Having three children, now (thankfully) all out of diapers, I've researched and written on the subject. One thing I was surprised to learn was that children today are potty-training much later than they were 50 and even 100 years ago. With technology, the internet and the advances in medicine and science, it's almost hard to comprehend that potty-training has actually regressed. We're so used to faster-better-new-and-improved-at-your-fingertips-millisecond EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME in 2015, that it's completely contrary to all of the progress we've made in other areas. Why is this? I did some more research and a little brainstorming. After a quick Google search, I found and enjoyed reading: A History of Potty Training. The invention of disposable diapers has actually negatively impacted how quickly children potty train—if you are using age as a measure. According to PottyTrainingConcepts.com:
- In the 1950s, almost a 100% of children wore cloth diapers and 95% of these children were trained by the age of 18 months.
- In the 1980s, about 50% of children wore cloth diapers, while the other 50% wore disposable diapers and only about 50% of the children were potty trained by the age of 18 months.
- Today, almost 90-95% of children wear disposable diapers and only about 10% of children are potty trained by the age of 18 months.
- Today, the average age for potty training is about 30 months with the age ranging from 18-60 months.
My daughter was potty trained during the day before she turned 2 (though we still had accidents pretty often until she was about 2 1/2). Then by 2 1/2 she was overnight potty trained. I thought it would be really hard to train her because she is extremely headstrong, but it was actually quite easy – probably because of that trait! Not sure how it will be with my son. He’s 15 months now.
Great Post. I think cloth diapers are so cute, I don’t really care how long my kid wears them. My older son potty trained late, and I am probably not going to be that motivated with my younger one. If I had to handwash I probably would be ready to be done with them.
Good info to keep in mind when we start potty training!
Both of my children were potty trained around 2. My 2nd baby started to become interested around 18mo’s (in my opinion) due to using cloth diapers. We continued to use them, but he always took them off at night. I’m thinking that my 15mo old will be getting interested in training soon due to him taking his diaper off when he poops.
I think every child is different!
You're viewing 31-35 of 44 comments