What age should babies be potty trained?


When a baby is ready for potty training depends on several factors.  There is no universal answer or age that a child is ready to be potty trained.  However, some signs that a child is ready to be potty trained are signaling and/or awareness of when a child is or needs to eliminate waste.   Another factor is when the care taker has the time to dedicate to consistent practice of eliminating in a toilet instead of a diaper. Infant potty training also known as elimination communication is the practice of skipping the reliance of the usage of diapers.  In this practice, the caretaker will teach signs to the baby every time the baby eliminates in the toilet (not in a diaper) - the baby will eventually pick up these signs and give cues when they need to go.  Those that subscribe to infant potty training believe that conventional diapers train babies to ignore their natural instincts by removing the discomfort one would normally sense from having wet skin (achieved by chemicals that absorb liquid and wick moisture away from the skin found in many disposable diapers).  While infant potty training takes a lot of upfront attention and discipline, young children can be fully potty trained by 9-16 months of age.  On the other hand, potty training children that have been in diapers are usually potty trained by about 36 months of age.  There are considerable convenience trade offs to both methods.