They will watch and see, and maybe think--'gee--if mommy uses to potty, maybe I should.' I also had her potty chair outside the bathroom (I had a gate infront of the bathroom so she couldn't get in, for obvious reasons)

I would also sit her down on her potty often, making it a big deal to use it. Don't get discouraged if it takes some times. Sometimes potty and having to go can be confusing for anyone starting out.

Good luck!

My son started showing interest at 18 months, but that is still young so I went to pull ups. This allowed him to pull them on and off when he needed to go. Once he was peeing in the toilet over half the time and was pooping in it almost all the time (around 24 months) we went to undies. the first day was bad, he had 13 accidents and was begging for his pull up, but I said no we needed to keep trying, and the second day he only had 2 accidents, and after that it was just once or twice a week. He got it really fast because I made sure he was really really ready before going to regular undies.

I used training underwear (they are a little thicker than regular underwear) and put rubber pants over them so that we didn't get TOO MUCH pee everywhere! def no pull ups!!! will give mix signals of what you are trying to accomplish. No going backwards, be consistent, take her potty every 20 minutes or so the first few days 3-5, i would do it on a long weekend of take off of work, so you can totally focus on it. good luck!