News from the Potty Department

As a parent, I am always learning something new, even when I feel like I know everything there is to know about a particular topic. For example, I thought I had potty training all figured out. Not really!

Here is what I have learned the past few months:

A little potty seat in each car is a must.
In our case, I don’t drive, so Amor Chiquito and I get rides from both my husband and my mother. Just bought a potty seat for my mother’s car and life is good! No more worrying about Amor Chiquito needing to go to the bathroom, but not going because being on the big toilet in some strange bathroom makes her nervous. No more being on the highway and the child refusing to pee in a diaper and holding it in for half an hour!

We will continue having her ware a diaper at nap time.
I had stopped having her ware a diaper at nap time because her diapers were always dry. The other day, she wet my mother’s bed. Why go through that if she can wear a diaper? I am not saying that we ought to do that for years, but we will definitely do it for a few more months. Sometime in the summer, I will stop having her ware a diaper because she will not be wearing one in preschool. Something else we will be doing is asking her to try going to the potty before her nap.

A night time diaper is a must for us, for now.
Every now and then, we have a dry diaper in the morning, but most of the time we don’t. I can get her up in the middle of the night and have her go to the bathroom. Call me lazy, but I am not doing that! Sleep is a tricky thing for my family. I am not screwing with that! We’ll use diapers and deal with sleeping diaperless later.

She wears underwear when we go out now!
I’ve graduated; no more big diaper bag! Her snacks and the travelsize wipe container fit in a small purse just fine!

Different things work for different people and for different stages. This is what feels right for us, right now. I bet that in three months I could write a post about the same issue and I will be telling you about how differently we are doing things at that point!

Speaking of going to the potty, Amor Chiquito just went so I told her we needed to wipe. She said “no tote (don’t touch), p-eww,” laughed, and ran away! Silly kid!

My child is a nudist.

Amor Chiquito has been able to take all her clothes off for almost a year now. She used to do that a lot when we first started putting her in her crib at 13 months. After a while, she stopped doing it.

Once Amor Chiquito began using the potty consistently, her nudist tendencies returned! She just loves being naked. I don’t know how else to put it! She is often only wearing a shirt, or socks, or simply nothing. The funny thing is that when we tell her we are going to put a shirt on, she complains about the shirt being cold! Kids…!

Personally, her being naked does not bother me, as long as it is just us, obviously. I do want her dressed if we are at someone else’s home or if we have guests, of course.

It is my job to teach her that some behaviors are acceptable in certain settings but not others. From what I have read, this is a controversial topic. Some parents think it is a non-issue; others feel strongly that a child being naked at home is a bad thing. To be honest, I am torn on what I should be telling her about this.

I am curious. How do you feel about this? If you have kids, do they do this? Is it common? Let’s have a conversation, so to speak, about a controversial topic. I am confident that we, as grown-ups, can do this respectfully. If someone gets a little crazy, there is always the delete button!

Something else I have noticed is that Amor Chiquito does a great job going to the potty if she is naked from the waist down or if she is wearing only underwear. If she is wearing pants, she has accidents almost all the time. Any experiences with this? Is there an explanation for it? It is only a matter of time, is my guess.

My goal is to help her get better about this, but, in the meantime, I started buying dresses! They proved particularly useful when we spent the weekend with the in-laws. Amor Chiquito was dressed and did not have accidents.

Potty Training Update

We realized that we got used to her going to the potty. We were not providing nearly as much positive reinforcement as we provided at the beginning. Positive reinforcement is back, big time!

Also, with all the running around I have been doing lately, I have not spent a lot of quality time with her. Working on that.

So far so good.

Thanks Mol for your comment/suggestion.

Also, yay for emails from Love & Logic with tips (on potty training this week, what a coincidence) that my husband forwards!

Review: BabyBjorn Little Potty

I got this potty chair for car trips and for the times when we spend the night away from home.

For a picture and reviews, check out this link:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2309032

Pros:
small, portable

easy to clean

feels sturdy, does not feel like it will break easily

only $13, rather than $28 like the other two potties

Cons

The splashguard is useless, despite the fact there is no penus involved! I guess this means I would not recommend it for boys? I guess it depends on how well your little one knows how to point, as my mommy puts it!

It is extremely low and does not have back support, so it doesn't look comfortable. Then again, if you only plan on using it two or three days a month when you go to grandma's, this is not a big issue.

Overall, I am happy with it. I have had an intimate relationship with baby poop for over 15 months thanks to cloth diapers and being visually impaired, so a few drops of pee do not scare me! :)

Suddenly, two steps backwards...

Amor Chiquito peed on the rug just because... Weird... Not sure how to deal with that.

Do I remind her to go on the potty? Do I not make a big deal out of it and hope for the best?

