This is the first of our potty training diaries brought to you by leading mummy blogger CafeBebe and her rather lovely daughter Little Miss.
The Beginning...
Little Miss is 28 months old. In addition to being ridiculously verbal, she’s now quite aware of when she needs a wee and has been for a while now. I haven’t been overly eager about jumping into potty training and wasn’t desperate to push her into it as I didn’t want to put her off. I tried to have a very laid back approach so as not to have her end up with potty issues. She is only 28 months after all. However, as she is quite aware of when she’s weeing and pooing, I think the time is right to go cold turkey. I now begin The Potty Training Diaries- The Beginning. Hold on to your hat!
I have been committing the Cardinal Sin. I have been using pullups with Little Miss for the last few months. In part because they are easier but also because she really doesn’t need to lay down to have a nappy change any longer…except for poos. However, using pullups is only prolonging the nappy phase. The brilliant nappy technology of today keeps toddler bums dry…too dry for potty training. She’s probably not really even aware that she’s done a wee in it with all of that miraculous super-absorbancy. I had a bit of a fracas with my mother-in-law who insisted that her children (my hubby included) were all potty trained by 2 and that you just get it done. I wasn’t entirely pleased with that interaction but it made me think. Maybe I do need to move on a firmer path?
When we’re at home Little Miss is a star. I let her go “nappy free” (usually naked from the waist down) all morning. We have a “Pourty” potty in the lounge and she readily takes herself off to it 2-3 times throughout the morning and does a “wee wee”. Lately she adds “Come Out Wee Wee!” when she sits down to have a wee which is quite amusing. However, when we head out and about, I put a pullup on her and that’s about the end of the “potty training” until we are back at home for the rest of the day or evening. Not much potty training, really.
Our other challenge is doing a poo. Little Miss, for whatever reason, is not keen to do a poo in the potty. She will come up to me and tell me “I want to do a poo in my ‘plup’”. So as not to do her irreversible harm, I indulge her request every time and put a ‘plup’ on her. She almost always instantly does her business, we clean her up and go forward. But this too is not helping her at all. I am still unsure of how to crack this other than, for the time being, I’m refusing to put a pullup on her. I’m slightly concerned about making her constipated but will perhaps pull out the raisins and other fibrous fruits and veg tomorrow in order to push the issue, so to speak.
So this weekend we have begun the potty training in earnest. We now have 16 pairs of pants (1 set of Peppa Pig ones, don’t you know), we have our Pourty potty for the house, a toddler seat for the upstairs toilet and a My Carry Potty to go out on the road. We have chocolate on hand for rewards and will be buying some stickers as a form of additional reward. We’re ready. I’m frightened and stressed. The bulk of the responsibility is obviously down to me as I’m with her from 7:45am-7pm Monday through Friday. I’m stressing out a lot about the poo factor. We have to conquer that one!
Yesterday she had one accident which was right after eating lunch and going out into the cold, blowing afternoon air. We should have insisted upon going to the toilet as opposed to asking if she had to. Today she had one little accident and I think that was just down to forgetting that she needed to say something. We travelled in the car for 45 minutes which included a 30 minute nap from Little Miss without an accident. She went twice on the toilet at the party we attended today which is great progress.
I’m sure this will not be too difficult a process but I’m tempted to spend the entire week indoors this week! Being out and about is what scares me the most but with My Carry Potty in hand, we should be well prepared. I’d love to know any tips or secrets that have helped your toddler conquer the potty milestone. I’ll give a weekly report as to our progress. I’m hoping there will only be one!
Stay tuned for the next instalment and be sure to stop by Cafebebe.co.uk for more parenting tales.
