We used the naked method recommended by Principled Parentand it worked really well, but when we found out that she could not go to Montessori in a dress sans underwear, we realized that we'd better start practicing wearing clothes. Surprisingly, she's doing better with #1 than with #2. In fact, in the past 3 days, not one poop has gone in the potty. They've all gone in her clothes or on the floor. I'm not sure what's up with that, since she originally was much more comfortable using the potty for #2. Right now I'm just trying to be patient and hope that she figures it out on her own, but I don't know - maybe I need to do something about it.
We did get a Piddle Pad (also recommended by PP) for the car seat. I wasn't going to get one - I figured a towel would do - but when we were at WalMart buying school clothes for her, Sammy brought over a package and put it in the cart. Lo and behold, it was a Piddle Pad, so we bought it! Bright girl, that one. Fortunately, she hasn't had any accidents in the car yet, but I know it will happen the first time she dozes off in the car.
She did just fine at day care last week - not a single accident. And there were no problems at Montessori today either, although it was just a 2 hour day. What she is doing is letting out just enough urine so that she won't leak or have an accident, but holding the rest. I'm not sure why she is doing this, or what to do to help her realize that she can just let it all out at once.
She seems comfortable with all kinds of potties, but at home she prefers the little plastic buckets. We got 2 of them from Ikea for a few bucks apiece.
Sammy actually uses the potty, wipes herself (if reminded), pours the pee into the big toilet, closes the lid, flushes, and washes her hands, all by herself. She does need help using the soap, though. We have one of those awful, huge pedestal sinks in the powder room and the soap is just too far away for her to reach. Anyway, I hope she doesn't want to use the buckets for much longer. It's quite messy, and when she is using the potty 3-4 times an hour, I'm not inclined to mop up the floor or disinfect the potty every single time. Do people actually do that? I just mop up the worst of it with toilet paper and clean up at the end of the day. And how in the world are you supposed to help a child wipe her butt, anyway? There is no way you can get in there while she is standing up. I have Sammy walk into the living room and lie down on a pad and raise her legs just like I did with diapers. I was hoping that particular indignity was over for her, but I can't figure out what else to do.
That reminds me - another purchase that was well worth it was Sammy's own special Kandoo wipes and toddler soap. She likes to have things that are just for her.
The new gear we have to haul around is our portable Potette potty, extra clothes, wipes, and towels. The Potette can function as a stand alone potty like the bucket, except that it has a bag/liner that catches the product and can then be disposed of easily. It can also be used as an attachment to put on top of toilet seats that are just too big. Sammy doesn't seem to like to use it that way. If she uses a toilet, she prefers to just sit on it and hold herself up with her hands. (We might not get any use out of those fancy toilet seats we bought a few months ago!)
Overall, the whole process hasn't been all that bad. I expected a lot more accidents than we've had. One more piece of advice from PP that was particularly helpful was this:
I had to learn to trust my kid. When we first started potty training and we were in the outside world I would nervously ask him over and over if he had to go potty. Ben and I would make each other anxious and Charlie got upset by our bothering him. It also resulted in an accident out and about. From this we learned to relax and not push the issue. It's OK to remind him after a significant amount of time has passed, but not be bothersome.
I do think that the parents' attitude plays a huge role in how the process goes. Too much anxiety is counterproductive. A little trust goes a long way. Being patient with accidents is critical. Accidents will happen. If you set your expectations it won't bother you so much and you can keep the attitude of this being an exciting new thing your child can do. Finally, taking the action of putting away the diapers, telling your child that they are not needed any more, and meaning it, is probably the most important part of the whole process. That, and lots of Clorox wipes.
Be careful with those Kandoo wipes if flushing them, we used them with Allison until showering one morning I found I was above my ankles with water. A few hundred dollars and visit a plumber with a super duper snake and an angle grinder who cut a hole in our cast iron drain pipe and pulled out a ton of those wipes. So we we were officially done with them and their flushable claim. The plumber said he cleared a wipe blockage once a week.
ReplyDeleteHoly crap, Kevin. Thanks for the warning.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking to me Amy! It sounds like Sammy is doing awesome!
ReplyDeleteCharlie is more likely to poop when he has pants on as well. I haven't figured out why either.
Have you figured out a good way to teach her to pull her pants up and down? That is what we are struggling with right now. I've tried teaching him to reach around to the back and pull up his pants, but he just kind of looks at me like "come on with it mama." It just isn't working. I'd really like to get him back into pants so he can wear underwear while he's out in the world.
PP: Well, Charlie is much younger than Sammy. I think at his age, she wasn't doing any pulling up, but maybe a little pulling down. I just showed her how to pull up and down like you are with Charlie and she did the same thing - she'd say YOU DO IT, MOMMY! But when I wasn't looking, she practiced, and she has come in the room with pants on after having been naked a minute before. But she still won't do the whole process when necessary, only when she is alone and doing it for fun. She will, however, pull up the pants after I help her get her feet in, even though she is perfectly capable of doing that part herself. I don't think you can make him want to do it--just keep showing him how--and of course, show him how you do it yourself and talk about how nice it is to be able to get dressed on your own, etc. Since these kids seem to love to be naked, I don't think they are all that motivated to get dressed.
ReplyDeleteWe did give Sammy a lot of leeway with pulling up over her big diaper butt. She just couldn't get the pants over that thing sometimes. Now we remind her how nice and easy it is to pull up pants without the diaper and it's a good reminder for her of why it's better to use the potty.
[...] think another potty training update is in order. Since I wrote about it last, Sammy has gone through a terrible regression. I’ve heard that kids regress but I didn’t [...]
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