Well, in about 9 months my husband and I will be welcoming baby number four into the house. Praise God, from whom ALL blessings flow.
“lo children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is His REWARD. As arrows in the hand of a mighty warrior, so are children of thy youth, happy is the man who hath his quiver full of them…” Psalm 127:3-5
“…And wherefore one [flesh]? That he might seek a godly seed. …” Malachi 2:15
Since my first post on Early Start Potty Training I have received tons of questions about it. Most people are looking for a bit more encouragement, or specific advice. So I am going to post a few of the more common questions here, and some of my better responses.
If you have a question that is not addressed here, or if you have a question that is addressed here but does not have enough detail, please feel free to email me (meg at meglogan dot com), or leave a question in the comments box. I will try to get to it asap.
1. My baby is around 15 months and takes his diaper off after he poops. Does he know he has a dirty diaper?
– Yes. Your baby KNOWS he has a dirty diaper, and he is giving you signals (taking the diaper off after the fact) that he doesn’t like to sit in his own poop. Pay closer attention to your child all day by keeping him near you. When you notice the “poopy face” or grunting or squatting, gently but quickly take his diaper off and cart him right to the closest potty. (I keep one in the living room). Give him lots of quiet praise while he sits on the potty, and if he makes his poopy get very excited and tell him “Yay Poopy in the potty!”
I have noticed that some children get disturbed by the removal of the diaper and the carting to the potty so that they will hold back. My solution to this is to keep the diaper off the child, and the potty goes EVERYWHERE with you. Keep your eye on the baby till you know he has made his poopy in the potty that day (or some babies DO go more than once a day.) Then gently and slowly lift baby right onto the potty and cheer as above.
2. My baby is only 11 months old, can she learn to use the potty?
– Absolutely. If your baby has seen you use the potty, she will pick up on the potty idea very quickly. If she has not seen you use the potty, introduce her to her potty, but I do not recommend allowing her to “play” with the potty (this causes confusion about what the potty is for. If it is always used for pee and poop, then when the baby is crawling towards the potty, you know why!). Set her on the potty every thirty minutes for not more than five minutes. If you manage to catch a pee, look at the clock, in about thirty minutes to an hour (iin some cases I have known babies to go LONGER… but it seems pretty rare), she will need to go again. Try at the thirty minute mark, nothing? Give it about ten more minutes.
You know what I like to do till I figure out how long they wait? I start to carry the baby on my hip after thirty minutes. I put them in either a cloth diaper, or leave their bottom “nakey”. In my experience the baby starts to fuss or squirm right before they need to go, sometimes I get a “warm” sensation where they are sitting, but I am not wet. Then I know it is time to go to the potty.
3. I have a baby whom I would like to start potty training but I work full time, and baby stays with grandma/sitter/daycare. Can I still potty train early?
– I have a hard time answering this question. I do believe you can START training part time at home. However, since potty training is so dependent upon consistency, I think it would be rather difficult to completely train early, if the other caretaker is not on board. If you are blessed to find a daycare or home care situation where the adult in charge is willing to give it a try, then go for it. If you are willing to have a child who uses the potty at home but uses a diaper att daycare, go for it. But if you start thinking it is just too much stress on you or on your baby I recommend putting it off till the secondary caretaker is able to help.
4. I started training my child early, but they got sick/we went on vacation/grandma came to visit… or other interruption, and now we want to start again. Do you have any tips for this?
– I recommend waiting until you know you are going to have a good three or four months to dedicate to completing the potty training. Then take those diapers off and get very serious about it. Most children will remember the previous training, and will pick up where they left off. I had TONS of interruptions with my daughter. It took her a while to get serious with potty training, because of it. Seemed like every time she got close to being done, something came up and I *had* to put her back in diapers… this was probably very detrimental to her training. She did finish daytime training early (20months), but her night time wetting is still going on at 26 months.
