We've tried many things with the potty that were successful as well as a few things that did not work for Daniel.
First, it was successful for him to associate relaxing and sitting patiently for several minutes at a time. We read a few books - the same books - each time. We've had four potty books so far, and I think its best if they stay potty books and not regular reading books! He has had a few very high high interest books Five Green and Speckled Frogs, Grover and The Everything in the Whole Wide World Museum, 100 Vehicles Picture Dictionary, and the most recent favorite is Richard Scary's Best Little Word Book. Having these books as potty only were a good idea because they are "saved" for this purpose and if he brings one to us, he has to go read it on the potty.
Another successful thing has been doing potty no matter what. I think that helped with routine. That its just what we do with the diaper is off.
Somethings that weren't helpful were doing potty if he had a very fussy dinner. Or, if he was too excited about his bath. This made it a tug of war to keep him on the potty. Even if he did go, he was likely to cry and be so angry that we were delaying his favorite part of day - bath. This change happened at the time we switched to one nap and the same time his little fits started. It was just too much to manage for him in terms of controlling his emotions! So we've switched night time potty time to about twenty minutes after bath, just before bed. He wears a prefold diaper right before potty and then switches to a more substantial night time diaper.
Another thing that is helpful is allowing him to pour the contents of the potty into the toilet and flush. He is only allowed to flush toilets for this purpose. He really, really likes this part. There are occasional spills, but that is okay.
Having him clean his potty chair with Clorox wipes has been really helpful, too. We just started doing this in the fourth month. DHH really likes to help, and this often sparks interest in going to the bathroom.
Something that is not helpful, but I have not remedied the problem yet, is that we don't do potty chair until mid morning, after breakfast and about 15 ounces of milk/juice/water. I think it would be very effective to do this straight away from the crib. However, I do not go and wake up Daniel, so he has usually been awake for awhile and has probably already had a morning pee. I think it would be much better for us to change him from the wet diaper, do potty, and then have a fresh diaper for the morning. I have not done this though, and I admit, we are usually so hungry for breakfast or interested in cuddling and reading that I don't want to do this chore.
Another thing that is not helpful is communicating a message of pooping on the toilet. I cannot communicate this with him. He cannot do it with me. He can pretty much pee on command, but I don't see how we'll be able to try this until he can talk better.
Another negative to early training is his lack of ability to take off his own clothes. Sometimes he sits on the potty with all his clothes on. I think his brain associates sitting on it and going, but the part of undressing is an extra step that he physically can't do and might be too hard for him to remember this. I think this will happen in a few months, since he is getting better and better at helping to dress himself.
And here are some funny photos. He gets so excited about this fish lamp from my mom at Christmas. We used it in the bathroom for a short time as a distraction before bath to get him to use the potty. He screamed and squealed in delight. He loves this thing. He wasn't very calm on it, though, and I think it didn't really work too effectively. When he found the power switch that was all he concentrated on. It was really funny to us while it lasted!
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