Potty training is slow but working

In our household, there isn't much pressure for potty training. We're taking it easy and it's slow but it seems to be progressing. I hear that most babies are potty trained by the time they turn 3 years old. Girls, in general, will be trained earlier since they tend to not like to feel uncomfortable.

We started training Tristan early. We introduced the potty to him when he was 1 year old, maybe even before. We really began to train him after we got back from France when he was 18 months old. He showed signs of readiness early. Before he was even 1 years old, he would point at his diaper when he pooed. Later on, he would sign to us and then when he could speak, he would tell us after he pooed. Then as time went on about the time when he turned two, he would tell us before he had to poo. Then he would tell us before he had to pee. Overall, it was a hit and miss for us. He did it some times but not all the time.

When Tristan turned two, we sort of put more pressure on him to potty but then we noticed it was backfiring so we had to relax. I mean he stopped making progress for awhile and was scared of the potty. I know! Another problem was that daycare was not training him the same way. We find that they are more focused on getting the older kids on the potty since they are the next ones to graduate from the toddler room. The younger kids sit on the potty when it is convenient to do so.

Tristan is now 25 months old. At home, he poos in the potty 85% of the time and pees once or twice a day. During his three days in daycare, he may get lucky and poo in the potty once and he may pee once there as well. One day last week while he was home with me, he pooed in the potty once and peed there three times. I consider that a good potty day :)

He is definitely making progress but he's still far from being potty trained. We were way too optimistic starting out but now we're just going to go with the flow. I think he will be ready when he is ready. Maybe we'll upgrade him to pull-ups or some kind of training pants in a month. I think it would help for him to feel more uncomfortable so that he will tell us more often before a pee occurs. We're not quite prepared to have him go bottomless though because we're fully carpeted here :(

Our potty strategy is pretty simple. We put him on the potty before every diaper change, some times more. We go sit on the potty for a good length of time after meals. While we are on the potty, we read, sing, and talk. If there is a successful pee or poo, we give him a high-five and cheer. Praise is his only reward and some times bragging rights to me or Jean-Louis :) Next, we diaper him. If there was a successful potty, we then let him flush. Then, we have him wash his hands.

Tristan may very well be all trained by now if I were doing things differently. I know of a friend who trained her 27 month old toddler boy in just two months. She placed him on the potty every hour for two months. Wow! That is a lot of commitment. I could do that for awhile but not that long and the daycare routine would just mess it all up. Unfortunately her strategy does not work with our routine :( But honestly, I'm not too sad about it all. Tristan poos in the potty most of the time and diapering seems so easy now compared to when he was on solids and pooing in his diaper 3-4 times a day :)