Is my 17 month old ready to be potty trained?

Question

Today my babysitter told me that my son took off his diaper and then pooped on the floor. He has also a couple times taken his diaper off and peed. My daughter has never done anything like this. He still does not have much of a vocabulary so i don't know if he is ready yet. If he is ready how do i go about training him? When i sit him on the potty he just laughs and jumps right up and runs away. My daughter is three and is still being potty trained and she still has a lot of accident during the day so i dont know if i should be throwing another one into the mix.

Answer 1

We used little rewards to help our daughter.  We bought a ton of plastic easter eggs and filled them with party-favor like toys.  Use whatever will excite your kid.  We put them in a cloth bag that we hung above the toilet.  If she pottied and flushed by herself she got a 'treat'.  Even if his vocabulary isn't great talk him through it.  Show him what to do and what his reward will be.  My daughter was done at 18 months and has had very few accidents.

As for night accidents, pull-ups are all you can do outside of limiting evening liquids.  Some kids sleep too deeply to wake up for pee.  Bedwetting is medically considered 'normal' until the age of 14 in some cases!

Try the 'reward' system.  If that doesn't work there are some great books on the subject that offer helpful advice for kids that are more resistant to the toilet.  Check the parenting section of the local bookstore and reviews of the books at amazon.com.

Answer 2

I am a babysitter and i've gone through the potty training process with a few children. While they were all girls, there are a few things i think i learned that may be able to help you. Each child is different and will probably potty train at a different time, so keep trying with your son and if he keeps resisting i would say he isn't ready. 17 months is still very young, so i wouldn't worry. If you do decide to potty train use a watch. We had a "potty watch" and you could set it to go off at different time intervals. Whenever the "potty watch" beeps they have to at least try to go potty. She was potty trained within 2 weeks.  

Answer 3

He might be getting ready.  My daughter is 20 months now and she is fully trained.  She started doing the same thing and I just started putting her on the potty and she caught on real fast.  I still put diapers on her at night only because she is so young but it was real easy for her.