How do you know if your child is capable of early potty training?

Question

Kami is 13 months and can is generally pretty advanced. We have a potty for and I already put her on it speratically throughout the day. She has never gone on it though. She does know "p**p" and a lot of the time will tell you so after she goes, and when she has to pee she holds her diaper. How did you know your young toddler could potty train.

Also she dosnt walk well yet, will this pose a problem in trying?

Answer 1

Well at that age it's more like "mommy training."  You can probably teach her to use the potty most of the time, by learning her cues and taking her to the potty at certain intervals.

But it will be quite awhile until she is truly potty trained.  Meaning she can communicate to you that she needs to go, she can use the potty by herself most of the time, pull her pants up and down effectively, night train etc.

EDIT - Did you ask this question just to tell us we are wrong?  It seems like you already know what your plan is.

I am all for moms teaching their babies to use the potty as early as they want...  I'm just pointing out that your daughter cannot handle her toilet needs independently for quite some time.

I don't think potty training has changed much since we were kids...  I think the definition of potty training has changed....  Our parents might have considered us potty trained at 16 months etc...  But they were pulling our pants up and down, and holding us over the potty, and wiping us.  And probably putting us in training pants while we were out of the house..

I don't consider that potty trained.  There is no possible way that a 16 month old could wipe themselves effectively, even after pee!  They also can't pull their pants up and down on their own...  

My daughter barely started walking at 15 months...  She could not have wiped herself or pulled her pants down....

Just because the pee/bm makes it into the potty does not mean the child is "potty trained,." in my opinion.

Answer 2

Personally I think that it depends on if he/she is showing interest in the potty, or the people around them using the toilet.  That and if they are able to understand & communicate when they need to go & how to use it.  We started putting our son in underwear and introducing the potty before he was 2 but he didn't consistently use the toilet until he was 2 1/2 and he turned 3 may 31st and is now 100% pull up/diaper free!! it's like he woke up on day and decided he was a big boy now!! I really think it depends on the child, AND i think a LOT of people think children are not as smart as they really are, and I really have to agree that it's about laziness if the parent is lazy that can play a HUGE role in a child's development but also, like i said, children are smart and it depends on the child. Some children have crappy parents and manage to teach themselves things just because they want to do it.  

It sounds like she is getting there!! you could ind out what the baby sign for potty is and teach her that and maybe that will help with her telling you when she wants to sit on the toilet, when my son was younger i taught him some signs to help us communicate better, but that was usually when he wanted something :) anyway!  I would keep putting her on the potty, maybe let her wear some panties and see how she does with them during the day, and just ask her often and be consistent about having her "try" my son never wanted to go, but we always asked him to try so he would eventually try and usually went.  We just paid attention to when he normally went on a daily basis, and tried to get him to sit on the potty often around those times! Good luck!!

Answer 3

May I just add that in 1960 most kids WERE potty trained by the age of 16 months!

Good luck to you :)

Answer 4

Both my older kids started potty training around 13 months, it takes a while as they get the hang of it then sometimes regress back to wetting themselfs and even after their toilet trained you have to start toilet training through the night aswell...it's a pain!

For me the major indicator that my kid's were ready was they started bringing me a nappy and saying 'yucky' or 'smelly'....i figured if they were old enough to know that they had done a poo and it needed to be changed because it was yuck then they were old enough to toilet train!

Everyone will tell you there is no rush in doing this and that some children are still not trained by the age of 3-4....I say why wait that long, if your daughter seems to understand and get the hang of it then there is no reason why she should wait, plus the sooner it's over with the better!

Good luck with it.

Answer 5

What's the rush? I wouldn't recommend it until she is walking and able to know when she is going and be able to tell you. Also, most pediatricians say that she should be able to pull down her pants unaided. There is really no rush. Pushing her before she is ready could cause a lot of insecurity and may take longer to have her potty trained.