5. Do you use rewards or consequences?
– I used rewards and consequences with my second child, but not with my first child (other than verbal rewards or consequences). With my first child, he was extremely self motivated, and we had no interruptions during the training process. There is only one occasion which I can recall where I disciplined him for an “accident”, and it was not even an accident, it was a deliberate “accident”. My son was 14 months, and he had been using the potty with my help (telling me he had to go) for a good while already with no trouble. One day he stood at the edge of the coffee table, looked me in the eye, and deliberately peed on the floor. I gave him a swat on the thigh for it, and it never happened again.
With baby number two, I eventually resorted to a skittle for pee in the potty and two for poop. I only did this for a week or two, to get her interested in using the potty again after yet another interruption. She no longer had self motivation, because I kept destroying it when I put her back into diapers for whatever reason. This worked wonders, as my daughter has a sweet tooth. Eventually she had been out of diapers and accident free for a few months, when she started peeing in her panties deliberately anytime she was angry with me for telling her “no” (or whatever it was). When she started this I also issued a negative consequence, in our house that is a swat on the thigh or bottom. That resolved the peeing out of anger issue right away.
6. My baby is 12-15 months old and I sit her on the potty in the morning. She sits there for thirty or forty minutes and does make pee. I never know when she goes, because I am off doing xyz and she is not yet verbal… What do you recommend?
–Stop putting your kid on the potty for thirty or forty minutes… the longer she is sitting there NOT going, the less likely it is that she will associate peeing with the potty. She is just releasing randomly, and you are not paying enough attention to notice and reward her when she goes. You need to stay with your baby while you sit her on the potty. Look into the pot and wait until you hear or see some pee. If you do not see pee in five minutes, let the kid up, carry her on your hip, or set her on a cloth on the floor and watch her. Take her back to the potty in five or ten minutes, until you either catch the pee, or notice her making it on the floor. Then look at the clock. In thirty minutes try again. (Follow routine for question 2). Whether she pees in the pot or on the floor, you need to call attention to this. Babies do not associate any word with the sensation of peeing, unless you tell them the word, or make the sign, or say the sound, WHILE THEY ARE GOING. it won’t work if you tell them AFTER the fact.
7. What kind of diaper do you prefer? Why? Where can I get it? Can I find baby sized undies? Where?
– Ok i get asked this alot. I use the birdseye weave diaper, not prefold. I fold it in half the short way, then I fold it into thirds to make it long and narrow, I open up the back edges to make a “t” with wings which wrap to the front. I fold up the front and tuck it inside as extra absorbtion, then I pull the wings to the front, pin one, pull the other and pin it. If it is not tight enough, I release the first pin, and tighten. The trick to tightening is to make sure you are pulling UP not just AROUND. Pull the edges UP through the crotch, and make sure it is snug against the thigh. Another hint, is that the pins tend to release a bit of tension, so you have to pull extra tight (”too tight”) then pin, and it will have a bit more give to it.
I buy birdseye weave from Gerber, you can get it at any Walmart, Babies R Us or Target. They come twelve to a pack. You will need at least two packs. Sometimes I use rubber pants, but they are ultra hard to find these days. I have also made some all in ones from flannel, and birdeye weave diapers. I like the all in ones when I am not able to watch the baby carefully, because they absorb more. But the one layer diaper that I pin is excellent for light coverage, it is usltra thin, so isn’t cumbersome for the baby. It stops the spill from hitting the floor, but I can tell right away if I missed a pee.
As for baby sized undies, Gerber makes some in a size 18 months. My “chunky” daughter fit them at 12 months, but just barely. If you have a thin kid, these will likely fall off till 18 months. There are also tons of options out there for homemade baby undies, and chinese potty pants (which have no crotch). Search the internet for them.
If I happen to find that there is a huge demand for diapers and baby undies, I might consider making some for sale.
More questions? I’d love to hear from you. Do you have an anecdote about early start potty training which you would like to share with me? Please email me. If you leave your name and permission to publish, I may use it in my book. (If my book ever gets completed and published.) Just let me know if you want to be anonymous, or what name you would like to use. All anecdotes are subject to editing for space or spelling/grammar errors.
Mrs. Meg Logan
Now on to baby three!
