Turns out, when you let a 20 month old boy run around in nothing but underpants for over a week, he is not going to be real keen on putting on pants again.
I think it is a combination of the newfound freedom that is not wearing a diaper and the fact that, let's face it, he is a boy. He wants access to his favourite body parts all the time and I actually think being able to play with himself has been a bit of a motivating factor in this whole potty training business. Sit on the potty? You mean like NAKED? I can touch my pee pee?!?! OKAY!!!!
He has said goodbye to the days of trying in vain to shove his little fingers down into a snug cloth diaper and cover and hello to the world of sitting around with his hands in his pants. I don't get it, but I think it may be instinctive.
I'm not even joking about that, though. I mean, think about it. If you are, say, a caveman competing in the original Survivor - not to out wit, or out play, but just to out last - you probably need to reassure yourself that you'll be man enough to reproduce. I'm sure there is some science about this but I don't care enough to look it up. But I do think men do this unconsciously most of the time, and I'm not sure he realizes he is walking around the kitchen in socks, long sleeves, and Thomas the Tank Engine underpants in the smallest size they make with his little hand just hanging out in there, keeping tabs on the boys.
Suvival of the fittest, toddler style.
Showing posts with label Potty Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Potty Training. Show all posts
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Operation Big Boy
After trying EC last summer and finding that my son makes absolutely NO indication before peeing, I had to abandon ship. But we did have a potty chair and we kept it out and about for him, reinforcing the sign and word (he now uses only the word), and talking about it from time to time.
I had inteded to go full speed ahead at 18 months, but right around then we found out my husband had his new position secured and we would be moving. So I put it off a bit, hoping to do it as soon as we got settled.
But then I started thinking, about 2 weeks or so ago, that if we wait much longer, he may decide he isn't interested so we decided that Operation Big Boy should go ahead, full steam, and see where it goes. I figure if I can get him pretty well trained to at least not have too many accidents and be used to sitting on the potty regularly, then at least that is something I can maintain through the craziness of a move...I think.
I decided to do the following:
1) Regular potty sits. We started with about every 30 minutes, but that was not working so we now do them every 20 and will grdually increase to 30 or more. Sometimes he sits for a few seconds, pees, and we have a little party. Sometimes he sits for 30 minutes. Once, he sat for an hour and a half, of his own accord, and refused to get up until he had peed. I do not force him to sit for any length of time, and most of the time he happily sits for a few stories at least.
2) We read, play with toys, etc. to make it fun.
3) We have "Big Boy Wipes" (Pampers Kandoo, for example) that can ONLY be used when he uses his potty. Somehow, having this limitation seems to make them more exciting, as does getting to get his own wipe out instead of getting one handed to him. We decorated the container with fun stickers, too. They are more or less the same as baby wipes, just flushable, so I intend to replace them with whatever flushable is cheapest at the store.
4) We DO have rewards, but they are not for every sucessful potty visit and they are things he normally gets anyway. For example, might tell him a few times between one potty sit and the next that if he puts pee pee it the potty, he can watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba in Papa's chair. Because we have been confined to the non-carpeted floors for a week now, this is super exciting since he gets to go in the living room. I put a big, triple layer of his comforted under him to be safe! He also once in a while gets a temporary tattoo (yeah I know...but its super cute and he loves it) or similar. And at each opportuniy for a reward, he gets only one shot to get it. This keeps him from insisting on Yo Gabba Gabba every time he pees int he potty.
5) When he is sucessful, it is a BIG deal! The best rewards for him have been getting to use a big boy wipe, carry his potty insert to the big potty, dump it, flush it, and WASH HIS HANDS. He loves to wash his hands, so this is a big motivator.
6) I keep track of how many times he uses the potty and how many times he has an accident, for my own record so I can see clearly how we are going.
7) It's big boy undies or bust. We are still in a cloth diaper for nap and a disposable at night, but otherwise there are no diapers. We have not left the house yet, but when we do, it will be with several extra sets of clothes and I may make a small "cover" out of PUL for him to wear to keep from having to clean up pee in the middle of Target.
