DD is 18 months old. For the past few weeks she has shown an interest in the potty. She tells me whenever she pees or poos and about half the time she will tell me before she goes. DH said on a few occasions that he hears her flush the toilet and then come tell him whether she peed or pooed (in her diaper, of course ) and she knows the difference between the two. I havn't bought her a potty for herself just because I didn't even consider thinking about it until after her 2nd birthday. About 3 days a week she wakes up in the morning with a dry diaper and pees within 20 minutes of waking up. I see the signs that shes interested but I don't want to force in onto her too early. What do you think? Should I wait until she is older or should I encourage her curiosity with the potty and see how she does? Any advice?

By Emily7 on Sunday, December 5, 2004 - 12:32 pm:

I would get her a potty chair.
If she is waking up dry I would set her on the potty first thing in the morning, it sounds to me like she is ready. I would just introduced the idea & let here guide you.

By Palmbchprincess on Sunday, December 5, 2004 - 01:11 pm:

I'd go for it. In my family most of the girls trained before the boys, and my sister and I were trained at Kaitlyn's age. Try letting her wear a pull up, or one of those Huggies convertible diapers, and put a potty chair out for her. Emily is right, just let her guide you, and it should happen naturally.

By Tink on Sunday, December 5, 2004 - 02:56 pm:

I'd go for it too. Sometimes it's much easier to get them potty-trained before the terrible two's hit. It looks like she is showing some of the signs of readiness.

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, December 5, 2004 - 05:12 pm:

I'd go for it. Mine weren't that interested at 18 months.

By My2cuties on Sunday, December 5, 2004 - 05:46 pm:

My Katelyn was wearing a pull up on her 2nd birthday and potty trained 1 month after, and never went back. Hailey however is starting to show a few signs herself, and she loves to flush the toilet, it is like a game or something. I would definately buy her a potty chair and see how things go. Being dry in the morning is a really good sign. Good Luck

By Boxzgrl on Sunday, December 5, 2004 - 09:19 pm:

I bought her her very own potty today and she is very interested in it. She sits on it and says "pee-pee, poo-poo". We havn't been home long enough for her to have to go but we'll see. I hope this is really it. Maybe i'll get a diaper break between children!

By Tunnia on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 03:26 pm:

Go ahead and start potty training. My dd used the potty for the first time at 18 months. I didn't push, I just made the potty available to her if she wanted it. She was completely trained by the week of her second birthday.

By Boxzgrl on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 03:36 pm:

Okay, so what are some good potty training tips/advice. Should I go to pull ups or something other than a diaper?

By Rayanne on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 05:14 pm:

You could use a chart for her to put a sticker on whenever she goes potty, or have a treasure chest with toys or nik-ncas from the dollar store for her to get when she goes potty in the toilet. I would use regular panties. When it is time for Rylee to start potty training, I don't want her to get lazy and just pee in the pull-up. If it's in the panties, she will see how unconfortable it is and maybe it will work faster. HTH.

By Tink on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 05:56 pm:

I say regular panties or the type that are cloth but slightly thicker in the middle, so they soak up those first few "uh-oh" drops. Depending on how your house is laid out, you may want to keep the potty chair in an accessible spot. Stickers work great for a lot of kids. A gummy bear or M&M worked for my son and both of my girls responded best to lots of praise from Dh and I. Find Kaitlyn's currency, to steal from Dr. Phil. Just choose something that she REALLY likes to get or do with you.

By Dawnk777 on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 07:02 pm:

My kids went potty for gummy bears! They loved 'em! I say use training pants or regular underwear. It made a big difference with my second one. I think pull-ups helped delay potty training for my first one. Emily WANTED to wear underwear, so I let her, even though she wasn't completely trained, so when she had an accident, she got all wet. Then she made sure it didn't happen again.

By Kaye on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 08:03 pm:

My dd was trained at this age too. What I did was simply put her in regular panties, I would lay out three pair on her dresser and in the morning put a pair on. After three accidents in a day I would put a diaper back on her. There is no need to stress out about this. She will either pick it up or not, but you want it to be fun and low key. I don't know how long it took for my dd to be trained but one day I realized that we never went through the panties and although I put a diaper on her at night I never had to change a wet or dirty one..LOL. It really was that easy for us. The other thing is she will need to learn to sit there for a few minutes. So while you are filling up her tub have her sit on her potty and read a book. Usually with the water going and some time things will just happen. Oh and one more thing, push the fluids, she can't be successful if she doesn't need to go, the more she drinks the more chances she has to figure it out.

By Breann on Monday, December 6, 2004 - 08:35 pm:

Go for it!
Both of my DK's were trained by two. I didn't even bring the issue up. They did
I didn't like pull-ups at all. To me it was just like a diaper for them. They didn't really know the difference. We just went straight to big kid underwear.

By Angellew on Thursday, December 9, 2004 - 09:08 am:

Go for it!!! And consider yourself lucky!!! We've had a potty in the house for a year now, and my DD will sit on it and wants to mimic wiping, and loves to flush my toilet, but won't even THINK of doing anything in the potty!!! We even bought Potty Elmo!!! Now, the three of us (me, my DD and Elmo) are always sitting in the bathroom together. But, she does nothing until her diaper is back on!!!! (But, if it's poop, she wants the diaper off ASAP!!!! Go Figure!)

By Hillsmum on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - 01:27 am:

I also say to go for it, it's never too early. Pull ups are a great idea to get the kids used to being out of nappies. I have never used a potty however, at the age of 1 I started putting my girls' on the toilet, except for a few messy mishaps this worked fine for me. Of-course depending on the child, this took only 6 months and they were nappy free, no more money on nappies for me and the girls' felt grown up with no more messy baggage. Go with what feels right for you and youre child, have fun LOL

By Pixie on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - 01:47 pm:

Go for it my DD was completely potty trained at 20 months no problems. My mom says I was potty trained fully at 17 months. Good Luck!!!

By Kaleighsmommy on Tuesday, January 4, 2005 - 06:00 pm:

I agree with everyone else--go for it. Kaleigh started showing those same signs when she was about 18 months but then we moved to a new house, and it took her a while to get back into the groove of things. She's started pooping in the potty, but she won't pee.