Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Potty Party

A lot of people have been asking me about our potty training so I thought I'd write a post.

When Little Lady was a newborn she DETESTED wet or dirty diapers. If she even sprinkled in her diaper she would scream until she was clean. After awhile she was alright with wet but still shouted if she was dirty. I didn't want to start potty training though until she could get to the potty herself though, or at least tell me ahead of time.

At around 10 months she started doing just that by pulling on her diaper just before she had to poop. Since she was still scared to walk I didn't start trying to train her until around 11 months when every diaper change became a wrestling match. She would scream and try to rip the clean diaper off every time I tried to put it on. So we bought a kids potty and a week before her first birthday I tried her on it.

The very first time she sat on it she pooped in it and almost seemed relieved. After that she would actually not poop for a full day if I forgot to put her on the potty. (Unless we were out of the house, she is scared of big toilets and in that case will still go in her diaper, plus she also gets distracted around others). This made me realize she was ready. Once we had the pooping thing down I decided that diapers were just to much hassle to change standing up and that maybe she would be more prepared for pee training if we had pull ups. So we switched to that and so far we are doing really well. At home she is basically accident free except for the occasional pee misshap and that's usually during nap time. She also still wears a diaper at night or if we go out since she is still to small for a large toilet.

She tells me she needs to go by either pulling on her pants, making a certain noise, or pointing to the toilet. If she doesn't need to go she will get off as soon as I put her on. If she needs to go she will sit there for even 10 or 15 minutes until she is done.

So there you have it, the down and dirty on our potty training trails so far. Hope this helps those of your who were wondering about whether or not yours was ready.

4 comments:

Evan and Mel said...

Good for you. Keep up the potty training. Micah wanted to be potty trained at about 15 months but it is hard with an older child who wants to go outside and to the park. Emmanuel would hate it if I made him leave the park early just to take Micah to the potty. I didn't train her and now I am fighting a fight far greater then when we were trying to potty train Emmanuel.
Where did you find pull ups to fit her? The smallest sizes still falls off Micah.

Stephanie said...

Thanks for posting on this topic. Our daughter just turned one, but she hasn't exhibited any of the signs you described. So I guess we'll wait awhile longer.

Anonymous said...

Wow! She's Potty Gifted and Talented for sure!

Damselfly said...

Wow, you are so lucky! I have heard so many potty training war stories of kids much older.