Well last month I started potty training Baby#3. She was thirteen months old. I put her in cloth diapers for a few days, then I started trying to guess when she was going. The cloth diapers I use, I didn’t use a cover for so that I could tell right away when she was wet.
She took to the potty like a fish to water! She definitely likes it. I took the diapers away for a couple days, maybe as much as a week, and tried to catch her pee, if it went on the floor I said “YAY pee pee”. Once she peed on the linoleum floor in the bathroom, she was shocked to hear that noise so she looked down in amazement. She smiled and I said “YAY pee pee”. This was the dawning of understanding for her.
The next day she was standing in a diaper, on the play mat and suddenly she looked down and said “YAY!” I picked her up and she had just peed. So I know she understands now.
A couple days after that I left her to play on the play mat, and heard her suddenly become insistant, she said “mommy. mommy” and I came and took her to the potty. She peed. She had been holding it for one hour.
Now the thing is to just get her to tell me BEFORE she has to go. I imagine this will be a little slower. This is my strategy:
Take her to the potty every forty five minutes, and say “do you have to go potty” each time. Then slowly start pressing the time back by five minute increments, and ask the question (until we start to have accidents). Then I will try to wait for her to indicate that she needs the potty.
I am also working on teaching her to say “potty”. she says a bunch of single words so I expect this one to come along any day now.
I am very excited, she seems to be the most interested in it and the quickest learner of any of my three so far. I am very confident that we will be out of diapers in the day (at least) by the time the new baby comes in March. She will probably even be taking herself to the potty, she can almost pull up her own undies. Watching a thirteen month old pull up her own undies is SO cute… She’s so tiny but boy when she gets a mind to do something she does it!
Mrs.MegLogan
p.s. sorry bout that yard sale, decided against it after all. Our house in NC sold, and I found it too time consuming to photo every garment, list it, answer questions about it, and get ready to mail it. *I opened it to some private friends to discover this*.