Age to Potty Train

Do you remember why they said waiting too long was bad?  Just curious.

Oh, dear.  The Germans leave it very late in general (my ex-h's mother was German, and several of my friends have German parents).  It doesn't seem to have any lasting effect on the general population, however. . .

I think peer pressure can help, too, in later toddlerhood.  They start hanging around other kids, they see other kids going to the loo, they want to do it, too.

I've heard of letting them run round nappiless.  But it's not really practical in a cramped rented flat w/wall-to-wall carpet.

Still totally believe it's best when child-led.

I totally agree with the child led approach.  Sophia started going pee in the potty right before her second birthday.  Jonah was born 3 weeks later and it all stopped.  Then a bunch of her friends at playgroup were starting to use the potty and wear big girl pants.  It was quite the in thing to all go trecking into the bathroom together.  Shortly after that, she started asking to have panties instead of diapers and within a few weeks, she was trained. 

The only other thing I can think to add is to make sure you are ready for him to train.  It takes quite a lot of time to get them fully trained, and if there's tons of other stuff going on, it can be a hassle.  Best of luck!

But I've heard really great things about the free-range approach.  Basically, you they run around the yard naked (from the waist down) and you let them pee and poop when they need to.  The theory is that by having them see what they do and be more aware of it, it tends to make the transition to a potty easier.

This has worked well for us so far, even though we don't have a yard.  I let Ellen run around the flat bottomless and she was very upset the first time she had an accident.  Before that, she had been very interested in using her potty, but only if suggested, because she hadn't been aware of when she went in her diaper.  After her first accident with no diaper on, she always went straight to her potty to pee, although she'd wait until she had a diaper on to poop. 

We still haven't gotten much further in the process though, because she hasn't taken to underwear yet (treats them as she would a diaper), and we DO have to leave the house occasionally!     

Has anyone ever tried the "free range" method with a boy? Wow, that could be messy!

Free range used to work great with the gypsy families I used to work with-  boys and girls!

With my daughter, we tried but couldn't even get her to sit on the potty by 2 1/2, then one day my husband said to her "Go and sit on that potty right now" and she sat and made a little puddle in it!
Since then, never been back in nappies!

Has anyone ever tried the "free range" method with a boy? Wow, that could be messy!

Hence why I'm waiting until it's warm and doing it outside!

Jackson does not like to be without a diaper.  After the a bath, he says diaper please.  I was hoping to start him on Potty training soon, since we have a new baby coming in March.  I guess we will just see what happens

My friend who is a nanny says the free range method is what she's always used, and in her experience it works best.  She said the thing is, "they want to put it somewhere."  So when there's no diaper to put it in, they'll go for the toilet.

Personally, I was never in ny big rush and Dagmar wasn't ready for a long time.  She just wouldn't go with enough consistency to justify taking the diapers away, so  she was still in diapers until June-when she was almost 4-and one day she just started using the potty, and only very rarely had an accident after that.  At least with pee.  Poo took a lot longer-as in, it's only in the last few months that we don't have pooey accidents anymore.

I think I am going to need a crash course in stain removal.

I used "free range" for my two oldest kids (both girls) in the house instead of the garden. It took about 1-2 days each time and there were no messes. I waited until they could signal or vocalize to me that they needed to "go" before we even tried, though. Otherwise, I'm sure it would have been messy and a total waste of time. My girls happened to be 2.5 when they wanted to train. I'm planning on using the same method with my youngest soon.