Potty training a toddler before the age of 2 is almost unheard of in our modern day society. Soooo… I know most people who come across this might think I’m crazy for having daytime potty trained my child at 20 months old .
What you may not know–because I certainly didn’t–is that back in the day and in some areas of the world still, potty training happens around 18 and 24 months.
I am not an expert so I am not going into too much detail here but I want to point you to the biggest resource that I used, what I learned along the way, things I would do differently, and struggles we faced.
Resource:
First, if you are looking for a guide and all the information, I recommend checking out The Tiny Potty Training Book.
She does a really good job of laying out the information, anticipating questions and problems and answering them, and being a cheerleader that helps get you into the right mindset.
One of the things I really loved is how well she kept it a guide for you to fit in your personal and unique life instead of saying or suggesting that you take the guide as gospel and your life must be altered to make the guide work.
There are also other resources and tools that she goes over in the book to help you find success.
What I learned:
One day does not predict the second.
The first day was hands down probably my least favorite day of parenting prior to and since then. I was DREADING day 2 at that point–sure that it was going to be just as bad.
Day 2 was a dream. He was initiating it and sitting on his potty like he had been doing it his whole life.
Day 3 we moved to the next step and was back to being really difficult. Next day… a dream.
We’ve had ups and downs since then but the reality is every child has their struggles and I know kids who would have accidents at 3, 4, 5 years old.
So I know that my 1.5 year old having an accident is not a big deal and does not mean anything really.
What I would do differently:
Have my husband really read the book first. I basically had to teach what I was still trying to learn and explain everything poorly.
He did after a few days and it really helped.
I also would have bought stickers prior to. We needed something for him to focus on and look forward to so that he wasn’t fighting the toilet so much.
My husband had to go off and get some stickers and it worked well.
Struggles:
The biggest struggle we have had is pooping on the toilet. He doesn’t poop his pants or anything but he goes in and out of these phases where he suddenly is against sitting on the toilet to poop.
He will just hold it and tell us he needs to poop but freaks out getting on the toilet and will wait until he reeeeeaaally can’t hold it anymore to finally let it go.
Eventually he gets over it and we move on.
What we used:
We used this little toilet put in our living room the first few days in order to catch the pees and poops more easily.
In the bathroom, on our regular toilet we got this Toilet Seat Step Stool, which allowed him to crawl up by himself and it was stable enough to be used as a step stool to the sink.
Ultimately it was 1000% worth it and we plan to practice EC(Elimination Communication) with our daughter and fully potty train closer to 18 months.