My daughter is now a year and a half old and we’re approaching that feared time: Potty training.
I’ve been working towards this milestone slowly but surely, reading her books about potties and toilets. I put her on the potty during the day, before her bath. She has succeeded in doing her business on the potty, but just as often she has asked to get down and gone and done it on the floor.
A few weeks ago she came to me on a weekend morning and said to me: “Mommy poop!” I assumed this meant that she wanted her diaper changed, but she went on to say: “Mommy potty!” I paused. Did my not-quite-18 month old just tell me that she needs to poop and she wants to go to the potty? It can’t be that easy. Yeah, it’s not. She sat on the potty for a while – and boy does that word ever get annoying when you say it over and over – and did nothing. And then she asked to get down, and proceeded to poop in her diaper a few minutes after I put it back on.
She shows clear signs of knowing when she has to use the bathroom, and she clearly knows that the potty is where she can do those things. What more can I do to connect the two?
So I start looking up advice and talking to other parents – how do I do it without driving myself crazy, without making her scared of the toilet and with the fewest accidents and quickest turnaround possible? Essentially: How do I make this very difficult thing easy?
Here's the advice I found online:
Praise her – Done.
Read to her when she’s on the potty – Done.
Use a musical potty – Yeah, she figured out she can make that noise by taking the potty apart and pushing the little button and now the battery is dead.
Target practice – With a girl?
Rewards – I’m not sold on how to do this - a reward for doing something you’re supposed to do?
Underwear – Ready to start training does not equal mentally prepared to get her out of diapers completely.
So here we go, teaching my daughter what the potty is for and teaching what it means when she feels that feeling. I’m optimistic. But give me a few days.
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