DS has been telling me for a couple of months when he goes and when he needs a new diaper but isn't consistent. In fact, if he's really involved in something and I know he needs one, I will ask him about it and he says "no". For the last wk, he started saying that he needs a diaper and when I check, it's completely unused. If I check again after 15 min, he's gone. It seems like he's starting to tell me BEFORE he goes, but again not consistently. He's only 21 months. If he's ready for training, I want to jump in full swing. If not, I want to wait. I definitely don't want him kind-of-sort-of-not-really trained for months on end w/constant accidents. Should we try it and see or it is too early?

It would be unusual for a boy to be ready that early, but a week of trying couldn't hurt. If you are laid back and ready for failure then you won't be disappointed, and just might be wonderfully and pleasantly surprised. :) It will become glaringly obvious...then you simply stop! For all 4 of mine potty training involved many start and stop time periods! :D

Stacey I am in the same boat. My daughter is 21 months and loves to sit on the potty and hates a wet diaper and tells me as your son does. I am choosing to wait a bit though. I don't think she is quite ready yet but that is my opinion. My boys were around 2.5 and before 3 years of age and we had success right from the start with each one, I just KNEW they were ready and I don't have that same feeling yet for my daughter. I think she needs a bit more independance about her yet.

I never use pull ups- I just go right into underwear and I can't see her doing that yet either. Like you I don't like the kinda maybe sorta stage and I am choosing to wait until I am sure. But I have heard stories of success with training this early just not the majority of success stories I want to hear that make me want to dive into it now.

Good luck on what ever you choose to do. Let me know how the training is going if you choose that route.

I say....take any little sign you get. Go ahead and give it a try. It won't hurt anything, as long as you're not pushing. Just take it at his 'level' (that wasn't the word I was looking for, lost my word, that one will have to do LOL).

Get out the little potty. Sit him on it whenever you go and whenever else you think about it during the day. Those times he *does* say something to you about needing a change. Just go with it :)
Praise him for sitting. Praise him even bigger for doing something. But don't make a big deal out of him *not* going. Just say something like "we'll try again later, good job for *trying*"

Don't expect things to just take off. If they do, wonderful, but don't expect them to. The more relaxed you are about the 'training' the easier it is on all involved.

I have put every one of my kids on the little potty around 1 yr. Just to see what they would do. Several have actually gone. One took off with it and was wearing underwear full time at 18 months. :shock: (just after I had switched to cloth, I think that had a bit to do with it) The others trained fully around 2 yr, some with a few accidents up til 2.5 or so. But, they were few enough that I still considered them 'trained'

Thanks for all your input! It helps so much to hear from more experienced mothers. I decided to try it for a week. If it doesn't work, we'll put it on hold for a while. I did put him on the potty a few times yesterday and he actually went once. Unfortuntely I expected to hear him tinkling and didn't, so I didn't even realize he had gone until a couple hrs later when he was playing in pee. :shock: I'm not sure he's getting the concept because it seems like he is telling me that he wants to sit on the potty right after he's peed in his diaper. We'll see what happens this wk, but I'm not expecting it to happen just yet.