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Thinking about Potty Training…
Two months ago my daughter turned two years old. With her 2nd birthday came more pressure from several people to begin potty training; this included my husband, mother and the pediatrician. I am happy to allow my daughter to take her time in moving from cloth diapers to the potty.
There are some signs to indicate she is ready to potty train; she remains dry throughout most nights, has fewer wet diapers, and when she has a bowel movement, she announces it to us. Sometimes she tells us when she is wet. More often than not, when we give her the option of wearing a diaper or “bare bottom,” she will choose the latter (We try to have her bare bottomed as much as she likes, as we’ve read that it helps with potty training.).
Still, there are other signs to indicate she is not yet ready. When bare-bottomed she tells us after, not before, she pees. When she is bare-bottomed, if we ask her to tell us if she needs to pee, she says, “No”. She will also say “No” if we mention using the potty at all. She rarely says “No” in situations unrelated to potty training.
I have read about children who retain their bowel movements, and even their urine, as a result of being forced to potty training too soon; this concerns me even though I realize not all children have this problem.
I have considered the use of potty trianing”props” like the Potty Patty and Potty Scotty Potty Training Dolls. Both Dr. William Sears, founder of the Attachment Parenting theory, and Dr. Phil support the use of potty training dolls. The child gives the doll some water to drink and then teaches the doll to use the potty. The doll voids the water it drank (hopefully in the potty). It is my understanding this modeling of potty training behavior with the doll helps the child learn how to potty train too.
Though I will not know the effectiveness until I try it, my only concern with the Potty Patty Potty Training Doll is my daughter hardly plays with the dolls she has. She prefers to play with her stuffed animals and on the rare occasion, when prompted by an adult, she will have her froggie “go” to the potty.
It was my intention to avoid the use of potty training “props” such as the Potty Training Chart and Stickers or other rewards. Instead I hope to use verbal acknowledgments such as, “You did it!”, “You peed/pooped on the potty!”, or something similar.
As I have not yet walked this road before I would like to know what other parents suggest for moving from cloth diapers to potty training. Can you please share your advice for this mom of a two-year-old?
Tags: cloth diapers, how to potty train, learning to potty, potty learning, Potty Patty Potty Training Dolls, Potty Scotty Potty Training Dolls, potty training, Potty Training Charts and Stickers, www.softclothbunz.comCloth Diaper Blog is published by www.diaperjunction.com.
Discussion
8 comments for “Thinking about Potty Training…”
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I belong to the “wait until they’re ready” camp. I had tried a few things (sticker chart, going diaper free, potty training doll) without success and so just dropped the matter to prevent it from becoming a parent-child control issue. My daughter trained herself the day before her third birthday. I admit that I was feeling pretty nervous that she wasn’t potty trained with her third birthday approaching, but the actual potty training process turned out to be so easy that it was well worth the wait. I imagine it all depends on the personalities of the child and parents involved, though.
I have a 2 year old (just turned in June) and she is almost completely potty trained. We started ‘hard core’ potty training a week before she turned 2, and now she even occasionally gets up at night to go. She has shown interest in the potty since about 16 months, so we’ve always had a cheap potty around, and tried occasionally, but what really worked for us was the method described in “Diaper Free Before 3″. LOVED that book - really worked for us. In essence, you start to make pottying part of the routine (just like everything else for 2yos). This made more sense to me than waiting for my dd to initiate everything. I wish you luck - and highly recommend the book!
My little girl is now almost 3. When she turned 2 we set out the potty and talked about it. Let her sit on it with clothes on when she wanted and then moved to sitting on it without clothes. at about 28 months old she wanted to pee in the potty but was very inconsistent when she did.
I am a believer of rewards to help in motivation and with her it worked. 1 M&M for pee, 2 for poop. It took about 5 months for her to be completely dry during the day, and the M&M’s were only used for the first month. Once she had made it a whole week, she would get a special outing of her choice as her reward. (AKA feed the ducks, spray grounds, something free that she doesn’t get to do everyday.)
Rewards give them something to look forward to when going to the potty starts to get boring and repetitive.
DD trained herself when she was 20 months because I was leaving her naked a lot (it’s HOT!) She started a lot like your child, announcing the pee after she’d done it. I told her that it goes in the potty, made a potty available, and it didn’t take very long for her to pick it up. There were/are accidents, sure, but pretty painless overall.
* most toddlers will tell you they don’t have to go, even if they do. They do not want to stop playing and sometimes you just have to SAY, “it’s time to try” instead of asking, “do you need to go?” It doesn’t have to be a big production, and if she doesn’t produce - no big deal - but it can be helpful for YOU to provide the opportunity.
* cloth diapers feel similar to training pants, so keep that in mind when you decide between trainers and panties. DD is more likely to have an accident in trainers than in panties.
There is so much great advice here and though my daughter is nowhere near potty training age (she is only 8 months old!), I’m filing all this away for future reference. Thanks for sharing all your advice.
WOW so my DD isn’t the ONLY one that nurses her puppies but not her baby dolls. Baby dolls go swimming that’s about it! lol, but in all seriousness it WAS worth it to buy a baby Born to SHOW her this potty “Thing”. (also worked to keep her from getting scared of the pool, my baby!)
We started earlier then normal this child because of the winters here. (Germany)
She tends to copy us (she turned 2 last week, fyi) and follows us into the bathroom & shares with us. (had to retrain my boys to sit while peeing but they are old enough, she tried standing once, they didn’t pee standing again, lol)
Just found out I’m pregnant which helps too (frequent peeing) but the BIGGEST thing, is everyone just SAYING I’m GOING to use the …. she follows them & uses her pot!
I usually use the naked method to finalize Toilet training, & yes she prefers it without her bulky dipes, but hey what a trade off!
With my first daughter (who is now 10), I put a plastic potty right in the living room where all her toys were. She wasn’t quite two yet. She would run around bare bottomed most of the day and sit on the potty for fun. She thought it was great that she had her own potty and could sit on it just like mommy does.
At some point she peed in the potty just as a result of sitting on it for some time while she watched a movie or played. I praised her for peeing in her potty and she put two and two together and that was it!
She was so proud of herself that she never went back to dipes again after that. She had accidents at first of course, but we didn’t mind. We just cleaned them up and moved on, being careful not to shame her in any way.
I think it’s important not to over think it or feel pressured by any time or age constraint. Keep it fun and easy and she’ll naturally want to do what mommy does in her own time.
My daughter is 28 months old and She’s Day potty trained, Including naps. We just started on Monday with the 3-day method. Left a little potty in the living room, and left her bare bottomed. She got it. When she was naked she just ran to the potty and went. Of course she told me she had to go and then I told her sit on the potty and she did. Now She’s wearing panties and pulling them down herself and then going. She does this all on her own. She’s even pooping in the potty herself. and at nap she’s completely dry. Now in a few months we’ll muster in overnight training, but that can even wait a couple more years as far as I’m concerned!