Potty Training

[ailbhe]

It would help if we had some idea how to go about it.

What we're doing so far, in this chosen battle (You have to choose your battles. We are currently fighting on sleep and puddles, and adopting a laissez faire policy towards table manners and toxic food consumption) is offering her the potty every time she removes a nappy, and bringing her with us when we use the loo so she has some idea of what's going on.

So far, she enjoys sitting on the potty sometimes, and stands up suddenly and moves away if she needs to pee.

I've also realised that if we're going to do this, we need to stop putting her in dungarees, as she *can* get the nappy off just as well as she can with regular trousers, but we can't tell until it's too late.

That, or we need to find some better way of keeping her in nappies until warm weather.

Perhaps when she's figured out that peeing in the potty is a good thing, and not a "spill" (a new concept I introduced last week or so, silly me), we can introduce training pants. Or perhaps we'll stick with nappies; they don't seem to pose any removal problems for her.

Comments

[k425.livejournal.com]

Would you like to borrow a couple of stuffables? They're poppered so you can pull them up like training pants (which was one reason I got them) and they're harder to undo because of the poppers (which was the other reason I got them).

I'm serious about lending them if you're interested - they're sitting in the airing cupboard doing nothing because they're too big for YoungBloke's thighs, so someone may as well get some use out of them!

Oh, if it's velcro that she's finding easy to undo, have you tried putting them, or the wraps, on backwards?

I have no ideas about potty training, because YB shows no interest or understanding as yet and my own lazy attitude means that we're already decided on waiting till he moves to the next room in nursery because that's where they do toilet training and we can be consistent with them. But I did think of you today when we visited the pet shop (babbits! Babbits!) and I spotted a display of packs of puppy training sheets...

[ailbhe]

Yes please, we'll try anything. Something harder to get off would be better while we're out, certainly.

Backwards wouldn't fit, I'm afraid. The shape is all wrong. She's very... generously cut, as the jeans manufacturers say.

Puppy training sheets? Share!

[djelibeybi.livejournal.com]

This isn't going to be any help at all but I'm going to share anyway.

With The Boy, we read books, set up routines, worked hard at getting him to use the potty, probably other stuff that I've subsequently blottted from my memory because it was just so stressful. It took ages. I remember that much.

With The Blonde, I decided to ignore all advice and do everything my way. That meant not thinking much about it. If she was with me or daddy when we needed the loo, no big deal. She had a potty for a very short time but mostly played with it as if it were a toy box. She decided for herself to use the loo for the first time and I was surprised because we'd not gone through the trauma of trying.

And she was earler out of nappies too - by a long way.

It doesn't confine itself to toilet either. Bottles. Sleeping habits. Meals. Bedtime. Everything.

Admittedly, there was five years experience supporting this but it seemed like we had to work at being parents much less second time around.

Like me, you can choose to ignore this anecdote.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Email me your address - linz@lindsayendell.org.uk - and I'll stick them in the post this week.

Puppy training sheets are like the inco pads used in hospitals but for puppies - apparently they're treated so they smell nice to puppies, so they go to them and wee. Not ideal for toddlers, smellwise, but absorbent for mopping up accidents and for thrusting under a small bum when it's just starting to wee.

[k425.livejournal.com]

I decided to ignore all advice and do everything my way

And this, dear reader, is what I am trying to do with the whole parenting lark! I'm not saying I'm successful, but it's a sort of low-level ambition!

[ailbhe]

I try to ignore all the advice I don't agree with, but I *do* ask for advice, because (a) it provides fodder for journal entries, and (b) it's sometimes *excellent*, such as hypatia's suggestions for toddler snacks.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Ah, asking for help's different, and when I do that (and I do) I can generally find something that is actually helpful.

I shall now go and look through your past entries for hypatia's suggestions because there's a limit to how many breadsticks and oatcakes I feel Jack should eat in a day!

[heraldis.livejournal.com]

Is she gettting them off by undoing, or just wriggling out? We have an undoer, so invested in good old fashioned safety safety pins (from John Lewis ;)) I guess nappy could be pinned to clothes too...

[ailbhe]

She's undoing, but I think we're better off giving in to the potty training thing, as she has figured out velcro, poppers, nappi nippas, trousers and dungarees so far.

She showed some interest this morning, so that's good.

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I bought a book called Potty Training in 7 days & did everything in it & none of it worked. Kate just decided herself one day that she was going to wear big girl pants & that was it. She did need a reason though & the reason was that she could only go to Big Girl Nursery if she could use a toilet.

A similar thing happened 2 weeks ago with being dry at night. I bought her a funky night time nappy from Babeco to save me paying out a fortune on disposable pull-ups. She laughed her head off when she saw herself in the mirror wearing one of "Holly's nappies" & hasn't wet the bed since.

So, I now have un-used toddler sized night time nappy & wrap that I really must return & swop for Holly sized ones :)

[the-warwick.livejournal.com]

We played it by ear. Ours isn't an escapologist though. The potty was around and she was aware of it and allowed to use it as a seat if her nappy was off for a while. We encouraged her a little but not very much. We were *pleased* and gave lots of praise if she used it even by accident for a wee. We started doing stickers at about the same time since her understanding and communication had reached that stage. Just before Clarecraft she started *wanting* to use the potty. Things regressed only a little during that weekend and to be honest we didn't push it that weekend.

Although she never objected to being wet with even a sopping nappy, she discovered fairly fast that using the potty or the toilet kept her "nice clean and dry".

Jo bought some trainer pants just before the end of August bank holiday when we decided we were going to really push for it... She also bought some regular knickers as an optomistic thing. Rhiannon played around in the knickers and found them infinitely preferable. Accidents aren't really made a fuss of. Asking and going to the potty or the toilet are praised even if nothing happens (it can get wearing, but luckily Jo remembers where every loo within 50 miles radius is from when she was pregnant).

Your little darling already knows how to stay dry though...

Forcing her onto the potty if she's ditched the nappy feels like the wrong approach.

Twisting 'spill' into a game to get to the potty could be an approach. You'd have to change the 'badness' of spill to the 'goodness' of spill in potty with a few encouragements. You have a word she understands, you may as well hijack it for the new purpose.

Going OTT with your joy that she hit the potty even with a sprinkle should get things started.

Dragging her off the potty the next week...

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

At the moment, what do you do when she stands up from the potty to pee?

[ailbhe]

Laugh, and say "That's a wee-wee!"

We're maybe not trying very hard...

[sashajwolf.livejournal.com]

*grin* Maybe try saying "That's a wee-wee! Sit down!" or something like that, and then reinforce it by saying something similar when you sit down to use the toilet yourself?

[ailbhe]

olives sweetcorn carrot sticks grapes apple slices raisins cold toast with or without spread celery sticks cornflakes or other breakfast cereal lumps of cheese vine leaves wrapped around stuff berry fruits and lots of other stuff I've forgotten.