8) "Pee pee goes in the potty." I read once that kids do not understand, "Tell momma when you need to go," or, "it's okay, accidents happen." The only thing that matters is that you reinforce what you want. So I repeat this mantra, as well as the #2 variation, many times a day, between potty trips and durring, and he is now repeating it himself.
It has been one week and Sunday was his best day so far - 4 hits and only 2 misses. But Monday he literally peed twice as many times and only had about half in the potty. Today, he is doing well with the same stats as Sunday, and it is only naptime. I have been regulating his beverage intake and encouraging more fluids, but I didn't find that getting him to drink almost constantly was working. There was no predictability to when he would need to pee and he had far more accidents than anything else. On the first day, we went though 10 pairs of undies. But since then, we have gone down to as few as 2 or as many as 4.
Since my husband will have been out of town with business trips and work for over 2 weeks when we see him again Saturday, I think he will be pleased to see that his little boy is in big boy pants! And having him gone has actually, while making it a bit more stressful, encouraged me to keep going, trucking along, cleaning up pee pee day after day, because it gives me something to focus on.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, and it isn't for everyone. If I were working outside the home, I would have to take a month of vacation to do this. But I strongly believe that pull-ups are just diapers in bigger sizes and that they delay full training sucess. Diaper companies want nothing more than for your child to wear diapers until a month before kindergarten. I also believe that the sooner you start, the better your sucess will be. Many children will do fine and train quickly at any age, but I know my headstrong boy is going to do better now than if I waited even 6 months.
And one final note...I wish I could post this...I got a nice picture of him sitting in Papa's chair, watching Yo Gabba Gabba this morning...with his hand in his pants. He is such. a. boy.
I had inteded to go full speed ahead at 18 months, but right around then we found out my husband had his new position secured and we would be moving. So I put it off a bit, hoping to do it as soon as we got settled.
But then I started thinking, about 2 weeks or so ago, that if we wait much longer, he may decide he isn't interested so we decided that Operation Big Boy should go ahead, full steam, and see where it goes. I figure if I can get him pretty well trained to at least not have too many accidents and be used to sitting on the potty regularly, then at least that is something I can maintain through the craziness of a move...I think.
I decided to do the following:
1) Regular potty sits. We started with about every 30 minutes, but that was not working so we now do them every 20 and will grdually increase to 30 or more. Sometimes he sits for a few seconds, pees, and we have a little party. Sometimes he sits for 30 minutes. Once, he sat for an hour and a half, of his own accord, and refused to get up until he had peed. I do not force him to sit for any length of time, and most of the time he happily sits for a few stories at least.
2) We read, play with toys, etc. to make it fun.
3) We have "Big Boy Wipes" (Pampers Kandoo, for example) that can ONLY be used when he uses his potty. Somehow, having this limitation seems to make them more exciting, as does getting to get his own wipe out instead of getting one handed to him. We decorated the container with fun stickers, too. They are more or less the same as baby wipes, just flushable, so I intend to replace them with whatever flushable is cheapest at the store.
4) We DO have rewards, but they are not for every sucessful potty visit and they are things he normally gets anyway. For example, might tell him a few times between one potty sit and the next that if he puts pee pee it the potty, he can watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba in Papa's chair. Because we have been confined to the non-carpeted floors for a week now, this is super exciting since he gets to go in the living room. I put a big, triple layer of his comforted under him to be safe! He also once in a while gets a temporary tattoo (yeah I know...but its super cute and he loves it) or similar. And at each opportuniy for a reward, he gets only one shot to get it. This keeps him from insisting on Yo Gabba Gabba every time he pees int he potty.
5) When he is sucessful, it is a BIG deal! The best rewards for him have been getting to use a big boy wipe, carry his potty insert to the big potty, dump it, flush it, and WASH HIS HANDS. He loves to wash his hands, so this is a big motivator.
6) I keep track of how many times he uses the potty and how many times he has an accident, for my own record so I can see clearly how we are going.
