Gaining Appreciation for the Potty Training Parent
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Thursday, March 22, 2007
(Be warned, gonna be a serial posting day, lots to catch up on...)Well I gained a new appreciation this week for what parents go through when they potty train. We started Elnora on her potty about two months ago, but haven't "pushed it." Pretty much showed her that it's there, ask her if she wants to go whenever we go and give her high fives when she "pees in the potty."
I figure if we don't make it stressful, but we do share that it's a happy thing, we can potty train over time without a ton of stress. After all, it's not really THAT big a deal to change diapers, but since she's interested in the potty and loves flushing it, I thought it was worth trying.
Well in the last week, she's really started progressing. She's been going in the potty about twice a day (and having about two wet diapers a day) and sometimes even tells us when she needs to go.
Last night, she actually woke up at about 1am and started yelling for us. Greg went up to check on her and she said she had to go to the potty. (which means she went "yuck! yuck! duka duka duka!") He brought her down, plopped her on the potty and sure enough, the kid pretty much filled it up.
Cool.
But today...we were out and about she started freaking out in the car (once again with the refrain of "yuck! yuck! duka duka duka!") and telling me she had to go to the potty.
Which is great...
Except it was pouring the rain.
Ever try and get a 6 month old and a 2 year old out of the car and through a busy parking lot in the pouring rain while praying that the Wendy's toilet wasn't going to be to nasty?
Thankfully...we were in the ritzy part of town and the bathroom was spotless. So I set Emmitt's carrier down (see! they ARE handy!) and held Elnora over the toilet. Sure enough, the kid had enough pee to float a canoe. Her diaper was totally dry.
High fives!
And while we were in there, it stopped raining.
Guess it wasn't so bad after all. :)
Labels: All About the Kids, Life as a Mom
Yay Elnora!!! Well you know they say girls are easier than boys. Lol I have been trying for a year to get DS1 to go potty. He would sit on the potty but to nothing. So recently we tried standing and it worked. I wanted him to be a sitting pee'r but hey, I'm not picky anymore. I did the same as you, just letting him know it was there for his use, etc. Now poopy on the potty is trickier and requires the employ of M&M's. :)
Yeah, what's with the no pooping.
We have NEVER got her to poop on the potty. (I can't believe I'm saying "potty" to other grown-ups...)
From what I've heard, kids usually poop before they pee. Guess ours are backwards?
Oh, to note...the day has ended and she peed in the pot...err....toilet 5 times today. Not a single wet diaper, though we had one with poop in it.
Yay!
Now to see if we completely regress tomorrow. :)
One of these in your car, post-haste! ;)
Hey...that's kinda cool.
Of course setting that up in the trunk in the pouring rain might not have been so cool...
;)
Wonder if they'll send me one to review...
Thats great! My daughter (she just turned 30 months) has been pooped trained for almost a year now (she peed on the floor one day, I sat her on the potty, she pooped, I bought her a kinder surprise and since then its been easy) but took us a year to get her pee-trained. In the last 2 months she has been 100% potty trained. Its frustrating. She would have a week of no accidents and then she would pee all over every piece of furniture the next week! I hope Elnora is ready and you won't have 12 months of 1 week trained, 1 week not ! haha
I will also like to add the importance of potty training the old fashioned way, starting as soon as the baby can sit, at about 6 months.
Anticipate its need to evacuate, every 2.5-3 hours and/or after feeding. Put the baby in a harness or sling, tied to the crib for support and plop the kid on a glass or transparent potty, encouraging it to do the deed, by saying pee-pee and caca-caca. Also, give the child a color picture book with animals and imitate the sounds that the animals make, associating it with the name of the animal: cow-moo, dog-bow-wow, etc. Cheer the baby while it is doing it. When the the baby is finished, tell it what a great job it has done.
There is no frustration in this method. Just a great time spent by the mother and child and a great opportunity to bond, leading to extremely strong, life long love ties.
I wish all the parents will try this loving method, which will create new generations of disciplined, adapted, clean and obedient children, who will mature into productive and unconflicted adults.
To each their own, I guess.
I'll stick with training a child that's old enough to understand what's going on.
I work two jobs from home while raising two kids. I'd rather spend my time playing with my children than holding them over the toilet trying to guess when they're going to pee.
If it works for you, that's great though. I know several folks that had great success with EC training.
My dd has been semi potty trained for a year now (she is 2). When we switched her to cow's milk at 1 yr., it caused her to become constipated. The best way we found to help her through this was to sit her on the toilet. She soon learned to tell us she needed to potty everytime she needed to poop. This has gone very well for the past year, and every now and again she tells us when she has to pee. We usually get the need to pee when it is bedtime and she does not want to go to sleep. We usually get pee everytime she poops, apparently this is common-girls tend to pee when they poop. She does good telling us about her need to potty unless she is playing outside-then she does not want to interrupt her play. I plan to put her in dresses this summer with training panties or nothing underneath in attempt to help her get thoroughly trained easier.
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