When to start toilet training boys

Charis

I have a son who is 19 months old. I am not ready to start training him yet but my daughter at this age had asked to start toilet training. I am sure this has been asked before but I didn't see a thread on this. Just wondering what some parents of boys found for a good age to start training? I am not trying to be sexist but I have heard that boys are usually later (I am not saying that is true). Just would like some input since we did everything wrong with our daughter in terms of toilet training. I would prefer not to make the same mistakes! I just don't want to rush my son.

deisemum

Did you actually start trying to toilet train your daughter when she was 19 months? That's very young. What sort of things did you do? A lot of toddlers will ask about using the toilet but that's often more out of curiosity than being actually ready to toilet train.

Most girls seem to manage it younger than boys. The average for girls seems to be about 2 - 2.5 but some can be later. Boys seem to range from 2.5 - 3 years and some later. I've toilet trained lots of children as I'm a childminder. The two boys that I've recently trained didn't have any accidents during the day while at my house because the parents and I waited until they were ready. The mum of one of them tried about 2 months ago and the little boy had a couple of accidents at home. He wasn't quite ready which the mum acknowledges so she left it for 5 - 6 weeks. He was like a different child and this time he didn't have any accidents.

A lot of parents make the mistake of thinking toilet timing is the same as toilet training. It's not. I've seen lots of parents boast that their child was toilet trained at a young age but they weren't because the parent would keep asking the child every 10 -15 mins to go to the toilet. That's not toilet trained it's toilet timing. The children wasn't learning to recognise when they needed to go because it was timing. These children would frequently wet or soil themselves but the parents still wanted to believe they were toilet trained. Is it any wonder when the parent was constantly on to them about going to the toilet.

I recently read a report that anal retentive adults usually had bad toilet training experiences. I don't know how true it is but it makes you wonder.

As toddlers develop different skills at different rates it all balances out in the end.
Enjoy each stage.

niallb

We left our eldest until two and a half and it went reallly quickly and smoothly.
We would have started earlier, but he was born in late November, and we waited until the Summer when clothes are lighter, easier to get on and off and easier to change.

We're now starting training twin girls, and finding it much
more of an ordeal! Wish we'd waited until the Summer again.

NiallB

Charis

My daughter is an early developer and was begging to toilet train. We did a lousy job because we let her call all the shots largely because I was just about to have the second and very ambivalent. Won't go into all the details but needless to say I am curious about boys. My daughter was more verbal and much more interested in toilet training. My son wants to flush toilet and is telling us he is messy but I figured maybe late summer or even three, next summer. I have heard it is easier during summer.

Just to answer deisemum no it wasn't toilet timing but we also didn't completely train Meghan until later. We just made a lot of mistakes that I would prefer not to repeat.

deisemum

Toddlers often regress once a new baby arrives home, even those who've been trained for some time. Poor things they've been de-throned (pardon the pun) by the new kid on the block.

Kernel32

We first tried our son at 2 and a half and it was no good. Very shortly after his third birthday in Sept 05 we tried again and this time success. Within a day he was using the potty and probably had three or four accidents in total since then which all happened in the first month or so. In the end I am glad we waited. We were definitely feeling some pressure to get him out of nappies when we tried the first time and he simply didn't want to at the time.

Talliesin

Children are very individual as to when they will be ready for toilet training.

DaisyD

Hi! We started training our son when he was 2.5 years. We sat him on his potty where he happily sat for hours watching tv and colouring! He "kindly" waited for the nappy to be put back on before weeing!!! We tried again a few weeks later - same story.

When he was 2 and 8 months I was determined he would be trained because the little girl next door was trained over a weekend (she was 8 months younger!). He trained immediately, no hastle or trouble, and no accidents either! It was amazing, until it came to doing his "doo doo".

He had no problem weeing in the potty or standing to the toilet but no way was he going to do the other. He ended up badly constipated twice because we decided no nappies... he would ask for the nappy to go on so he could "go". It took eight months before he finally did it in the potty... then another few weeks before he'd go in the toilet. I think it's a fear that they are going to lose all their insides down the toilet!!!

Go with the flow, but try to make sure he is doing both in the toilet before you let him stand to wee. I've heard of a few other boys who were similar to my boy although time frames were shorter!!!

Best of luck ....