How old was your BOY when potty trained?

[pullbuoy]

I have one 35 month old DD who PT'd at 21 months. My youngest, DS, is now 18 months, which is when I started things up with DD, and probably would, except...

I look around at DD's friends, and basically all the girls are trained, and none of the boys are in the slightest. I know she was early, but that was not without some effort (not pushing!) on my part, which I was thrilled to expend since it meant such early PTing. However, I don't want to go pushing DS on something he's not physically capable of(which I think it would be if it's not just the early side of the curve, but months ahead of it), frustrating us both, so I'm curious to see what range of age your DS's were trained. Most of the girls I know were just after 2, so we'll say an average of 2.25(again, on the early side, lots of CDers anxious to stop doing all that laundry!). The boys are hitting 3, and so far I'd say we aren't even on the early side of the curve in our friend circle. It's looking to be at least 3.5 If the average is truly a year later than girls, I wouldn't go starting even awareness/naked time with DS now, but if you all tell me 2.5ish, we're bringing out the potties this summer, and at least giving it a little shot. Summer is just so great for PTing. I'm not looking for full- let's say day (pee and poop) only.

What say you?

[firefly]

I don't have boys but I'm a daycare provider and I can say that the boys I've pt have been 18 mo, 2.5 and currently I have a 2 1/2 year old that hasn't the slightest interest but his older brother p/t at 18 mo, and a 18 mo old that isn't the slighteset interested. From my overheard experiences it's about 6 mo later than girls not a year.

[Peever]

There's an active Potty Learning thread in the 12-36 month thread so that might give you a better idea, but 18 months would be pretty early for a boy from my experience. I would say most start at 2.5 and many aren't completely PTed until 3+. My son is 3.25 and has very little interest. We're working on it right now, but it's going to take a while.

[Neen]

I think both my sons were PT by the time they were 3.5 years. My oldest son could do it, but thought it was easier to just wear a diaper. I finally had to put my foot down and tell him if he wanted to go to school, he had to go in the potty and I think he wore swim trunks for like 3 days (it was the summer) but it worked! His little brother was easier because he just wanted to be like his big brother (they are 13 months apart)

[Marisa]

Joey is 3 and 4 months, and this is the first time he's been solely in underwear for two days straight. Like a lot of things (talking, walking, etc.) he seemed to decide to do it, and just plowed right into it. Before that I was wondering if he'd ever start.

I'd say within the next few weeks he'll be 'day-trained', and then we'll work on overnight. If things continue along the way they've been this week, I'd say 3 1/2 would be a good guess.

That said, totally bring out the potty, especially with an older sister around. Second (and subsequent) babies always seem to do things a little earlier, to keep up with the older sibling.

[Renrel]

DS started real potty training (rather than just having a potty and access to books and other media about pottiesa available) at about 30 months, at the insistance of daycare. (They start them in underwear at school 2-3 months before moving them up to preschool. We could do what we wanted at home.) He had the pee thing pretty much down within 2 or 3 weeks. Pooping took us months. He had real issues with this for some reason. He is still not night trained at 3yr 7 mths, which is fine.

I believe I have read that boys can have a harder time training because of physilogical differences in their ablity to sense the need to go/and or hold it till they need to go. They are more likely to have to grab their crotch to hold it but I don't fully understand why.

[emschwar]

3 weeks shy of 3 years old. We still have some accidents here and there, but he's in underwear all day long except for naptime.

[Jenzen01]

2 years, 3 months.

I started when he was about 18 months old, but didn't get serious until after DD was born ... around his 2-year birthday. It took a couple of weeks of wearing underwear and having accidents to get him completely potty-trained.

[lady1297]

22 months. We started at 15 months putting him on the potty before bathtime. Then at 21 months we started day training. He caught on inside of 3 weeks. Now at 2 1/2 he's still not night trained, but dry many nights out of the week.

[pullbuoy]

Awesome! This is just the kind of thing I was hoping for. You ladies rock. Thanks for the redirect, Peever; I'd actually been combing through that thread trying to get an idea, but it was too sprawling so I thought I'd try a survey of sorts. All the trials of PTing sound very familiar to me, though! If we get serious later this summer I'll pop by for some support.

I think my friend circle just has some later training boys. Which DS could surely be (apparently my brother trained a solid year and a half later than I did, and Mr. Pullbuoy trained the same time as his two years younger sister.), but today at the beach he went in the potty twice, and not at all in his swim suit. Having gone through this once before, I know better than to get my hopes up, but it's a nice sign anyhow. It looks like night training take a little longer, which sounds right to me. I've heard there are physiological differences, too, but no one seems to know exactly what they are or how they might affect things. I think we'll just be sure to go slow on night training after we do day, whenever that may be.

[KJBean]

DS decided one day about 2-3 weeks before his 3rd birthday that he wanted to use the potty, so I went with it. After 2 weeks, he stopped, and I was fine with it b/c he was just about to start preschool (and didn't have to be potty trained). Two weeks into school, we started again, again on his terms, and other than the occasional accident a couple of times, he's done great.

I totally wasn't worried about starting him, but I did get a potty that summer before his birthday incase he wanted to do it. And he did when he was ready.

[AlisonCO]

My son was fully day trained at 3.25. I just never really pushed it and just followed his lead. When it finally happened it was a combo of adding a reward and just biting the bullet and putting him in undies all day.


That said, totally bring out the potty, especially with an older sister around. Second (and subsequent) babies always seem to do things a little earlier, to keep up with the older sibling.

Totally agree - my second is a girl and she is SO ready now at 20 months because she sees DS go to the bathroom all day long:)

[Lisa]

DS started around 18 months but when I had DD he stopped. right around his 2nd b-day he decided no more diapers. He had a few accidents here and there but has been good since then. Foster DS is just turned 3 and has NO interest in PT maybe one day;)

[Jenyfer9]

DS#1 was fully day trained just shy of 3 1/2. We're still working on night training, but he's got it for the most part. DS#2 (2y1m) talks about it, but hasn't taken any action towards it... I was hoping to start that this summer with him, but we'll see...

[NicoleWisconsin]

Day trained at 33 1/2 mos with very few accidents, even from the beginning. It was his choice.

Night time is hit and miss, still at 34 1/2 mos. I think the fact that we use diapers/pullups at night is partially to blame for that. I'm not bothered by it, though.

[OctoberPrincess]

DS showed interest at 23 months and was in undies for 6 weeks when he suddenly regressed, I think I was just kinda lazy and as soon as he had 2 accidents in 2 days I gave up. He showed interest again at 30 months and by 31 months was fully day trained. I would just take his lead, having the potty around can't hurt.

[claribella]

I started potty training about a year ago...at first just introducing the potty, using pull ups. That was when he was 2. He turned 3 in March and is fully potty trained night and day.