At Sandy's 18-month appointment, Dr. Baar recommended we start potty training. She said there is a window for most kids between 18 months and 2 where they can be potty trained. So, I went out and bought a potty chair and stuck it in the bathroom across from the toilet. I've been pretty skeptical that Sandy was ready for potty training--she liked to stick stuff in the potty chair but that was it. She comes into the bathroom with me and so the last week or so I've started asking if she wants to sit on her potty while I sit on mine, but she hasn't shown any interest.At our ward playgroup on Tuesday, though, I got some advice from some of the moms there: they suggested skipping the potty chair and going straight to the potty seat on the toilet. So, today when we were getting ready to shower, I put the potty seat on the toilet and the step stool in front of it. Sandy instantly wanted to try it out. She spent about 20 minutes sitting on the chair and getting up and down until she could get onto the seat by herself. She never went potty, but she was having a great time. I'm thrilled to skip the little potty chair because that saves me having to clean it out! Yeah!
So, we'll see how it goes. I'm still not sure she's really ready for potty training, but if she'll happily sit on the toilet everyday, I'm happy to let her. It can only help, right?
2 comments:
We're at the same point with Isabella. After one successful experience, now it's just lots of interest, no results. She'll tell me all day long that she's gone - only AFTER she's done. Then she'll run into the bathroom and want to sit on the toilet. She also wants her diaper changed after every tiny pee. I hate to discourage toilet use, but I hate taking her diaper on and off (and pants and onesie) so many times a day and staying by her while she needlessly sits on the toilet - especially in stores. I have to say - it was a bit easier with Benjamin. Zero interest until he was 3 and then within a few days it was done. If you come up with a good way to encourage actually using the toilet and not just sitting on it, let me know.
Lilly has been interested in the potty for over a year, but with a few feeble attempts (feeble because I was afraid of making it a big deal and turning it into a power struggle) I finally decided that maybe she just wasn't quite ready. She's had most of the signs that she's ready for a while except that she's never had a dry diaper in the morning and or after a nap. (Well, recently she did finally have a dry diaper after a nap.) I've heard a lot of people talk about using a small reward, I had used stickers in the past but they just aren't motivating enough I guess. Some people say use M'N'Ms. My friend suggested Hershey's kisses. I've considered marbles or or pennies but Lilly always losses those things and I don't really want chocking hazards lying around for Kate to be finding.
We actually had an awesome day this last Thursday though. Lilly had picked up a pamphlet from the grocery about a month ago that was showing jelly bellies and all the flavors they have. She's been looking at it off and on for weeks and on Thursday she kept telling me that she needed colorful beans. It suddenly hit me that happened to have a small assortment on hand that Jake brought home from some event that his work did, so I said, "How about I give you one if you go potty in the potty." She agreed so I told her to tell me when she needed to go and then we put her potty in the middle of the kitchen floor. She went pee once and was so excited to get a colorful bean. After that, instead of putting her diaper back on I put her in panties and we spent the day just hanging out and she was so anxious to get another bean she kept sitting on the potty trying to will herself to go again. Inevitably she did, eventually, and by the end of the day she had gone a total of 6 times! (Once was a poop for which she earned two beans.) It was awesome! She did have one accident though, it was just pee on her bed though, so I just changed her sheets and her wet panties and that was that. I put her back in a diaper that night though since I figure night training is a whole 'nother ball of wax. The problem is, Friday through Sunday we were gone all day and so we've just been doing diapers again. After Church I asked her if she wanted to put on some panties and try to get another bean, and she said, "No, I just want to go in my diaper." *sigh* so I don't know if I've really made much progress or not, but I'm going to try again tomorrow. Maybe my rewards will keep having to change in order to retain their novelty. :P
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