I hesitate to suggest parenting techniques, because each child is different. Rather, a story of what works for us: Our son is 10 months old and he uses 1 diaper a day (max). My wife loosely followed the tenets of: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elimination_communication and "The Diaper Free Baby"
Early on you put the child on the potty when they have a high likelihood of needing to pee/poop. You keep a potty nearby, put them on it 10 times a day and make it fun: read books while they sit on it. He learned to associate peeing/pooping with the potty very quickly. After 3 months or so he will now generally wait for the potty. He has his little routine and my wife knows the general times he needs to go and puts him on the pot. He only uses a diaper when in the car or sometimes at night.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that EC/Diaper Free Baby suggest the reason babies commonly pee on you when you remove their diaper is that it goes against their instinct to soil themselves in their diaper. When you remove it, its time to go! The argument is that a baby who is afforded the opportunity to learn to use the potty quickly will be happier. My son is very happy to use the pot. In fact he is sitting on it right now :)
My daughter is almost two and has been using the potty in certain circumstances for 4-5 months. Someone bought her a potty for Christmas and we just left it out until she discovered it, showed her how to use it, and praised the hell out of her when she did. Pretty soon she was asking for it. Now she doesn't wear a diaper around the house and 99% of the time asks to go potty when she needs to. We haven't made the leap to diaperless nights or diaperless trips away from home. Those are major transitions and we don't want to push it since she is young and doing so well.
Do you know all the tips & techniques there are? We've just been going through this with our 2-yr-old for the past 8 months and wouldn't mind sharing what I've learned.
But, I think the best thing we did that actually worked---which we always had been reluctant to trying---was to leave him running around the house butt-naked. The whole apartment has carpet.
I'm not sure if that's effective - we've tried it some, but there doesn't seem to be a connection, yet, to "I should have done that with the potty". People have told us that it sort of happens when they're ready and not earlier, so perhaps it's best not to rush things.
Yes, definitely don't rush it and always be patient. But you may be surprised to find that she actually does make the connection and still refuses to use the potty.
Yea, and take it easy, they'll learn. Definitely no more diaper during daytime (unless, say, when visiting grandparents with expensive carpets or something).
