Thrice Upon A Potty

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Yesterday saw the official beginning of potty-training for our 2-year-old.  She has used the potty a few times before, but now it’s official – we went out and bought the toddler sized potty.  She was excited about using it and has done so twice yesterday and once today!  I just worry about the time it takes to stay consistent.  She still needs reminding and accompaniment, and those things might become impossible to do at times depending on what her baby brother is doing at the moment.  But for now, we’re really excited about her progress, and maybe we can build up some consistency so that she can tend to her own needs in case baby brother is running me too ragged to help.

There are MANY methods of potty-training.  There’s the famous video/book set, Once Upon a Potty, but that is a bit graphic (I don’t think it’s important at this age to learn WHERE the poo-poo comes from), and I don’t know about your kids, but mine find it difficult to relate to a little girl named Prudence.  The “diaper free infant” method of potty-training is becoming increasingly popular.  This entails holding the newborn baby over the toilet and not letting him wear diapers.  I’m not one to complain about other people’s parenting methods, but ‘diaper free infant’ parents seem like lunatics.  The average newborn baby needs his diapers changed 8-10 times per day, and I don’t even know how they determine what a ‘day’ is when referring to newborns since they are often up all night, needing their diapers changed in the middle of the night as well.  Who is going to hold a newborn baby over a toilet 8-10 times a day and all throughout the night?  A lunatic.  But seriously, as I said, the popularity of this method is increasing, so I guess some people are having success with it.  Personally, I wait until the kid is old enough to understand.  She understands that older people and especially older kids use the potty and don’t wear diapers.  She’s old enough to not like getting messy anymore, and she’s old enough to understand rewards.  We had a very hard time potty-training our oldest daughter.  The daycare she went to at the time gave us a suggestion that finally worked – sprinkles.  When a kid successfully uses the potty, give them sprinkles (the kind you put on cookies, not the kind they’re putting into the toilet).  Once the sprinkles came into the picture, our oldest was potty-trained almost immediately after months of trying everything else.  Our second daughter was a snap to potty-train, well, ok, first we had to wait for her to get out of her “painting with poop” phase, but again, I wait until they’re old enough to understand things.  During the “painting with poop” phase, she wasn’t even 2 years old yet, and so it was really difficult to explain to her why the poop should go in the potty rather than being artistically displayed upon the walls, her crib, her toys, and even her face… YUCK!

Ok, this post has taken a turn for the worst, so I will take that as my cue to sign off.  The point is, CONGRATS to Disney for doing such a good job on the potty!

4 thoughts on “Thrice Upon A Potty”

  1. YAY, DIS! I think that is what my siblings did… wait until they are old enough to know what is going on. They also had a story about Molly on the Potty. Dunno if the boys had a similar version..

  2. Thanks for the giggle! Good luck in your endeavor!!! Maybe having two older siblings that are independent on the potty will help her!!! My nieces got a star on the board every time they did their duty correctly, and one taken away for it not done correctly. When they accumulated 25 stars, they could trade them in for a Barbie. It worked great!!!

  3. Sounds like a fad, that diaper-free method. People just love to try something different, especially when it has the potential to save a lot of money as in this case. However, when most find it costs more in patience and work than they save in money, it will pass, I think, like all fads tend to do.

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