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A Potty Training Dilemma

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When you are pregnant, there are things that you prepare yourself for before the baby comes. You know that you will have sleepless nights, you know that there will be crying & you know that you will change dirty diapers. What you might not realize is that those sleepless nights can last for days, that the crying continues even in to the toddler years & that your child can produce an obscene amount of poop.

When my daughter was an infant, I barely fastened the straps on her diaper before she started pushing out her next poop. When we left the house, we were armed with a diaper bag filled with extra diapers & 3 changes of clothing. Many public poops ended with wet feces that shot up my daughter’s back & soaked through her clothing. As a new mommy, I would frantically try to remove her clothing without covering her hair & face with her own bowel movements, while wiping her butt & back clean and getting her in a new diaper before she went again. Let’s not even talk about bath time, which became dubbed as poop soup. As she got older, I was relieved that diaper changes got easier. Messy blow-outs were a thing of the past.

Enter the potty training era. We have had a very successful month with toilet training. Mai now strictly pees in the potty & takes great pride in wearing her big girl undies. The problem is that she is still afraid to do the dreaded number 2 in the potty. When a poop is brewing, she dives for her nearest hiding spot. Anywhere out of reach will do, under her tea table, in her cardboard playhouse, under her safety stool. Finding that unreachable spot is not enough though. She must barricade herself in by pulling toys, boxes, pillows and chairs around her to keep her safe. “Don’t look at me, mama.”

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We have been trying to give her a gentle nudge to the toilet. We were successful in getting her to sit on her potty one day, but it ended in pooptastrophe as she had a change of heart halfway through & stood up and tried to diaper herself. I will spare you the messy details.

Since that day, I have backed off a bit. She didn’t poop for days after the incident, so we needed to take some of the anxiety off of her. When she is ready to poop, she asks for a diaper. I change her into one & then she heads to her favorite poop spot. Mai has accompanied me to many bathroom trips lately, so that she can see that it is no big deal. She is not quite convinced. Has anyone else encountered this & what did you find that was successful for you?

Potty Training Methods & Tips

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PottyTraining.jpgToday was an exciting day in our home. Today our daughter reached another milestone. She peed in her potty for the first time. Let me be more specific, she peed on the potty for the first time after telling us that she had to. While she still has a way to go this was a huge step for us.
As most parents of a child in diapers know, there will come the time where you will need to start potty training. As much as you may be sick of changing diapers, the idea of starting the potty training process may be a little scary. There are so many methods and tricks that parents use, it is hard to know which one will work best for you and your family. Every child is different, so what works for one child may not work for another.

“The Monkey See, Monkey DooDoo”
Children learn by watching. They especially love mimicking our actions. Show your child how you use the potty. My daughter comes to the bathroom with me and will tell me “Mama, mama has poo poo in the bum.” Just pee pee baby. I’m just going pee pee.

“Potty Boot Camp”
Pick a free weekend and spend the weekend in the bathroom with your child, some toys , books and their potty. Keep your child in either training underwear or go bottomless. If you see signs of them having to pee or poop or if they are in the process, direct them to their little toilet. I have known friends of mine to have great success in a short time using this method.

“Read All About It”
There are so many different potty training books out there. Everyone Poops is probably the most popular and famous of these toddler stories. One of my daughter’s favorites is “Potty Time”. It is a cute little story with an audio flush feature that my daughter loves. At the end there is a nice potty chart to keep track of their progress.images

“The Wait & Pee”
You may not be in a rush to get your child out of diapers. What is the rush really? When your toddler is ready they will tell you. My daughter started being verbal about having poop in her diaper around the time that she turned 2. She understood this without very little pushing from us. She picked up on poop & pee just from us discussing it during diaper changes and such.

“Web Training”
I actually picked this up from another blogger. She was offering a review for a potty training app & it piqued my curiosity. We downloaded this app to our daughters Nabi Tablet & she loves it. She cheers every time the animals go potty & she loves the music too. The app she uses is called Potty Training: Learning Animals, but there are many others out there.

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“Potty Champion”
Who doesn’t love being rewarded or praised? Offering incentives, prizes and praise after a successful potty experience can be all the motivation your little one needs. Our daughter received a little piece of chocolate after today’s success. You can try keeping a potty chart where they earn stickers or ribbons too.

“Potty Here, Potty There, Potty Everywhere”
Try putting the potty where your child resides the most during training. Move it into the living room and let them get comfortable with it. My daughter will sit on the potty in lieu of her chair. When she wants to sit on the potty, we take off her diaper & let her sit. If they pee or poop, tell them “Good Job” for pooping or peeing. Keep a package of wipes handy.

“The Renaissance Trainer”
Have you ever done so much research on something that in the end you were not sure which option to take? Well that’s me. So what do you do? Try them all. We have dabbled a little bit in all of the above.

I am in no rush to have my baby grow up too quickly, but she is starting to get the hang of it on her own. She will get there in time.

Look for the signs of readiness: http://www.babycenter.com/0_potty-training-readiness-checklist_4384.bc

Remember to be patient with your child.

Don’t get frustrated. You do not want your child to feel negatively about potty training.

Be prepared for accidents and messes.

Get a fun potty. Ours sings a little song whenever pee pee hits it.

Please feel free to share your potty training advice, tips and anecdotes.
Good Luck & happy potty training.