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| Sue's tips for effective potty
training |
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When should I start trying to potty train my child?
Most children begin to express an interest in moving out of diapers in their 2nd year. |
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point baby notices that they are the only ones wearing diapers.
They also now find it uncomfortable sitting in their own poop until someone finds the time to change
them. |
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At this point BABY is ready for potty training.
But are YOU ?????
It's a time of change for both of you, but imagine:
- Going out the door WITHOUT a diaper bag !!!
- No diapers, wipes and cream at the grocery
checkout !!!
- No bottle at night !!!
- Not having to take special care with your garbage
!!
- Solid food !!!
Yes... all this can be yours....
If you spend the 3 or 4
days to start the process with your children.
This is all it takes; a few
days of the proper routine to move to the next phase. |
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| If you let the child “work it out themselves” you are setting yourself up for another year or two of training pants and unhappy interactions with daycare providers.
It is ridiculous to expect a daycare provider to potty train your child. This is something that really has to be done by the parents since it involves:
- Emptying a bedpan repeatedly
- Keeping a smile on your face
- Saying phrases with gusto like “Good Job !! Nice Poop !!!” (Yes, you will hear yourself utter phrases like this…)
- Washing your hands 10 times a day
- Cleaning the bathroom repeatedly
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| A big
change in baby's routine will be no bottle at night
It’s unreasonable to expect a 2 year old with a bladder the size of an orange to sleep through the night if they drink
a bottle before bed.
If you make sure they fill themselves up with solids before bed, then take a bath
and put them to bed with only a few ounces of water in a cup; the first few nights it will be rough (since they are accustomed to having
a bottle every night since day 1...) but after a few nights they will get into the new routine.
The children themselves will understand the two are related
since they desperately don't want to soil the bed (once again, no fun
sleeping in a wet bed). At that point they will eventually wean themselves
off the bottle. |
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Step by step
Don’t expect to graduate to the full-sized toilet immediately,
start with a training potty for the first few weeks. It’s annoying and messy, but the children
are afraid of using the “big pottie” right away, they think they
are going to fall in or get flushed away and they want you to be
nearby until they get comfortable.
Soon THEY will be the ones asking YOU to put them up on the big one; just smile and say “sure”;
since you know you are more than ½ way there. |
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Bearing down
One reason its good to start with the potty on the ground is that the child is able to place both feet firmly on the ground when doing their business.
The benefits of this cannot be overstated - when trying to push you need some resistance to make it happen. Once you move to the full-sized toilet remember to provide a stool or block so they have the same ability to push. Try it yourself; sit on the toilet and put your legs 3 inches off the floor and try and do your business. You will see what we mean… |
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Cotton Training Pants
Save yourself a bundle by moving from diapers to cotton training
pants. They are not easy to find (since there is alot of money
to be made in keeping your children in disposable diapers...) and
are nothing special, just padded cotton underpants.
Machine washable, baby
will prefer these training pants; they are much closer to REAL underwear.
While not a big
deal for you or me, they are DEFINITELY not diapers, the kids know
the difference and this is a big deal for them.
We find "pull-up"
style diapers convenient and handy for situations like long trips in
the car but are expensive and delay
the "moment of reckoning"; when you have to "hold
it" until you can get to a toilet. Not an easy skill to
learn, but one we have all mastered. |
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KIDS THINK POO IS FUNNY
Don’t be grossed out by your child’s interest in
their own excrement. The human body is amazing, try remembering what it was like to discover yours all those years ago.
It may seem weird to give your child “high fives” after an especially big movement; but remember; it’s a big day for them and they are VERY proud of themselves. Agreeing that yes; that one really IS a monster; is not gross, it’s what you are supposed to do to encourage them. For a
toddler this is normal and OK.
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