I think in most families, buying a potty is something that is done when potty training is going to start almost immediately. In America, that seems to typically happen around the age of 2 or 3. So imagine the surprised looks we got when we bought a potty for Mac when she was only 9 months old.

How We Use It

I know people thought we were weird, but we had a good reason. (And honestly? Potties are pretty cheap, so it wasn’t a large investment.) We wanted to make sure that Mac was taking some responsibility for her toileting. I have already talked about how we diaper standing up. Having a potty was another way we put the responsibility on her.

As we walked through Target one day, we passed by the baby section and on a whim, we bought a potty. In the toddler room, we make sitting on the potty part of the diapering routine from day one. If it is part of the routine, there is usually less resistance from the child. That is so key once you decide to really focus on toileting.

(Side note: we always called “potty training” toileting. We said you train a dog, not a child. But that is just personal preference.)

So the diapering routine goes like this: take off the dirty diaper, the child sits on the potty, once they are done, they stand up and we diaper them. The toddlers get so used to this routine that if we are trying to go fast for some reason and skip the potty, they will still insist on sitting on it.

Is This a the Potty Training Secret?

I know most of you probably want to know one thing: will this help my child learn to use the potty? Well, it might or it might not. Like I said, it may help with any resistance that could bubble up around toileting since it is already part of the routine.

But believe me, sometimes when a kid accidentally goes in the potty, it is a breakthrough. So letting them sit on the potty (even though the first 10,000 times may result in nothing) may lead to something great.

How old was your child when you bought them a potty?