Do I sing the ut-oh song? What consequence would I deliver? Something about that approach does not feel right with potty training... Can't put my finger on it...

Another alternative is to completely avoid the potty subject and pretend like going to the bathroom is exciting, just huge. Silly, I know! But positive reinforcement does work well for us.

Not a big deal... I am not going to stress out over an accident. Mostly just thinking outloud, I guess. Comments/suggestions are welcomed, of course.

Review: BabyBjorn Potty Chair

I figured I would do a quick review on the potty chair we are using...

Pros:
comfortable
easy to clean
sturdy
no setup necessary

Cons:
pricy ($28)
cannot be used as a stepping stool like other potty chairs

So, the boildown: after reading many reviews on various potty chairs out there, I concluded the BabyBjorn potty chair was the one. I wish we had not spent almost $60 on potty chairs, but Amor Chiquito loves them and we have no complaints about them whatsoever.

You can get it in white, pink, and green.

Here it is:
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2267519

Progress in the potty training department...

Last night, Ari said "pee-pee" and Geeky Entrepreneur brought her to the potty. After a few minutes, she peed. It was ridiculous how excited we were! We were clapping! Positive reinforcement at its best!

I decided that after each meal, I would bring her to the potty.

After lunch, I brought her to the potty at Abuela's. She sat down, got up, walked, sat down again, over and over again...

I told her she had a choice: either potty or diaper. She said "pie" (potty).

A few minutes later, she came out and said she had pooped. It was true!

Time to be ridiculous again! This time, it was my mother and I.

Later on, she peed in the potty at Abuela's.

And, just now, as I type this, she said "pee-pee" and peed in the potty.

Good job, little girl.

Time to buy cloth training pants. There are several out there, but I am not sure which ones work best. Unfortunately, there are not tons of reviews, like there are for cloth diapers. I guess trial and error it is. One of each and then buy more of our favorite. Any suggestions out there?

Potty Training Update

A bit of progress in the potty training department…

We have talked to Amor Chiquito about how there is a potty for mommy and daddy and a potty for her. We have given her opportunities to sit on it, but she is not interested yet. Fine, we are not in a rush. Pressure is counterproductive.

What is different is that Amor Chiquito is starting to tell us when she is about to pee, not that she has already peed, as she has been doing for months.

Once Amor Chiquito has peed, she lets us know and proceeds to remove her diaper.

I have more laundry now than I used to because the kid cannot stand sitting in pee! Every time she pees, Ari wants a new diaper. No complaints; it means she is learning. Yikes, I don’t have a baby anymore!

Ari is now able to put her pants on independently. This brings us one step closer to potty training. Yikes, I guess it is time to start buying training diapers!

Why won't they potty train me already?

I think that is what she is thinking!

I have not heavily researched/educated myself on potty training yet, but, what I have read so far indicates that children are not neurologically ready to potty train until age 2. Several articles I have come across suggest that parents begin the potty training process between age 2 and 2.5. These articles also point out that it is ok if it takes a child longer and that the child might not be done with potty training at age 3.

Needless to say, I was not expecting that I would need to learn about this right now! She won't be 2 for another 3 months. Until very recently, I would have fun every now and then looking at the new pocket diapers! I guess now I need to move on to cloth training pants! Holy crap, my baby is not a baby anymore! When did that happen?!

So, the story... For months, Amor Chiquito has been saying "tati" (her substitution for poopy in Spanish). It meant both pee and poop. Very recently, she started talking about pee and poop, each having their own word. Amor Chiquito started isolating herself, standing at a corner, for example, if she was going to poop. The most recent development is that, if we are changing a diaper, she will get up, say "pee-pee" and run to some corner and pee on a rug! No fun for mom and dad!

So, what next? I am trying to figure that out. We have a potty chair already. Amor Chiquito has never used it. To be more specific, I never introduced it. So I will start there!

We will give her the chance to spend some time near/on the potty chair during a diaper change. Abuela is on board and will do the same, which is good because Amor Chiquito is spending a lot of her time there for the next three weeks.

As with everything else, we will do lots of positive reinforcement. We will say positive phrases any time she sits on the potty chair. We will probably clap when she actually goes on the potty! Yes, we are silly, corny parents! You should have seen Geeky Entrepreneur clapping when she began spoon feeding herself! It works like a charm!

Back to potty training, here are some articles that might help those of you out there who will be potty training in the near future.

Article discussing whether or not child is emotionally and physically ready:
http://www.webmd.com/hw-popup/confusion-about-a-childs-readiness-for-toilet-training

WebMD article with useful info and FAQ's regarding potty training:
http://children.webmd.com/tc/toilet-training-topic-overview

Awesome WebMD article that provides step-by-step suggestions on how to potty train your child:
http://children.webmd.com/tc/toilet-training-home-treatment

This is what I got from a quick search. I will post links to more articles later.