Showing posts with label potty training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label potty training. Show all posts

Top Ten Tricks for Early Potty Training Success

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Are you interested in saving money? Conserving resources? Preventing diaper rash, UTIs, and constipation? Side-stepping years of changing diapers containing "man-poops"? Do you want a greater range of choices for preschools? Would you like to avoid potty training an uncooperative 3-year-old? Then early potty training just might be for you.

If you want to try early potty training, it's as easy as taking off your child's diaper, and plopping them on the potty every once in a while.  Here are my best tips for successful early potty training, based on my experiences potty training my second and third children.

The Best Potties for Early Potty Training

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Early potty training isn't about never putting a diaper on your newborn. It isn't about getting your 9-month-old to pee every single time in a potty. It's about sometimes giving your baby an opportunity to do her business somewhere besides her diaper. And if you are interested in saving money, reducing landfill waste, conserving water and energy, fewer diaper rashes, wiping fewer poopy bottoms, or reducing your child's risk of illnesses, infections, constipation, or voiding disorders, then early potty training is for you! And it's as simple as taking off your baby's diaper and plopping her on the potty.

But you do need a potty. And you need a potty that is the right size for a baby. (Most potties are designed for toddlers.)

My 2-year-old is Potty Trained! (Early Potty Training Reprise)

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My 2yo is potty trained! She is consistently dry night and day and wears underwear during the day. She announces every time she needs to use the bathroom and always wants company. She still has occasional accidents (only at home, usually outside) and is sometimes reluctant to use the potty if she needs to poop.

I've been putting my third child on the potty since she was 5 months old. By 9 months she rarely pooped in a diaper and by 15 months she was also peeing in the potty more often than she was in her diaper. A couple of months ago, she was reliable enough that I packed up all the cloth training pants and all but a few cloth diapers (I still put a prefold and cover on her at night, just in case).

Early Potty Training Reprise

For those who like to see the end from the beginning, here is a summary of my experience potty training my third child. You can find additional details about each stage in the process by clicking on the links to go to the individual posts. You can also find links to all my potty training posts on my Early Potty Training page.

4 Months
Baby spends some time diaper-free most days. I make cue sounds when she pees and poops and change wet diapers immediately.

The Poop Report: Diapering and Pottying at 21 Months

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Sometime in the last month of so, I started to think of my 21-month-old toddler as more or less potty trained. Or, at least, I'm no longer really making any active effort to train her. Here are some reasons why:
  • She used a toilet in a public restroom (with my assistance, of course) two days in a row.
  • She regularly announces that she needs to pee and poop and then goes to the bathroom with me.
  • She is always dry in the morning and after naps.
  • She almost never has an accident outside of the house. I can't remember the last time we had to restock the back-up underwear and pants in my van.
  • She has taken off her underpants and used the potty by herself (although this is still an infrequent occurrence).
  • We often go more than a week without washing cloth diapers (mostly training pants/underwear and wipes these days).

She still has accidents regularly. I'm going to guesstimate 2 to 5 a week. The main reasons for accidents are:
  • She needs to poop and doesn't want to. I have learned that when my daughter refuses to pee even though I know she needs to go (for example, it's 2 hours after she woke up dry from a nap), it's probably because she needs to poop and doesn't want to. I have to pull out all the stops to get her on the potty in these situations.
  • She's playing outside. Usually I'm not outside with her, but sometimes even when I am. For some reason, she just feels A-OK about peeing in her pants in the great outdoors. When I remember, I try to get her to use the potty before playing outside. A few times she has taken off her shoes and come inside to tell me she needed to go, but that is (not surprisingly) very rare.

Absorbent Yet Trim: Hanna Andersson Training Unders

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My 22-month-old in Hanna Andersson XS Training Unders in organic cotton

Now that I am nearing the end of our days using training pants, I decided it was time to give those Hanna Andersson Training Unders in organic cotton a try. Guess what? They're great! Too bad I didn't invest in a stash when my first child was potty training. They cost $26 for 3 (solid colors) or $28 for 3 (patterns) and are made of 100% organic cotton, certified by Oeko-Tex Standard 100, an excellent third party certification for textiles.

Hanna Andersson Training Unders look a lot like Gerber training pants in photos, but they are so much better.

(Note: You can read an in depth comparison of the five other styles of training pants we've tried here.)

