To be honest, we were excited to start potty training. No more diapers? Yes, please!
When our toddler was 15 months old we decided to start with potty training in hopes to have her out of diapers before our second was born. We read books, blogs, etc. My favorite go-to-parenting book totally endorsed early potty training and we felt very confident.
At our oldest’s 15 months check up, we informed the pediatrician that we were starting to potty train. She did not have the reaction I was expecting. I thought she would be so proud of proactive parents and we would get a gold star! Totally did not happen. In fact, the opposite happened. She politely advised against it and she recommended we wait until she was closer to two years old. She went on about how starting too soon can psychologically back fire and it can make potty training harder in the long run, etc, etc.
Of course, we thought we knew better and we dismissed her expertise and moved full steam ahead. We had 4-6 weeks of amazing progress! Poo and pee on the potty several times a day, our daughter was excited to go potty and it was amazing to see this little thing be such a big girl!
Then…two months later it happened. It all happened. Everything the pediatrician warned would happen, did.
Almost over night she did not want to go potty anymore. She started hiding when she had to poo and would not tell us when she had to go potty. She would cry and scream if we even tried to put her on the toilet. We had clearly pushed her too far, too soon. After another month of trying, we stopped completely. We have agreed to wait until she is 2. Thankfully for us, she starts a new day care that actually incorporates potty training for 2 year olds. This will work for me! If I have to pay all this money for day care, go ahead and potty train, too!
Lesson learned for potty training, listen to your child…and your pediatrician!
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