Guess where we have been spending time lately. You guessed it. It's potty training time.
Let me begin by saying I LOATH potty training. When I tried the "3 days and $30" method (in which you stay in your house letting them run naked for 3 days and then rent a carpet cleaner for $30 to clean everything up) I lasted until noon on day one and was a wreck. It just doesn't work for our family. I have no patience for cleaning up waste off my floor so this time round I am taking a bit of a different approach. I have heard of children with DS taking until they were 5 or 6 to finally potty train and I simply don't want to be changing diapers that big so I thought maybe if we started early and gently encourage her than we might at least have success by the time Ella goes to school. I much prefer the slow and steady approach.
We face a few obstacles on the potty training front however. One being that Ella does not mind being in a soiled nappy. Two, she is not the best communicator and three, she does not respond to discipline. She will laugh in my face and cheekily do whatever she is not supposed to be doing, again and again.
Four, impatient mommy and five, irregular schedule with lots of outings.
We started after Christmas, and began by putting Ella on the potty about every 15 minutes. It was a good time to start because Ben was home so I didn't have to constantly be stopping what I was doing and we could trade off. Since then, we try to put her on regularly when we are at home and then when arrive at our destination or at semi-regular times throughout our outing. In the in between times, I still keep a diaper on her.
I know many theories say to first collect data on how often and when they are "voiding" (don't you just love scientific lingo?) but really, as much as I am routine driven I don't always give Ella drinks at regular times, and she doesn't seem to always "void" at regular times. Plus, we are usually out at different times during the day.
So how is it going so far? I'd say good. I never expected it to go quickly. She knows to go when she is on the potty but doesn't know not to go when she isn't on. She will not initiate and use the sign for potty when she needs to go, but if we ask, she will, sometimes, use the sign, especially if we have done it first. Steps in the right direction right? If she is trained by 2013, I will be a happy camper, I can tolerate the program we have going on here: happy mommy, happy Ella. We'll see how it goes.
Just out of curiosity though, how old was your child when they potty trained? What worked best for mommy and child?
PS-If you want a good old scientific approach to potty training be sure to check out this post.
9 comments:
I'll be interested to see how this goes. I hope you are successful. I too don't want a 5 year old in diapers :)
I hated potty training more than anything else. It sounds like you're on the right track. Slow and steady. don't get frustrated. You can't force, only encourage. And that sounds like exactly what you're doing.It will happen when it's supposed to! Good luck!
We're doing the same at our house. I was just working on a post right now about it;) We aren't doing it with high expectations though, just starting.
We're about to start potty training here as well. Miss B laughs at discipline too, and I'm not sure how well rewards would work either b/c she just wants her treat/prize/reward NOW darnit!! So the reward-when-they-go-method is problematic as well. Let me know if you read some good tips!
Good luck! It can be trying, that is for sure! Payton was in undies at 3 years 11 months and Nika at 4 years 10 months. With both of them, I was sort of a crutch, keeping them in a pull up longer than I probably needed to. Oopsie. LOL. Just didn't want to take the undie plunge until I knew we wouldn't deal with accidents. Either way, we got them both done before kindergarten, so that is a bonus!
We are starting to potty train Emily and hoping that she gets it by the time she starts preschool in August. We are also going very slowly because I, like you, do not like the whole intensity of trying to do it in 3 days :-) Emily initiates sometimes, but other times she couldn't care less about going in her diaper. So, we'll see! Good luck to you and if I have any successful tips, I will share :-)
We started potty training Avery when she turned four..I had had enough of changing her diapers..i went all for it though...we ran around in our undies for about a week and didnt leave the house...but we had accidents on the floor..and by the first week she pretty much had it..she was in undies from then on and pull ups at night..about four months later we were pretty much accident free..she will occasionally have an accident but its very rare..if only she would be night trained now.. Good LUck with the potty training!!! Its a very slow process and sometimes very frustrating if they are stubborn..Avery was very very stubborn when it came to potty training her!!
Oh gosh. I hate potty training. With my Ella, she was almost 3 before we even started getting serious about training. Our approach was probably similar to yours. We talked and encouraged for around a year before (age 2), but didn't have any expectations. When she got to where she was going and changing her own pull-up/diaper after going in it, I knew it was time to get more serious. The hardest thing we had an issue was going "poopy." My pediatrician recommended putting a mild powder laxative (one that is safe for children-we used miralax, not sure if they have that where you are at) and put it in her morning milk. It just made it so she couldn't hold it and she got used to the feeling of that. That is my only "tip" that is really practical. Otherwise, I'll just say I think your approach sounds perfect. I find that when we approach all these parenting things with love instead of putting them on a time table, both child and parent feel less stressed. You are doing a great job mama (or do you say mum over there?)!
It's been a long time now since I potty trained my daughter Dana. She's 28 now!! It wasn't a huge chore as I recall... lots and lots of positive reinforcement - what a big girl! good job! that sort of thing. She was completely toilet trained (day and night) by the time she was 2 years old and she only weighed about 14 lbs then and would only walk if I held her hand. She didn't walk unassisted until she was about 3.5 years.
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