Comments on: Notes on potty-training a 21-month old

By: Tasha

Tasha — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:15:27 +0000

My daughter is 18 months and I’ve started potty training as well. She has shown so many signs that she’s ready, but I still worry it’s too early. I know that every child develops at their own pace, but I still worry that maybe it’s too early. Regardless, she HATES wearing diapers, and hates having them soiled. In the beginning she thought it was fun to sit on the potty, now I can’t seem to get her to stay put long enough to pee.

By: Gavin

Gavin — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:17:21 +0000

My daughter is 21 months old. We have started to potty train her. We know when she is about to pee as she stops in her tracks and stares down to the floor. We put her on the potty and she does a wee. The only problem is she only says wee wee when she is actually doing it so if we don’t catch her in time it ends up on the floor or in her knickers. Advice please??!!

By: Darcy

Darcy — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 11:11:47 +0000

I’m really encouraged by all of your stories however i have no success stories of my own yet. i’m still working on it my 22 months old daughter destiny, she would just sit on the potty and just pee i can’t get her to poop in it yet, she showing interest in sitting on the toilet so i’m trying that now to see if it help her to go.
Wish my luck, i won’t give up.

By: zaee

zaee — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:24:01 +0000

Nice to read a successful early PTing story.
I have just started training my 21month old coz she asked to sit on the potty and tells me just when shes about to poop. problem is, she tells me 3seconds before pooping so we never make it to the potty on time.
Also, when we started, she went on the potty almost all the time (pee) but after 4 days, its been going downhill. She just wont go. she sometimes poops on it but thats coz i pretty much know when she needs to poop so if i time it right, she’ll go. she gets a sticker for going which she loves. She is ok sitting on the potty and playing/reading on it. She sometimes gets up from it saying ‘all done’, takes a few steps and poops on the floor.
should I stop thinking shes just not ready or go diaperless (coz i dont think pull-ups are helping at all) and keep going?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:13:02 +0000

My daughter is 21 mos. We have been working with her for about 2 months. Right before we started to potty train we switched to cloth diaper. Two days after we did that, she started to make connections with going pee and having a wet diaper. She just didn’t know what wet felt like with disposables I guess. She has days where she pees on the potty all day and days where she just isn’t in the mood. She does get it though, she will pee on the toilet every time usually. She pooped twice so far, but since then she hasn’t. She knows when she is pooping, she will tell me after she does it and sometime when she is about to. But won’t do it on the toilet anymore. I plan on just not worrying about it and try to lead by example like I have done with peeing on the toilet. She didn’t freak out when she did poop, but I think she is waiting to see me do it more…we’ll see. With peeing, she is earning stickers to put on her step stool. They don’t seem to motivate her to poop on the potty. Not even when I offer two stickers. And candy doesn’t work. She like stickers more I found when we were trying to get her to pee. Now she is running out of room on her step stool I am working on make sure she gets plenty of fiber cause right now she is getting too much starchy stuff cause I let her eat it if she wants it cause she needs to gain weight. Hopefully the fiber will create a more predictable BM pattern.

By: Shannon

Shannon — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:48:25 +0000

I have a 3 year old step son and my 21 month old son. We finally just got the 3 year old potty trained during the day time, and now I am trying to figure out how to get him to stay dry while asleep so that he will be completely pull up free. My 21 month old keeps saying he has to go potty on the potty, but he just won’t cross the bridge and actually go when we put him there. I have tried EVERYTHING, and I think he is trying to be like his big brother in going to the potty but that he just doesn’t quite get what he is supposed to do when he gets to the potty LOL. This road of parenting certainly is a fun road isn’t it??

By: Trisha LaRose

Trisha LaRose — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 03:37:04 +0000

Our 21 month old boy is potty trained! We started with naked all the time, taking him to the potty everytime he peed on the floor. After 2 weeks he got it. He started peeing in the potty all by himself. We kept him naked and always kept the potty in the same spot. Then I realized…we are going to have to figure out how to take this on the road. We got underwear. We put them on him and said “Do not pee in your underwear”. I took him for short drives for errands in his underwear. He did not pee. I put shorts on him and said “Do not pee in your underwear or you shorts”. He said Ok..that was it!!!!! We are on day four! No accidents! He even woke up this morning with a dry diaper. At nap time today we let hime sleep with his underwear on. No accidents! A couple of hours ago he woke up from his sleep and insisted I take his pull off so he could pee. He peed in the potty. We put his pull up back on and he went to bed! I am so proud. No bribing! (not that I am against bribing in anyway…I have 3 children!)

By: Roodlyne Mason

Roodlyne Mason — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 21:12:41 +0000

Forget about the cons! You dont get to deal stinky poopy! That trump all the cons! I have a 2 year old and a 10 months old. changing poo is not fun. I’ll hold them over the sink all day.

By: Becca

Becca — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:13:09 +0000

My girl RJ had really shocking diaper rash for A YEAR– each treatment made it worse, until we finally found a smart doctor who said, she’s allergic to diapers and wipes! Time to potty train! She was about 16 months old. Basically she ran naked for two months and peed and pooped on everything. It was AWESOME! But her rash healed and by 18 months she was potty trained day and night. We just didn’t have the option of diapers anymore, so voila! Wish I could take credit, but, can’t.
There’s an interesting book called “Diaper Free by Three” that talks about the history of the readiness theory with diaper training. That soothed my fears that it was too early. Worth a read for anybody interested in “early” potty training…

By: More tales from the potty chair

More tales from the potty chair — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:21:13 +0000

[...] Notes on potty training a 21-month old (yep, Scarlett’s trained!) [...]

By: Ally

Ally — Wed, 20 May 2009 19:58:20 +0000

I am in the process of potty trainning my daughter who is 13 months old. She started to show signs of being ready at 10 months old but being a first time parent did not even think of starting until at least 18 months. But then I started to realize she knows what she is doing so why not just go with it. My hopes are by the time she is 2 years old she will be potty trained. I just don’t want to be fustrated in the future so I started when she turned 1 year old. How can you get mad with a child that young when they are not even suppose to be learning how yet.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:17:36 +0000

Ahh… I understand the fact that it is just as much (actually MORE) work with the little ones once they are potty trained. Diapers can wait until it is convenient for you, and you’re in a convenient place – as opposed to “I have to go NOW!”

But, what pushed me over (at 2.5 years, and to switching to underwear at just turned 3), was that the pediatrician mentioned that if she’s ready (which my daughter obviously was), she will regress if we don’t take the next step (ie. not peeing in pull-ups, so why did she still need them? We don’t really want her to realize that it actually is easier to just pee in them!)

So … As you’re dashing off to the 5th bathroom trip of the day, and desperately using and antibac. wipe to clean the disgusting seat (and then dry w/ t.p.) at the mall, at least remember that the training part was easy!!