Potty training

When you feel she's ready

The best time to potty train is when you are ready.

There are different ways of going about it, each will have advantages and disadvantages, there isn’t a “right” way.

You will hear a lot about waiting for “signs of readiness” - but this was basically invented by Pampers as a marketing strategy.

You can start sitting baby on potty from birth - this is common in many places in the world.

You can wait until they’re old enough to be able to communicate verbally with you that they need to go - this is also fine.

It’s entirely up to you, though. It’s a process, not something you can just show them once and then leave them to it. So the best time is when YOU’RE feeling ready to start that.

If you want, you can start by just introducing the potty at points throughout the day, if she is happy to sit on it (maybe read a book together) that’s a start. It just introduces the concept (sometimes leaving it later can result in a fear of the potty!).

When they are showing signs of readiness. As someone who works in the nursery and I’ve seen soo many parents try to potty train their children before they are ready and it just doesn’t work at all x

It’s not about when you are ready it’s about when they are ready and showing signs. My son was 2.5 and was trained within a week day and night and that was back in June. That being said every child is different and what works for some may not work for others :)

I started at 5.5/6 months and he's now 9 months does all poos in the potty and wee after every nap 😊 its just about building that association with wee and poo in the potty and being positive 🥰

The current advise is to sit them on the potty from 6 months and when they can sit well independently. My HV brought it up at our 9-12 month review. The goal at that age is to just get them used to sitting on it and then giving them praise if they do anything.

You can also look out for their cues and put them on when you think they'll go (elimination communication)

I introduced baby to the potty around 20mo, we didn’t really take potty training seriously until after 2 and then it took a couple months before she was using the potty regularly.

I would say if you’re ready to introduce the potty then go ahead and start. Starting early or late doesn’t matter as long as they get to the goal of being potty trained.

I tried potty training my first born at different stages when he turned 2 because I thought it was right thing to do but he wasn’t ready at all. He only cracked it properly when 3. He’s brilliant now and doesn’t have accidents ( he’s just turned 4). He’s dry most nights now too so will be tackling that next.
I have a little girl who just turned 1 and I heard girls are a lot easier to potty train so I may try age 2 with her and see how I get on xxx