Potty :)

Hiya

Jessica (16 months) has been hinting for a little while that she wants to
use a potty - but that was somewhat more defined today when she took her
trousers and nappy (pull up style) off and wee'd in the bin! lol, bless her.

She always follows me to the toilet and seems to have the basic idea. I
often know when she is about to wee by her facial expressions, but obviously
I don't notice everytime as I'm often doing housework and the like. As she's
only 16 months, she also has a limited vocabulary, and so I was thinking of
getting her to associate a sound such as sss when she's weeing. She's had a
potty around the house for a while as I wanted her to get used to seeing it.

But I kind of wonder where we go from here! I don't want to force her to sit
on the potty and just wait for her to wee, and I don't really know a lot
about potty training, especially with such a young child. I'm not expecting
her to become dry straigh away, and I'm aware that it will be a longer time
until she's dry at night, but I don't want to hold her back if she's keen.
I've tried looking up tips in my parenting books and on the net, but it's
all so contradictory and I just wondered if you mummies had any tips for me?
My current thinking is to let her be naked most of the time she's home and
just be with her as much as possible so i can put her on the potty if i see
she's about to wee? She likes to sit on the potty for a few minutes, but has
never actually wee'd in it. She also seems agitated if she needs to wee and
doesn't have a nappy on.

Thanks for any tips

Lucy x

One easy way to start is to sit her on the potty for a few minutes at
times when she's getting a nappy change anyway, since she's got her
nappy off then. If you know when she's about to wee, it would make
sense to put her on the potty at those times, especially if she's
wearing pull-ups anyway since that means you're not wasting a nappy.
(Not really worth putting her in pull-ups just for that reason, though.)
If she's managed to take her own trousers and nappy off then that's
great - a skill to get her to practice each time!

I totally agree with not forcing her. But since she's obviously
interested and showing lots of signs, it makes sense to go along with
that and sit her on the potty when she wants to wee, as long as she's
happy doing so. You could try reading her a story or singing her
nursery rhymes while she sits there, to make sure she doesn't get bored.
Then just let her up if she does seem to be getting bored and fidgety,
without making a big deal out of it. If you can tell when she needs to
wee then that's a great start, since it means that you can get a fair
number of successes without needing to keep her there for ages.

If this seems to be getting to the point where she's dry most of the
time, then you could try putting her in pants and just cleaning up any
puddles. If it seems to be going the other way and she's losing
interest or starting to resist the whole process, just put her back into
nappies and don't make a big deal out of it, then try again whenever she
seems to be ready.


All the best,

Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

Thanks for any tips

I think at this point in time you have many many different ways you can
go, many different motivations for those choices and no absolute right
answer, just what is right for you and your family.

The chances that these are her signs that she's ready for "doing" potty
training are relatively small, though not inconceivable, but a more
realistic summing up of the situation would be you want to encourage her
and capitalise on her keeness and interest, without risking
introducing any issues, such as power struggles.

I think I would try and teach her some signs related to potty training,
our DD is a non conventional communicator and though she refused to
learn any signs, I'm really seeing the disadvantages of dealing with
this kind of thing with a child who has no words they can use to help
get a message across - you can also take from this that words and signs
aren't necessary for successful potty training, but they would make
things an awful lot easier.

I would be inclined not to leave clothes off, unless you get to a point
where this is obviously an issue and you can devote some time to working
on it and watching her constantly. Leaving clothes off means you spend
all your time wandering if they've been or not and trying to work out
where the puddle is, then having to clean floors, toys etc. rather than
just chucking wet clothes in the washing machine.

I would definitely place a potty somewhere convenient, if she knows she
needs to go, getting there and getting her clothes off is time consuming.

Myself, I've never done the having them sit on the potty at nappy
changing time thing, but then my kids went from no interest at all to
full on potty training, so this didn't fit their timescale.

Cheers
Anne

"Lucy-lu" wrote in message
...
Hiya

Jessica (16 months) has been hinting for a little while that she wants to
use a potty - but that was somewhat more defined today when she took her
trousers and nappy (pull up style) off and wee'd in the bin! lol, bless
her.

She always follows me to the toilet and seems to have the basic idea. I
often know when she is about to wee by her facial expressions, but
obviously I don't notice everytime as I'm often doing housework and the
like. As she's only 16 months, she also has a limited vocabulary, and so I
was thinking of getting her to associate a sound such as sss when she's
weeing. She's had a potty around the house for a while as I wanted her to
get used to seeing it.

But I kind of wonder where we go from here! I don't want to force her to
sit on the potty and just wait for her to wee, and I don't really know a
lot about potty training, especially with such a young child. I'm not
expecting her to become dry straigh away, and I'm aware that it will be a
longer time until she's dry at night, but I don't want to hold her back if
she's keen. I've tried looking up tips in my parenting books and on the
net, but it's all so contradictory and I just wondered if you mummies had
any tips for me? My current thinking is to let her be naked most of the
time she's home and just be with her as much as possible so i can put her
on the potty if i see she's about to wee? She likes to sit on the potty
for a few minutes, but has never actually wee'd in it. She also seems
agitated if she needs to wee and doesn't have a nappy on.

Thanks for any tips

Lucy x
We've been ECing our DD since a couple of weeks old (lots of resources
online, look up elimination communication and diaper free baby)
It has been better than using nappies for us, although it still has it's
downsides. I believe at 16 months you could still start Jessica as a late
starter EC, and maybe just do it part time if you felt it worked for you.
It goes in line with cueing noises and timing and then when she's a bit
older she can make it more obvious to you herself.
Our DD is 22 months and has been pretty reliable for a couple of months now,
and any accidents we just clean up. She's always dry at night (that
actually came first) and she has slept without a nappy on for ages. I don't
think it was until about 18 months that she really became toilet trained
herself, until then it was up to us to remember to take her, looking for
face signals and knowing her system. Each kid is different though, so maybe
you could just try a few things with Jessica and see how she takes it. But
if she struggles and hates it then obviously wait for a while and go
conventional methods.