Meg Logan’s Blog

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!

I just had to blog about this…

There is this TV commercial that REALLY irks me. I see it on Fox when I watch American Idol.

The commercial opens up like this:

a bunch of teens talking and hanging out, or doing something teen-ish and fun.
They goof off and play around. (no problems yet)

Then one of the teens’ voices comes on and says “I love my life. I’m not going to ruin it with a baby.”

——————————————-

Thats it!

Why does this irk me so?

Well it perpetuates the lies of the culture.
Namely 1> Babies are “ruining” lives.
2> Having babies is what should be prevented (or aborted), not the physical intimacy.
3> It’s OK to do whatever you want, as long as you don’t get pregnant.

Now, in all fairness my father thinks that this commercial IS against premarital s*x. But they NEVER say that. No, they simply say they are against having a BABY.

I know many of you are thinking “well when a teen has a baby it DOES ruin their life”. And I gotta ask “Really?? Are you sure?? Is that what the Word says?”

Honestly, there is no place in the word where having a baby is a curse. No, it is always a blessing, even if it comes at an inopportune time, or through the actions of fornication and youthful lust.

How can I say that? Well think of it this way. A person who is fornicating, and following the lusts of their hearts needs a wake up call, that they might step out of that sin. Getting the blessing of a child could be one such call. The child (when kept, or even given to adoption) leads the parent to grow up. The child causes the parent to mature, to reevaluate.

Now I do realize that some people are so lost in their selfishness and sin as to ignore the needs of a baby. But even so the baby is not the thing which is a curse, or which is ruining a life. No, it is the parent, young as s/he might be, that PARENT is the one ruining a life. The parent can CHOOSE not to ruin a life, by not aborting it, by growing up, by raising a child and training him up in the way he should go.

Now on to lie number two: Having Babies is what should be prevented, not physical intimacy which leads to such a blessing.

This is also a lie. Clearly, we ought to be abstaining from such physical intimacy, morally because God’s word says to. But even secularly, if you don’t want to have a baby, don’t have s*x. If you are at a place in your life where you feel it will be “ruined” by having a baby, then don’t engage in the activity which leads to it. This activity is for married, grown people, who are willing to be blessed by the Lord. (And don’t EVEN get me started on how married grown people OUGHT to *want* this blessing…)

When young persons engage in physical intimacy, it not only leads to babies, but it also leads to hearts being bound up together. This is a great thing in marriage, NOT a great thing outside of marriage. If a person joins her or himself to another before marriage, when they finally DO marry, there are likely going to be serious problems with their intimacy. This person opens the door to struggle with lust for the rest of their lives.

Ok ok, this isn’t a post about abstinence exactly…

Lie number three: It’s OK to do whatever you want, as long as you don’t get pregnant.

Oh lookie here… it’s my favorite topic! ME-ISM… the selfish attitude which pervades our secular culture. Do what ever you want. Please yourself, and you shouldn’t even have to deal with the consequences. If you lusted after a girl, and laid with her, and satisfied your lust, and then you found out that the product of your lust was a baby… well, just abort it! No need for consequences, or the responsibilities that come with satisfying your lust! *tongue deeply in cheek*

ARG. this commercial irks me, every time I see it.

I see it for the lies it embodies and promotes.

Mrs.MegLogan

This is part two to How I potty Trained my 15 month old son.

Well, as I left off in the last post about potty training, I had a 10 month old daughter who was still in diapers due to my pregnancy sickness.

This is what happened next. We started renovations on our house in NC, which sent our lives into upheaval again, and so I really was inconsistent with the potty. We packed up our house and moved to NY. Once we got there and got settled, I tried to get consistent again with the potty, but it was off and on for months, until I finally had baby number three last September, and my daughter was then 17 months.

As soon as I had that baby I got dilligent with my daughter about the potty. I rewarded her this time with Skittles, since she already knew what to do with a potty, but was not motivated enough to give up the diapers for good. Boy did those Skittles work wonders. Suddenly she was interested in putting her pee in the potty. I spent a good two months undoing my inconsistent training of her. I put the Baby Bjorn potty chair out in the living room again. But after those two months of really taking her to the potty, asking her if she needed the potty, and having a couple accidents (more at home than out and about) she was finally ready for training panties all day long at 19 months.

