Friday, January 20, 2012

poo. pee. potty training.

Yeah, this post is about the bathroom business of parenting.  If you have no interest in reading about my child's evacuation habits, I don't blame you in the least and would encourage you to come back another time.

Oh, you're still here?  Excellent.  Then, please, help me to figure out just how the whole potty training thing works, would you?  I have imagined that we will be moving in the direction of whole-hearted potty training around the time Natalie turns 2.  I have no basis for this assumption, except that I think that's around when other parents have talked about starting the process.  Other than that, I'm pretty much at a loss about how to approach the whole thing.  I haven't done any of the research I probably should to get me started, and I feel a little at a loss about where to even begin.

This is where you come in.  What are some tips you can share, books or articles you can recommend, stuff to avoid, etc?  I am looking for any kind of guidance to help me prepare for what is to come.

As a bit of background, we've already started a little of the potty stuff around here.  We bought Natalie a potty chair when she was about 15 months old, and she's used it probably 1 or 2 times a week at random ever since.  If she has a dry diaper when she wakes up (in the morning or after a nap) we ask if she'd like to use the potty.  If she says yes, we give it a go (applauding and making a fuss over her for trying, and even more of a fuss if she actually uses the thing), and if she says no then we just move on.  She often asks to use the potty before her bath at night, and she loves to "help" empty it into the toilet and do the flushing herself.  I feel like these are signs that she will be into the real-deal potty training when the time comes, but I don't really know when that time is... or how to dive right into all the hassle that I know will come from helping her disrobe every time it's time to try to use the potty.

So.  Help me!  Also, I promise not to use the word potty this much ever again. 

3 comments:

  1. Soo carly gets the potty about 65 percent of the time, things Ive learned from her is to keep her potty in the room she uses the most..ours is our living room. When we are playing ill say things like oh I think elmo has to go potty and putr him on her potty and pretend he went...do not use pull ups..well you can if you want I found them to be soo pointless since she can pretty much go potty in them and stay dry (sounds like a diaper right). We spent a long 3 day weekend at the house with some "big girl" underwear of Carlys choice..yo gabba gabba of course...no diapers except for bed and we had alot of messes but it was the first time she got the whole thing because she hated peeing and getting wet and figured out that it didnt happen if she used the potty...make a big deal when she goes in the potty and we used stickers and fruit snacks as a reward...now she can be in undies when we are home most of the time..I have no idea how to leave the house or use a potty anywhere else so lol its one of the most challenging things like EVER!!!!

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  2. That is wonderful that she has that much interest in using the bathroom. My son is 2 and I am waiting til he tells me he is ready for underwear. I am going to go out and get a seat that goes on top of our toilet and my husband and I will ask him if he's interested. But that's as far as we're going to go. My sister in law tried to potty train her oldest before he was ready and had accidents til he was 5. Her next 2 kids actually asked to stop wearing diapers.

    However, if my son is 3 and still has no interest then we'll go to plan B "seriously we need to get this kid out of diapers".

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  3. We waited for our gal to show signs of readiness, which didn't start until she was about 2 1/2. We prepped her with some potty seats, books on potty training, and the Elmo DVD. At 34 months -- almost close to 3 years old -- we did the 3 Day Potty Training method, which is an ebook available online. Worked great for us. More detailed account of our experience here; http://www.nannersp.com/2011/10/my-girl-wants-to-potty-all-time.html

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