It’s fine that you feel this way about the different potty training ideas, that just means that waiting until your daughter is quite old is probably the way for you to go.

I disagree that it generally has to be about waiting until a child decides on their own, however. If you REALLY wanted to do that, you’d actually do the potty whispering with your newborn – newborn infants do not like to pee and poop on themselves (as don’t all little animals).

I think potty training is all about what a parent has patience for and wants to do. If you want to do it early, then it will take more patience (and more cleaning up), but if you want to do it late and wait until a child decides of their own volition, that works too. You’ll just have to deal with the “still in diapers?” questions.

FWIW, my daughter was pretty much totally trained by 2, and I was getting those questions at 1 (someone even told her “shame on you for not being trained yet” – seriously…?!). With my son, we’ve done part time elimination communication (and I do have that DVD), and he’s very aware of his body (can hold it and uses the potty often) at 15 months but not clean and dry every day. He was actually very reliable before he started moving around (then he has been too busy to stop and go sometimes).

Once our kids hit six months, and solid food, and the poop started coming a bit more slowly, we just looked for that “Napoleon stare” and relocated them to the toilet. It never really occurred to them to poop anywhere but the toilet, as that was the place it usually happened (unless it happened in their sleep — which stopped before 24 mos.). As they got older, they would voice their discomfort that they weren’t on a toilet when they had to go. (I recall a car ride with the 12 month old crying in back because he had to poop and didn’t want to poop in his diaper).

Yeah, it takes consistent attention to learn their timing and cues, and not every parent has the time or presence to pull it off. But if you do, it might work.

I tried the naked and $75 method, except I kept my kid in the kitchen/dining area, which was tiled. He was about 2 1/2, and I made sure he drank lots of water. I had the potty chair right there, waiting for the inevitable. Interestingly, he absolutely refused to go pee. He kept it in for several hours, and was crying but refused to pee. He didn’t go on the floor, or in the chair, or even on a towel. He only went after I relented and put a diaper on him. Sigh.

How do you communicate with a 2 year old? I think that was my problem. He didn’t know what I wanted, and I didn’t know how to tell him. He eventually figured it out. My opinion now (after 2 kids) is that they eventually get it when they’re ready. Both my kids would go into the bathroom with me, because I still had to keep an eye on them, right? So maybe there was some imitation going on there.

But really, as long as they are aware of what the toilet is for, I think it’s just developmental, and you have to be patient.

My son was using the toilet during the day by the time he was 3 and was dry at night only after he had weaned at about 3 1/2 (the nighttime nursing was making his bladder full at night and he was a heavy sleeper).

I think the potty trainings/bootcamps are likely counter productive – especially at an early age.

FWIW, we started putting our daughter on a potty (I think) some time after her 2nd birthday, but without really any pressure or expectations. She just though it was a nice enough place to read board books (reading’s my fave. bathroom activity, too) and occasionally she’d be unhappily surprised when she actually peed or pooped. And then, a couple of months shy of turning three, she decided that going on the potty was cool. At that point we took her out of diapers (except for the night) but she went cold turkey – day or night – pretty much instantly.