We had two or three accidents outside of the house. Mostly during times when I was unavailable to help her. But then at 20 months, no more accidents. Now she is 21 months old, and has been a month in big girl panties. I taught her how to pull her own pants up and down, and now she takes HERSELF to the baby potty all day long while we are at home. She holds her pee up to 2.5 hours now, and really becomes distressed if she has to hold it longer. She also does make her poopy in the potty too.

She is gaining ground in the night time training. As I did with my son I am just letting it take its course. I put her in a pull up for naps and night time and she wakes up from naps dry half the week. The night time diapers seem to be less wet too. I am very excited to declare her day time trained. I cannot wait to see night time training too!

On to baby number three. She is five months old, and any day now, I plan to start training her. I wonder if I can finish HER by 12 months?? I have noticed a few things about her already however… she doesn’t go every fifteen minutes like my middle child did. In fact many times I go to change her and she is dry. Then I wait a bit longer and she is soaked. So she seems to already hold it a bit. This makes it harder for me to determine WHEN to take her to the potty. Also, she already thinks that the diaper is for the pee… and holds back when I do put her on the potty when she wakes up dry… up to fifteen minutes or more, after a two hour nap and waking dry! WHOA.

Well, new baby, new challenges. I cannot wait to embark.

MRs. Meg LOgan

P.S. if anyone has specific questions about this please feel free to post them or email me (if that is available on my site I can’t recall). I would love to address them for you.

This one is for my husband, because he is a wonderful father, but his kids are too young to express it.

Just a list:
1. His four year old says “Daddy is SUPER!”
2. His one year old says “Lub oo DaDa.”
3. His wife notices: That Daddy has taught his son to “be a man”.
4. He has taught his son to respect his mother.
5. He demands respect from his children and they admire him for it.
6. He is astonishingly consistent in discipline.
7. He never seems to need to raise his voice!
8. He loves to play with his kids on the floor.
9. He talks to them seriously about serving the Lord he loves.
10. He sets high standards, and the kids live up to them.
11. He never contradicts me in front of the kids, (and that makes him a better man than I, because I do this one!)
12. He is hard, strong and still gentle as an example to those who follow him.
13. He always gives kisses when he goes to work.
14. He loves to hug the kids when he walks in the door.

My husband, is one of the best fathers I know. I am so grateful to God for giving me, and our kids, such a wonderful man, whom I can look up to, admire, ad emulate (in so far as a woman might emulate a man.) I look forward to many years of admiring his fathering skills, and I know his kids just adore him too.

Mrs. Meg Logan
p.s. I couldn’t post this yesterday because we were at church pretty much all day what with service, fellowshipping, and VBS..

I won’t and can’t claim that I am a perfect mother, enjoying rearing my children every minute of everyday. But, I definitely want to get it through my thick skull that children are a blessing and a reward. Why would I want to put them away from me? Just like the responsibilities that come with the other blessings from God, I should willingly take on that responsibility when I receive that blessing, and my attitude should not be one of “oh man they need me again!”, or “what now!?”

If I truly cherished and believed God’s word about children being a blessing, and a reward, I would not want to separate myself from them. I would look forward to those moments when I could teach them something and would enjoy sharing my life with them. I am a selfish woman, (aren’t we all selfish!?) and frequently I want some time away, or I want my kids to go away. But that is not what the Lord called us to.

Now even Jesus took time away from the disciples to be in prayer. So often, I think that being away from them in prayer is selfish but that’s not true. Or I think that giving up prayer/study time to be with them is some how ungodly (I used to pray and study for hours a day, which just isn’t practical these days). But the other day I was praying and was reminded that when I love those children I am loving HIM. When I give them my attentions, I am giving HIM my attention. “what you do to the least of these you do to Me” Do I take time away to pray? Absolutely. I don’t have to feel guilty about that either, because by loving Him I am loving them!
I never seem to want to put financial blessings away or abundance in house size or such. I generally am interested in going the distance to be a faithful steward of those things, so that I can have more! Shouldn’t I likewise go out of my way to be a good steward of the blessing of children?