7) It's big boy undies or bust. We are still in a cloth diaper for nap and a disposable at night, but otherwise there are no diapers. We have not left the house yet, but when we do, it will be with several extra sets of clothes and I may make a small "cover" out of PUL for him to wear to keep from having to clean up pee in the middle of Target.
8) "Pee pee goes in the potty." I read once that kids do not understand, "Tell momma when you need to go," or, "it's okay, accidents happen." The only thing that matters is that you reinforce what you want. So I repeat this mantra, as well as the #2 variation, many times a day, between potty trips and durring, and he is now repeating it himself.
It has been one week and Sunday was his best day so far - 4 hits and only 2 misses. But Monday he literally peed twice as many times and only had about half in the potty. Today, he is doing well with the same stats as Sunday, and it is only naptime. I have been regulating his beverage intake and encouraging more fluids, but I didn't find that getting him to drink almost constantly was working. There was no predictability to when he would need to pee and he had far more accidents than anything else. On the first day, we went though 10 pairs of undies. But since then, we have gone down to as few as 2 or as many as 4.
Since my husband will have been out of town with business trips and work for over 2 weeks when we see him again Saturday, I think he will be pleased to see that his little boy is in big boy pants! And having him gone has actually, while making it a bit more stressful, encouraged me to keep going, trucking along, cleaning up pee pee day after day, because it gives me something to focus on.
I know it sounds like a lot of work, and it isn't for everyone. If I were working outside the home, I would have to take a month of vacation to do this. But I strongly believe that pull-ups are just diapers in bigger sizes and that they delay full training sucess. Diaper companies want nothing more than for your child to wear diapers until a month before kindergarten. I also believe that the sooner you start, the better your sucess will be. Many children will do fine and train quickly at any age, but I know my headstrong boy is going to do better now than if I waited even 6 months.
And one final note...I wish I could post this...I got a nice picture of him sitting in Papa's chair, watching Yo Gabba Gabba this morning...with his hand in his pants. He is such. a. boy.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Potty Training - Day Whatever
Not sure why I was numbering those posts. I have no idea what day we are in. I do know it has been over a week and I have changed only two poopy diapers. Once, I knew he was going but thought it was too late. I then went to change him immediately when I thought he was done and found that he wasn't! So I hurried him to the potty. Which was delightful, as I then had to both empty the poo from the potty AND dump/spray a diaper. The worst of both worlds, eh? The second time, I wasn't watching him (as in, I was elsewhere and someone else was watching him who did not know the signs). That time, it was also someone else who changed the diaper, so technically I have only changed 1but there have been 2.
He is starting to understand the ASL sign for potty, which may or may not be the real ASL sign. Someone I spoke with today showed me what she believes if the correct sign. However, we do not employ daycare or anything like that so it is really only our family that needs to know the sign so we are going to use the one we started, which is almost the same anyway. At any rate, he looks toward his potty when I sign and ask if he wants to sit on it.
Since we have been having trouble finding signals that he is going to soon pee, we are concentrating on #2 ont he potty for now. I feel like by the time he does learn the sign and associate eliminating with the potty and then use the sign to tell me he needs to use the potty, etc., he will start to associate urinating with all of that as well. He DOES however still look down at his boy parts area whenever he pees, diaper or no, so I suspect that just having this diaper-free time has been helpful in learning to recognize the sensations.
Another small update - this morning, he sat down on his potty (fully diapered and jammied) and played with a toy for a minute or so before getting up. So I think he is getting more comfortable with the potty in general. I also think it may be somewhat novel for him to have a seat other than his high chair/booster or sitting on a couch or chair with an adult.
My expectations? I think that over the next 4-6 months he will slowly learn to make these associations and let me know when he needs to use the potty. I expect that by the time he turns 2, he should be using the potty and hopefully out of diapers at least most of the time - although I am not holding out hopes that he will be completely out of training pants. When we are ready for trainers, I'll stick with cloth of course.
I'm thinking that once he is signing or vocalizing his need to eliminate, he can switch to trainers. This way, we can bypass the fancier pocket trainers that are, ultimately, just a diaper that pulls on and off and go right to something that isn't waterproof at home and maybe some that are when we go out.
