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Are You Ready?
Determining If Your Child Is Ready for Potty Training
By Lisa A. Goldstein
Is it possible to start training too early? Levi says if a child is in the early stages of wearing underpants, is unsuccessful using the potty and seems bewildered by the whole process, then you know you've started too early.
Sarah Ellsworth of Jackson, Tenn., got the potty chair out when her son was almost 23 months old. She thought she'd start getting him familiar with the idea of it being in the bathroom.
"We could talk about it and see what his interest would be, but I decided I would wait several months before I really worked on it with him, when I felt like he understood it all better," says Ellsworth. Ellsworth's son didn't want anything to do with it at first. When she purchased an insert for the big toilet a month later, something clicked with him and he started going.
Whatever your method, it will happen for your child, too, when he or she is ready. After all, each child is different when it comes to potty training and each trains at his or her own pace. "Don't give up," Ellsworth says. "They'll catch on when they are ready."