How to deal with sixteen month old and toilet?

[DoodleDoo]

I really wasn't even thinking about potty training her for like a year but we bought a baby toilet seat thingy in the sale and decided to sit her on it every night before her shower - firstly because she loves it, secondly because we thought it would do her good to get used to it. We always say "do you want to wee-wee on the pot?" and she'll reply with "wee wee pot pot".

For a start she didn't do anything (as we expected) but last night she actually peed and said "wee wee". We gave her lots of praise and then this afternoon she walked to the toilet so I sat her on it and she peed again and repeated the same thing. This evening, she was sat with her dad reading a book and she got down and walked to the bathroom. He asked her if she wanted to use the potty and she said "wee wee", when he took off her nappy she peed on the floor before he had chance to lift her onto the toilet.

I'm not in a huge rush to get her potty trained but I also don't want to miss this window when it appears as if she is becoming conscious of her own body. She's quite a good talker so it's relatively easy to communicate with her now (e.g. she verbally decides what she wants for breakfast, tells us when she wants her beaker, knows about 50 words I'd guess). What do you guys think? Any experience? I don't want to scare her off of it.

 

[george83]

My friends little girl potty trained herself at 18 months so it isn't totally unheard of, I'd say to keep going with it but not to be too down heartened if changes her mind. As you say no harm in trying and she might be great at it. Good luck

 

[minties]

Go with it! I was toilet trained by 18 months and mum says it was great.

 

[JumpingIn]

Our son holds his in until his nappy comes off/he's home from nursery/both. So we introduced the potty. Mostly he thinks it's hilarious to escape and squat on the carpet instead, but tonight for the first time he sat on it and then did a wee on the floor right next to the thing, so I see that as progress. I say keep encouraging it! Our son has barely any language so it should be easier for you

 

[Teri7489]

Give it a try. I tried at 18 months and it was clear straight away she wasn't ready so stopped and tried again after a couple of months. My son is only 14 months and I've started sitting him on the potty before their bath (he always pees when I take his nappy off which draws attention and the 2 of them spend bath time touching his winky lol) no plans to train him anytime soon but will see how it goes

 

[MindUtopia]

I think just keep doing what you're doing. If she asks for it, no harm in trying, but I wouldn't push it too much at this point. You won't lose ground just because you didn't seize the moment right away. Or you could just make a habit of offering it at certain times, when you get her dressed in the morning or before her bath at night, and just get into the routine now of doing it when you can rather than full on rushing into potty training. You'll get a sense in time of how keen she is and if you want to go further.

Our friends started to offer a potty before bed and in the morning when their daughter was maybe about that age. They didn't actually potty train her fully until about 27 months, which was only about 4 months sooner than we did when we hadn't done anything until much later (and really, we could have then as well, but we had lots of travel coming up over the summer and I couldn't deal with the idea of being away so much much with a newly potty training toddler - seemed terrifying!). So it didn't really gain them much ground, but there is no harm in trying as long as she's happy to try. I'd just be relaxed about it and not have any expectations and just let her lead you.

 

[SarahBear]

We introduced the potty very early with both kids. Violet was verbally asking for the potty about 1/2 the time by the time she was 14 months and was completely out of diapers (except for sleep) at 18 months. Had she been another child, that may have been the end of potty training. However, she had lots of ups and downs with it including being back in and then out of diapers before 2 and then back into diapers around 2.5 and more standard potty training before she was 3. Leo has had much fewer ups and downs and used to frequently request (non-verbally) the toilet. My husband is the stay-at-home parent and I think he's been less consistent with the toilet with Leo and it's been a long time since Leo has shown an interest in the toilet. We continue to offer the toilet on a semi-regular basis so that he remains familiar with it and with his ability to have some level of bladder and bowel control. I will try to encourage it more when I'm off from work (2 weeks in the winter, 1 week in the spring, and 2 and a half months in the summer). It's great to encourage it with kids at this age, but you just have to keep expectations in check and realize that if you're getting frustrated, it's because you're trying too hard.

 

[Rags]

Go with it when the opportunity is there! My mum always tell us that my brother was fully out of nappies at 12 months with no effort to him or her, it all changed unfortunately at 18 months because he had a diarrhoea bug and mum thought it would be better to put a nappy back on him for his comfort (as they were on a long journey at the time), took months after that to get him out of them again.