"It's potty time, gotta let it go! It's potty time, you can do it I know!"
Oh Whoops! Just have Elmo's potty time song running through my head like a gazillion times a day. Aiden has watched the DVD a number of times while I shower in the morning and those songs are catchy!
Back in April when my baby boy turned two, I decided it was time to start introducing the potty to him and finally in the month of May we began full on potty learning. Why potty learning and not potty training you ask? Of all the methods I've read about the most important thing to remember is that the child is learning something completely new to them. Learning is a process which we all know and without a doubt will have many stumbling blocks along the way. Two things that really helped me were realizing that the success of this learning process was highly dependent on MY attitude about the whole ordeal. Don't get too crazy with rewarding and don't show any frustration when accidents happen. Be positive about everything and non-reactive when stumbling blocks occur.
The second idea that I adopted was the naked from the waist down method. No cloth training pants, (I wouldn't even consider Pull-Ups which are SUCH a scam), no diaper, no pants nada! Why? Toddlers are used to being diapered or clothed. They are used to peeing and pooping in SOMETHING. Take that something away completely and they become more aware of whats happening down there. The safety net is gone. LOVE this method and saw it work wonders for us.
Week one was pretty impressive. I started in the morning asking him if today he wanted to start using the potty. After receiving an enthusiastic, "Yes!" we began our journey. I placed our small froggy potty in the kitchen near his play area so that it would be close by and he could go on his own. I found that worked the best for him. He is a very independent little man who does not want to be nagged every 10 minutes, "Do you have to go to the potty?" by his mother. That morning he made it to the potty three out of the five times and the other two times had pee accidents. All three of the times he went to to potty and was successful was completely on his own! I made a huge deal of course, praised him and gave him lots of hugs! I'm not too sold on the idea of giving rewards for peeing or pooping on the potty because it's not realistic in the long run. Nobody gives me a Butterfinger when I go to the bathroom. :)
That first week was a great success! We had more successful potty trips than accidents and he even began going poop on the potty too! The first time he did it I was totally unaware too. I think I was prepping dinner and suddenly he's getting off the potty, (I didn't even see him get on) and saying, "Mommy, poo poo!" I go over to him thinking he's probably pooped all over the floor but there it is smack dab in the middle of the potty! He stands over it and says, "Poo Poo! It's like muffin! Look like muffin mommy!" I busted up laughing and agreed that it did indeed look like a muffin. And ever since that day, I haven't had the craving for those super yummy Trader Joe's bran muffins again.
May was a very good start to our potty learning journey. The diaper laundry was sparse and I was a happy momma. I love those cloth diapers but after 2 years of them I am ready for a break! (Gotta keep up the enthusiasm for a future child!) The pee accidents were starting to improve too because I'd catch him starting to pee on the carpet and I'd quickly re-direct him to the potty. He's stop peeing and hold it until we got to the potty. That was a huge milestone too in my mind.
June came and we had lots more challenges to deal with that month that slowed down the process. Relatives came to visit, our first camping trip with Aiden, hives and the stomach flu all happened that month and and all played a part of the regression stage. He was mostly diapered that month but would occasionally ask to go the potty after taking his diaper off himself. We kept it up here and there through all the challenges.
July has been a busy month as well with more traveling, social events and pretty soon our annual Tahoe vacation will be here.
Little by little he is improving on his at- home potty learning, (We haven't even attempted doing it while outside our home or bought a travel potty yet.) We are planning to bring the potty with us on our vacation and since we will be hanging out at our cabin mostly on the beach we will have plenty of opportunity to keep it up! :)
Oh Whoops! Just have Elmo's potty time song running through my head like a gazillion times a day. Aiden has watched the DVD a number of times while I shower in the morning and those songs are catchy!
Back in April when my baby boy turned two, I decided it was time to start introducing the potty to him and finally in the month of May we began full on potty learning. Why potty learning and not potty training you ask? Of all the methods I've read about the most important thing to remember is that the child is learning something completely new to them. Learning is a process which we all know and without a doubt will have many stumbling blocks along the way. Two things that really helped me were realizing that the success of this learning process was highly dependent on MY attitude about the whole ordeal. Don't get too crazy with rewarding and don't show any frustration when accidents happen. Be positive about everything and non-reactive when stumbling blocks occur.
The second idea that I adopted was the naked from the waist down method. No cloth training pants, (I wouldn't even consider Pull-Ups which are SUCH a scam), no diaper, no pants nada! Why? Toddlers are used to being diapered or clothed. They are used to peeing and pooping in SOMETHING. Take that something away completely and they become more aware of whats happening down there. The safety net is gone. LOVE this method and saw it work wonders for us.
Week one was pretty impressive. I started in the morning asking him if today he wanted to start using the potty. After receiving an enthusiastic, "Yes!" we began our journey. I placed our small froggy potty in the kitchen near his play area so that it would be close by and he could go on his own. I found that worked the best for him. He is a very independent little man who does not want to be nagged every 10 minutes, "Do you have to go to the potty?" by his mother. That morning he made it to the potty three out of the five times and the other two times had pee accidents. All three of the times he went to to potty and was successful was completely on his own! I made a huge deal of course, praised him and gave him lots of hugs! I'm not too sold on the idea of giving rewards for peeing or pooping on the potty because it's not realistic in the long run. Nobody gives me a Butterfinger when I go to the bathroom. :)
That first week was a great success! We had more successful potty trips than accidents and he even began going poop on the potty too! The first time he did it I was totally unaware too. I think I was prepping dinner and suddenly he's getting off the potty, (I didn't even see him get on) and saying, "Mommy, poo poo!" I go over to him thinking he's probably pooped all over the floor but there it is smack dab in the middle of the potty! He stands over it and says, "Poo Poo! It's like muffin! Look like muffin mommy!" I busted up laughing and agreed that it did indeed look like a muffin. And ever since that day, I haven't had the craving for those super yummy Trader Joe's bran muffins again.
May was a very good start to our potty learning journey. The diaper laundry was sparse and I was a happy momma. I love those cloth diapers but after 2 years of them I am ready for a break! (Gotta keep up the enthusiasm for a future child!) The pee accidents were starting to improve too because I'd catch him starting to pee on the carpet and I'd quickly re-direct him to the potty. He's stop peeing and hold it until we got to the potty. That was a huge milestone too in my mind.
June came and we had lots more challenges to deal with that month that slowed down the process. Relatives came to visit, our first camping trip with Aiden, hives and the stomach flu all happened that month and and all played a part of the regression stage. He was mostly diapered that month but would occasionally ask to go the potty after taking his diaper off himself. We kept it up here and there through all the challenges.
July has been a busy month as well with more traveling, social events and pretty soon our annual Tahoe vacation will be here.
Little by little he is improving on his at- home potty learning, (We haven't even attempted doing it while outside our home or bought a travel potty yet.) We are planning to bring the potty with us on our vacation and since we will be hanging out at our cabin mostly on the beach we will have plenty of opportunity to keep it up! :)
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| Tahoe 2011 |
Congrats on the potty training! That's fantastic. :) I look forward to the day. Have fun in Tahoe.
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