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When is the right time ?

I'm getting so frustrated. My lo is only 15 months and I had no intention of potty training for quite some time yet.

However my mum just keeps going on and on about it. Everytime I need to change his nappy my mum says "you should be sitting him on a potty by now" or "if you had him on a potty you wouldn't need to do that"

From memory my friends all trained their lo's at nearer 3 years old. But from what I've read a lot of it is up to the child and you'll know when he/she is ready.

Thanks, Suz x

Replies

  • i did a huge reply and BE ate it!!!!
    I was saying that 15 months is far too early for a child to learn to control himself, even by the age of 20 months its still very advanced to know to do this. i tried to potty train my little girl at 120 months cause my mum was saying the same as yours and she held her pee for so long she got urine infections, the recommended age [were i live] is 24 months onwards for girls and 32 for boys as boys are slower to learn to potty train, this depends on wither or not they are ready though, ring your HV adn ask but personally id say your mum is being silly cause at 15 months old your lo is still little more than a baby. xxxxx
  • Hi hun

    I would deffinately go with your instincts, you will know when your lo is ready and I certainly wouldn't have tried potty training Harrison so early. Harrison will be 3 in March and we started pottry training him last August. He is dry during the day (has the odd accident but only to be expected), but has a nappy on for bed time as I know it is hard for them to control it when they're asleep. We didn't 'wean' him out of nappies during the day we just decided one day 'no more nappies during the day' and I still take a potty everywhere with me, in the car and on his pram, so no matter where we are he doesn't have to hole it or wet himself.

    I have read before that the later you leave it the easier it is and the less time it takes. If you start training now your lo isn't going to have any idea what you are doing or why, and it will probably take you a lot longer than if you wait a while. If you are happy with things as they are then why rush.

    People also say that boys are later to train than girls, but Harrison started the same time as my niece who is only a week younger than him.

    Sammi
    xxxx
  • I potty trained my first at 16 months due to pressure from family. With dd2 I had the confidence to wait, and the difference is huge. You could "train" your 15 month old, but they wouldn't understand. No child under the age of 2 or 3 is capable of such forward thinking to say to them selves, oh I feel the need to pee, okay first get to the toilet, now undress, now use all my coordination to get on toilet, now release, now wipe, flush, dress, wash hands...

    But you can teach them to pee on command, sounds horrible, but that is essentially the only 'training" you can do with a child so very young. I put dd1 on the potty every 2 hours everyday, and I would say do a pee for mummy and she would pee, and poo, and I would redress her, and off we'd go. Because I made sure she emptied her bladder regularly, and she was like clock work with her bowels it worked. She was completely dry. But she hit 2 and half and I thought I should not need to do this, and tried to tell her just go when you need to, but she didn't know when she needed to. It took a good 6 months of her re learning her potty training to understand going of her own accord when she actually needed to.

    I think in the older generations all that mattered was a child being dry, if only to save on hand washing laundry, but I don't think it is the best way. I was told by family to limit her drinking and all sorts of much crazy things, and I am glad I at least did not do that. She very rarely had accidents, but saying that with dd2 she had dozens of accidents in the first 2 weeks, but very quickly got the hang of it, and it seemed to flow more naturally for her. Dd2 was 26 months when she potty trained and I think it was better for her.

    xx
  • 15 months is way too early hon!! Even 18 months is pretty advanced but some lo's are ready then.

    I'm not starting until Gabe's speech is better; until he can express that he needs a wee or poo clearly, and actually * wants* to be dry.

    At the moment Gabe occasionally tells me when he needs a poo and usually when he has done one......oh sometimes he says 'wee' if he's doing a wee...But I don't think he really knows before he goes & if he does he's too young to tell me.

    I'm going to buy a potty in a few months & tell him that one day soon he's got to be a big boy and do a poo on the potty and I'll get a toilet seat too if he'd prefer that. But i'm not going to pressure him - I'm not expecting him to do anything yet.

    Don't worry :\) I really think starting too soon is worse than starting too late!!
  • I agree starting too soon can actually make things harder!! I firmly believe that whet Lo is ready you will know, one way or another! My lo is nearly 16mths and will answer yes if asked if she has done and poo and will say nappy. But wouldn't tell me.
    However I must add they are all ready at different times-My middle child was over 2 and a half when he was ready-but my eldest was dry at 13mths!!!! They are all so different-just go with your instincts ad good luck with it when you do go for it!! xx
  • i have exactly the same problem, my mum is incredibly proud of the fact we were both potty trained at 18months old but my bro was still having major accidents at school!she even bought him little underpants for xmas.im not doing it yet,hes gettin an awareness of a dirty nappy but that is it.go with your gut instinct.xxx
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