Top Tips for a Potty Training Virgin Please!

[PregnantGrrrl]

DS is 15mths, and is now pointing to/fetching his nappies when he needs to be changed etc. I'm going to get him a potty, primarily just to gently introduce him at this stage.

Top tips please!

What a good boy you have there. Boys can be lazy in this department.

Why dont you get him a potty so he gets used to having one in the house. Both of mine used it as part of play with dolls etc first.

Dont apply any pressure yet, lots of praise and dont show disappointment if he gets it wrong. Sticker chart might come in handy.

I put the pot in front of the tv and put it on a towel as my DS would wee so hard it would shoot out over top of potty.

Keep it fun and lighthearted.

It took 3 attempts at potty training before it worked for us (I gave up the first two times as he obviously was not ready)

Good luck and keep me posted.

Why not join the 'IPT Late Starters' group at Yahoo who have ideas about introducing a potty between 6 months and 2 years old.
Click Here

HTH

thanks for that.

would it be worth having him try sit on the potty in the bathroom, so he associates it with weeing etc, or does that really not matter?

My tips are:

buy loads of cheap pants from Primark (or somewhere equally cheap)so that you can chuck them if they are too disgusting.

if you live in a house have the same potty on each floor. You don't want him insisting on the red one downstairs when you are upstairs with the blue one.

lots of praise for success & try to be relaxed about accidents.

good tip about 2 potties- i'll do that. will save having to trot up and down stairs aswell!

Good idea about potty on the bathroom.

Yes, If you sit him on the potty at the same time that you use the big toilet, the sound of your wee will often encourage him to relax and wee himself (if he needs to)

babieseverywhere- he has started taking an interest in us on the loo, peering down between our legs etc, so i think one in the bathroom may help. I might put the other in the kitchen...wipe clean flooring!

Hi

Hope things go well PregnantGrr!

My ds is struggling with the whole pants thing. Have posted before but if anyone has any suggestions that would be great. I am a potty training virgin also. He is spot on without anything on his bum goes everytime. As soon as he has pants on does it in his pants. If he does it with pants on he will say he hasnt done anything. Just find it odd because he is ok with nothing on.

Have bought character pants and talked about using potty with pants on.

I have heard the pants thing is very common but I have no idea what to suggest.

Good lord -don't even THINK about it till your DC is at LEAST 2.5!!!!

They just don't have the physical mechanisms to control & hold their wee & poo till they've been mobile for quite a while & they know the feelings LOOONG before that happens.

Your little sweetie is just being a helpful boy & pointing & fetching things is part of that, but he doesn't really connect that nappy with the feeling he gets when weeing. People who train their kids early often just get the timing right, it's nothing more.

Save yourself hassle & enjoy him being a babe for another year at least. keeping potties around is a great idea so it's a familiar object & getting him to sit on it for fun if he wants is too but don't rush it, it 'll happen in the end!

Babies have bladder control and can hold on (for a limited time) even from being a few months old.

I know as my DD does it and all the ECed children all over the world do it. I can not believe it is just the western non-ECed babies who fail to have this control.

Some of the catches are timing but once a child is mobile the majority are following the childs cues and/or at the childs lead.

HTH

Hi babieseverywhere- whats EC'd?

I don't think babies can physically hold on as such- they ust don't produce the urine for periods at a time.

www.aboutkidshealth.ca/HowTheBodyWorks/Bladder-Control-in-Babies.aspx?articleID=1025 7&categoryID=XK-nh4-01

That said I would be interested if there is a cultural difference, are you abroad?

We are English as far back as we have looked (family history buff)

My daughter at 13 months old will hold her bladder until I get her to the toilet. When she was a few months old she would only hold on 30 minutes but now at 13 months old, she has gone 4 hours between wees.

It is always stated everywhere that babies have no bladder control but there is no medical research to back up that 'so called' fact just the fact that it is is 'known' to be true. But having seen my DD have control over her bladder I know they are wrong.

Here are a few links on ECing

Draft Guide to Starting to EC

Elimination Communication is a gentle child led approach to giving your baby the opportunity of becoming clean and dry at a young age, by helping them to eliminate outside a nappy into a suitable container. (usually potty or toilet)

All I have found in medical research is that by the time a child reaches 18 months of age, reflex sphincter control has matured and myelination of extrapyramidal tracts has completed (necessary for bowel and bladder control)

Latest research suggested that because of the above facts that it is better for toilet training to be completed by this point. i.e. We should aim to finishing toilet training by 18 months not starting.

Wow never heard of THAT it sounds wonderful!

Not going to argue over it-it obviously works for you but it wouldn't for others. And if the body isn't developed enough it won't happen that's medical fact not presonal opinion.

It obviously takes time & comitment & not everyone can do that for a number of reasons. What worries me is how many mums feel pressurised to toilet train early, & feel they & their child are failures if they're not by a certain age. The wonderful thing about babies and children is that they are ALL sooo different and develop differently so it's so sad that mums are wishing their DS's lives away by racing to push towards the next milestone or feelign they should be! We've all got enough guilt as it is without the extra inadequacies of feeling you're child is behind developmentally.

It is not toilet training You can't FAIL at ECing.

I follow my childs cues...if she was happy to sit in nappies I would of done that. But she shows in every way possible that she dislikes nappies, even clean dry ones.

There is zero pressure, if she stopped tomorrow and used nappies for the next three years that would be fine by me. There is no punishment or negativity, we started to do this in order to clear up the bleeding nappy rash she had as a newborn and that she has never had again since.

BTW her control is not perfect and we get a couple of wee misses a week but that does not bother me, ECing if not about having perfect control.It is about being close to your child and connected.

ECing is less time consuming and more fun than full nappy changes.

Every baby could do this if the parents knew about ECing early on. If you look at the ECing groups, there are no children who don't get it. It might take some children longer than others. My DD was a slow ECer but it is about the journey not the result.

Good for you I'm glad it helped the nappy rash. I shall suggest it to the mums at my nursery & let them have the choice which is what it's all about isn't it?

Thanks for theh link

Yes, it is a choice and for my DD's bottom sake, one I'm glad to have heard about

I'll bet!!