After the last weekend, when we had no accidents I want to declare Little Boy officially potty trained! I have to say the process was actually pretty easy and I attribute that to our early potty training method. As a matter of fact, I truly believe that if I hadn’t been pregnant and would have been more on top of it, we would have been done even sooner!
So in case you’re interested, this is what we did (loosely based on Diaper-free before Three).
A Timeline for Early Potty Training
6 months- We buy a Potty
At six months, Little Boy could sit up independently, so we brought a potty into the house. Every once in a while we would put Little Boy on the potty and he did use it a couple of times, but it was really just getting used to the idea.
9 months- We start using the potty once a day
So by this time, Little Boy knew what a potty was and he was a little bigger and could sit on it more comfortably. We started sitting him on the potty once a day, just before bath time and in no-time he would go. It was a great little routine and really was no extra effort because he would sit while the bath was filling and was already undressed as it is.
1 year- Traveling= no more potty
Just before his first birthday we left for a six week trip. Despite the fact that we had a little potty in the places we visited, things were just too out of routine. Little Boy had no interest in sitting, and since this coincided with 1) learning to walk, 2) teething, 3) no schedule, and 4) over tiredness we did not push the point. When we got home our first priority was getting back on a good sleep schedule, and then we got back on the potty train right around 14 months.
An early attempt at going diaper-free
14-19 months- Signing potty and slow progress
So from this point on, we were back to using the toilet, but mostly for no. 2. When we could tell he was about to go, we would hustle him to the bathroom and it was almost always a success.
Little Boy also learned the sign for potty, although he would use it mostly to confirm to us that yes, it was time to go. Little Boy preferred using a seat on the big toilet, so that’s what we did. We made a couple attempts to go diaper-less during this time, but both times we called it off after two days because of extenuating circumstances.
During these months Little Boy learned about flushing the toilet, and hand washing, so it was just a matter of time to put it all together. On the days when I felt well and I put him on the potty at other times during the day, usually it was a success, but like I mentioned above, my pregnancy was a major hindering factor to why we didn’t stick to a schedule of sitting multiple times a day. Nevertheless, not having to deal with poop-diapers is a win in my book, so even just that was great
19.5 months- He’s Ready!
One day, he just started telling us before we would even see the tell-tale signs that he was ready to use the toilet! It was so exciting and we would have done our boot camp at this point except that I was 9 months pregnant and could not be running around.
20 months- Baby Brother born: potty regression
So within a week or two of Baby Brother’s birth we had a major regression. Little Boy would ask to be diapered on the changing pad and would even go no. 2 in the diaper. It was pretty much expected and luckily didn’t last long. Happily, one day when he was playing with water on the patio he just walked over to the potty and did his business. We knew then that he was really ready, and it was just up to us to kick-start the process.
22.5 months- Potty Training Kickstart
We got rid of the diapers! I have a separate post on this, but basically we started off naked, then commando, then undies. We spent a lot of time at home the first week and then slowly started going out more and more. We went back to using the little potty because that way we could take full advantage of his desire to be independent.
23 months- Potty Trained!
We are so happy to be at this point! Nowadays we just have to remind Little Boy to use the potty if we’re leaving the house or if it has been a while. He’s getting better and better at taking his pants off on his own so in no-time he’ll be able to be completely independent.
This is really similar to us! Started sitting on it at 6 months, did really well for a while around 9 months, then we went to my Mom's house for 2 weeks and he got sick so he stopped using it completely. Then since he could stand up and walk away from the little potties he would never use it, but I've just switched to a seat on the big potty and he's doing much better again! Being pregnant again has jump-started my efforts since I'd LOVE to not have 2 in diapers!
When our next is born, W will be just about 22 months old.