I've also read that a lot of kids respond well to a system of having to go back into a diaper if they wet their training pants. The extra incentive sounds effective and not at all cruel. Boogie is not in love with wearing anything, let alone a diaper, so I suspect that this method will work well for him!
Blogger Templates
He is starting to understand the ASL sign for potty, which may or may not be the real ASL sign. Someone I spoke with today showed me what she believes if the correct sign. However, we do not employ daycare or anything like that so it is really only our family that needs to know the sign so we are going to use the one we started, which is almost the same anyway. At any rate, he looks toward his potty when I sign and ask if he wants to sit on it.
Since we have been having trouble finding signals that he is going to soon pee, we are concentrating on #2 ont he potty for now. I feel like by the time he does learn the sign and associate eliminating with the potty and then use the sign to tell me he needs to use the potty, etc., he will start to associate urinating with all of that as well. He DOES however still look down at his boy parts area whenever he pees, diaper or no, so I suspect that just having this diaper-free time has been helpful in learning to recognize the sensations.
Another small update - this morning, he sat down on his potty (fully diapered and jammied) and played with a toy for a minute or so before getting up. So I think he is getting more comfortable with the potty in general. I also think it may be somewhat novel for him to have a seat other than his high chair/booster or sitting on a couch or chair with an adult.
My expectations? I think that over the next 4-6 months he will slowly learn to make these associations and let me know when he needs to use the potty. I expect that by the time he turns 2, he should be using the potty and hopefully out of diapers at least most of the time - although I am not holding out hopes that he will be completely out of training pants. When we are ready for trainers, I'll stick with cloth of course.
I'm thinking that once he is signing or vocalizing his need to eliminate, he can switch to trainers. This way, we can bypass the fancier pocket trainers that are, ultimately, just a diaper that pulls on and off and go right to something that isn't waterproof at home and maybe some that are when we go out.
I've also read that a lot of kids respond well to a system of having to go back into a diaper if they wet their training pants. The extra incentive sounds effective and not at all cruel. Boogie is not in love with wearing anything, let alone a diaper, so I suspect that this method will work well for him!
Blogger Templates
Friday, June 18, 2010
Potty Training - Day 2ish
So Boogie has definite signals that a #2 is coming, but his pee signals are not clear yet. He seems as surprised as I am when he suddenly stars to pee!
We had some outside naked time Wednesday and he only peed once, and was thoroughly amazed when he crouched down and saw himself pee for the first time. He then proceeded to play with his little boy parts for a bit, but that's nothing new...boys, right?
So we have been having daily naked time in the kitchen and he seems to enjoy it, since we have not really ever let him spend much time in there. Our cocker spaniel is pretty incontinent and that's where he spends most of his time, so it was always easier to gate him in and keep Boogie out.
For right now, we will be sticking with some daily naked time and try to get him on the potty often and whenever we see signs of impending elimination. However, of the 5 times he has so far peed while naked, twice he has crouched down first, but three times he hasn't. I haven't recognized any other signals but I'm going to just keep watching until we do. Eventually it will happen.
My goals for now are to learn his signals and teach him the ASL sign for "potty". He did well with the ASL sign for "milk" and has started signing again after a hiatus of pulling on my shirt instead. We re-instated the milk sign recently and he took it back in really fast, so I have high hopes that we can learn the potty sign within a few weeks and at least learn to associate the sign with the potty itself.
Fortunately, he seems more than able to eliminate without a diaper, which I credit to his being in cloth. However, he is still not bothered at all by a wet or dirty diaper, so I'm also hoping he will start to feel the wetness and signal to me that he needs to be changed. I think this will help in the process if he can learn to be uncomfortable with a wet or dirty diaper.
Blogger Templates
We had some outside naked time Wednesday and he only peed once, and was thoroughly amazed when he crouched down and saw himself pee for the first time. He then proceeded to play with his little boy parts for a bit, but that's nothing new...boys, right?
