Potty Training Answers - Training Before Age Two

When I was ready to get my daughter out of diapers and on her way to potty freedom, I began to ask questions. I searched online and found sites advertising such claims as Potty Train in a Day. People were selling their potty training secrets. Surely I knew enough people who had potty trained their child that I could learn all I needed for free. I began to ask around. I had a neighbor with five kids, the youngest being nine. Surely she had some insight. I asked everyone who had a child, young or old, what they did. Do you know what people told me? Ask someone and they will tell you to sit the child on the toilet and when they go, praise them. That sounded easy enough.

After days of trying this with my 20 month old daughter, I had hit a wall. Really, how often does a child pee? I had no idea. We could sit in the bathroom for thirty minutes and nothing occurred except for reading lots of books. It became my daughter's choice place for reading. One friend suggested setting a timer for fifteen minutes and taking my child potty every time it buzzed. I did this and my daughter managed to always pee in between the buzzing. I got nothing accomplished around the house for days, excepting for carting my daughter back and forth to the potty and cleaning up pee wherever it landed.

My favorite advice came from some Bosnian friends that had raised five kids. Their first two were born in a refugee camp and the last three after they had immigrated to the United States. Surely, they had a fresh perspective to offer. The father took me very seriously as he answered. He told me to set my daughter on the potty. Take two cups, one empty and one full of water. Pour the water from the full cup into the empty cup and back again while my daughter watches. Then she will pee. It was a very passionately delivered answer, so I tried it. No success.

I continued to inquire with others and told them of my struggles. So many moms of older kids, including my mother-in-law, claimed that their child was potty trained at a year. Yet, when I started talking about how I was going about trying to potty train my daughter at a year-and-a-half, so many told me that she was too young. Some even suggested that pushing her into this too early with failed results, might make it difficult to effectively train her at the more accepted age of two-and-a-half. That is just what I needed, emotional scaring from potty training.

I gave myself two weeks and determined that if we had not seen significant progress in that amount of time I would wait until she turned two to try again. Surely this could be done without emotional trauma for either of us.

My sister finally gave me some of the most helpful advice. Buy training pants (with the thick crotch) at Wal-Mart and let my daughter run around in those while at the house. Save the disposable pants for outings, and try to be at home for several days, so that is not needed. Thankfully the main floor of our house was a mix of tile and hardwood. We did just as my sister suggested and oh, how my daughter would cry when she peed on the floor. I was concerned that this was the emotional strain that people were so worried I would inflict on her. But, my one consolation was that she was really realizing when she peed and finally ran to the portable potty on the kitchen floor, sat right down on the lid with training pants up and peed all over it. I was so happy! We cleaned up the mess and I gave her a sticker. She was really catching on.

By the end of the month, I was taking her out of the house in her training pants and remarkably, her few accidents were limited to the house. We had arrived. My daughter was potty trained, or so I thought.

It has been about seven months now and she is doing really well, but about once a month regression sets in. It can be sparked by the littlest things, but was especially difficult when we moved across the country. I break out the stickers and remind her frequently to try to go, and within a day or two we are back into potty trained bliss.

I have another daughter on the way, and I am quite sure that I will do things basically the same way again. My husband and I are not up for the months and messes of infant potty training. And, we are surely not up for waiting until I child is two-and-a-half or three. I am sure I will hit some new challenges with the second child, and I cannot wait to call up some parents with older children and get some fresh advice.