So we have been having daily naked time in the kitchen and he seems to enjoy it, since we have not really ever let him spend much time in there. Our cocker spaniel is pretty incontinent and that's where he spends most of his time, so it was always easier to gate him in and keep Boogie out.
For right now, we will be sticking with some daily naked time and try to get him on the potty often and whenever we see signs of impending elimination. However, of the 5 times he has so far peed while naked, twice he has crouched down first, but three times he hasn't. I haven't recognized any other signals but I'm going to just keep watching until we do. Eventually it will happen.
My goals for now are to learn his signals and teach him the ASL sign for "potty". He did well with the ASL sign for "milk" and has started signing again after a hiatus of pulling on my shirt instead. We re-instated the milk sign recently and he took it back in really fast, so I have high hopes that we can learn the potty sign within a few weeks and at least learn to associate the sign with the potty itself.
Fortunately, he seems more than able to eliminate without a diaper, which I credit to his being in cloth. However, he is still not bothered at all by a wet or dirty diaper, so I'm also hoping he will start to feel the wetness and signal to me that he needs to be changed. I think this will help in the process if he can learn to be uncomfortable with a wet or dirty diaper.
Blogger Templates
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Potty Training - Day 1
So we have started the earliest stages of Potty Training. Although, to be fair, many would claim that teh earliest stages should mean starting at about 3 months of age. Personally, while I believe that Elimination Communication (or Natural Infant Hygiene) can and do work for many families, cloth diapers worked well for us.
And they still do! I'm not parting with diapers anytime real soon, but I noticed recently that my son does not seem to be bothered by wet or dirty diapers and I believe this is problematic.
Back in 1961, when Proctor and Gamble were first developing disposable diapers, they hired a pediatrician to do their dirty work. He was hired to convince parents that disposable diapers are cleaner, dryer, and safer than early potty training. In the early 1900's, even in the US babies were potty trained from very early ages and most children started by 9 months.
Now, the average age of potty training is around age 3! Many parents are waiting longer and longer to potty train, waiting for a mystical, magical "readiness" that may not actually exist. Pediatricians are telling parents that waiting until their child is older is fine, but the reality is that as kids get older, they crave stability, control, and schedules. So I've asked myself, "Does it make sense to wait until Boogie is older to teach him to use the potty?"
The answer I have come to is a resounding no. But, I do understand that modern life means not everyone can potty train their young babies and toddlers. Day cares are not always able to help working parents and it just isn't always feasible to potty train based on watching your child like a hawk to see the often subtle cues that signal impending elimination.
However, I am fortunate in being able to stay home with my son.
And this morning, I got him on his potty in time for #2! Not that he understands yet, but he will. Naked time is fun for him!
I'd post a picture but...uh...ew...
Blogger Templates
And they still do! I'm not parting with diapers anytime real soon, but I noticed recently that my son does not seem to be bothered by wet or dirty diapers and I believe this is problematic.
Back in 1961, when Proctor and Gamble were first developing disposable diapers, they hired a pediatrician to do their dirty work. He was hired to convince parents that disposable diapers are cleaner, dryer, and safer than early potty training. In the early 1900's, even in the US babies were potty trained from very early ages and most children started by 9 months.
Now, the average age of potty training is around age 3! Many parents are waiting longer and longer to potty train, waiting for a mystical, magical "readiness" that may not actually exist. Pediatricians are telling parents that waiting until their child is older is fine, but the reality is that as kids get older, they crave stability, control, and schedules. So I've asked myself, "Does it make sense to wait until Boogie is older to teach him to use the potty?"
The answer I have come to is a resounding no. But, I do understand that modern life means not everyone can potty train their young babies and toddlers. Day cares are not always able to help working parents and it just isn't always feasible to potty train based on watching your child like a hawk to see the often subtle cues that signal impending elimination.
However, I am fortunate in being able to stay home with my son.
And this morning, I got him on his potty in time for #2! Not that he understands yet, but he will. Naked time is fun for him!
I'd post a picture but...uh...ew...
Blogger Templates
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)