Why We Love Hanna Andersson Training Unders


  • Well made. I'm impressed with the quality of materials and construction. 
  • Organic cotton. Conventional cotton accounts for 10% of total pesticide use and nearly 25% of insecticides use worldwide. Organic cotton is much better for the environment. I don't buy much organic cotton clothing for my kids (they wear mostly second-hand), but I do buy organic pajamas and I'm moving towards organic underclothing. I figure they wear their pajamas for about 50% of each day and their underwear is right against their skin and in contact with their most sensitive parts. So those are my priorities.
  • Great fit. The training unders come in size XS (1-3.5 yrs, 20-33 lbs) and S (3-6 yrs, 31-48 lbs). The XS fit my 22-month-old really well, and I'm sure they would have fit her well around 9 months and one-year as well (since she was chunkier then).
  • Very easy to pull up and down. My toddler can remove and pull back up these trainers all by herself.
  • Absorbent. The Hanna Andersson Training Unders have a four-ply crotch panel and are surprisingly absorbent. Not quite as absorbent as the Imse Vimse training pants, I'd say, but much more absorbent (maybe 3 or 4 times more) than the Gerber training pants  Despite the fact that they are similar colors to my Gerber training pants, I never have any trouble telling them apart, because they just feel denser and more substantial. I have been really surprised by how much the Hanna Anderssen Training Unders hold. They often prevent puddles, even for big accidents (which is the main kind of accident we have around here), especially if my toddler is wearing pants over them.
  • Yet trim. The training unders feel like underwear made of heavy fabric with a little extra absorbency where it counts. As with the Gerber training pants, I will continue to use them as regular underwear even when my toddler's potty accidents are a distant memory because they basically have the same fit and bulk as regular children's underwear.

Naturally, they are not waterproof. But you could always slip a nylon shell over them if you needed some insurance.

I like our Training Unders and the idea of organic under clothing so much that I'm going to watch for a sale and stock up on Hanna Andersson underwear and undershirts for my older two children as well.


What are your favorite training pants?

Is Your Child Ready to Use the Potty?
Top Methods of Entertaining a Child on the Potty


 Disclosure: I purchased our Hanna Andersson training pants (and all of our other training pants) with my own money. All opinions are my own. Hanna Andersson and Amazon links are affiliate links. Your purchase via these links helps support my blog, which I very much appreciate. Read my full disclosure policy here.

Is Your Child Ready to Use the Potty?

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An article from the American Academy of Pediatric's website for parents states
“As a general rule of thumb, children are developmentally ready to use the potty around the age of 3. However, remember that children develop at different rates and that not all children are ready at the age of 3.” (source)
The classic signs of potty readiness from the AAP include (see table 3 of this article):
  • Asks to use potty-chair or wear “big kid” underwear
  • Can put on/take off clothes
  • Demonstrates independence and uses the word “no”
  • Follows parent into bathroom and expresses interest in the toilet
  • Has regular and predictable bowel movements
  • Imitates parental behavior
  • Is able to follow simple instructions, sit, and walk
  • Reports soiled diapers and wants a clean diaper
  • Stays dry for two hours at a time or is dry following naps
  • Uses words, facial expressions, or movements indicating the need to urinate or defecate

Needless to say, we're not waiting for these "signs of readiness" around here. My 20-month-old, whom I consider nearly potty trained began using the potty around the age of 5 months, long before any of these "signs" were manifest. Pediatrician and author Jill Lekovic found that the AAP guidelines of "readiness" are based on a false set of assumptions and theories, many of which have been proven in the medical literature to be mistaken. (More on problems with AAP's signs of potty readiness here.)

So I decided I'd create my own list of indications that your child is ready to use a potty.

The Poop Report: Diapering and Pottying at 18 Months

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For links to every post I've ever written about early potty training, visit my Early Potty Training page.

18-month Potty Update


Right around when my daughter hit 17 months, I realized that she had been dry day and night for 4 days straight save one accident. I felt like we had turned a corner.

Luckily, I was also smart enough to realize that this was probably not the end of my third potty training adventure. The truth is, my toddler definitely knows how to both use the potty and how to hold it. But often she has other priorities.  So here's how things have been since that blissful 4-day stretch.

My 18-month-old is consistently dry at night. 
I'd say she wakes up wet maybe once every two weeks. That's nursing to sleep, sleeping 11 or more hours, nursing several times at night (sometimes awake and crying several times at night because she's sick or because molars are coming in), and then waiting 10 or more minutes to use the potty after waking up, and still staying dry.


Comparing Brands of Reusable Cloth Training Pants

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Update October 2013: Read about our new favorite training pants made by Hanna Andersson in this post.

I bought disposable training pants once when we were traveling and our first child was not yet fully potty trained. I was shocked by how expensive they are! Even if you have never used cloth diapers, consider reusable training pants. They feel much more like actual underwear and provide an excellent contrast to disposable diapers, so your child will fully grasp that this is not business as usual. Your child will also immediately feel when they are wet, and, if the training pants are not completely waterproof, may even end up with damp pants as well (this can be very motivating). And as long as your child's poops are solid enough to roll off the training pants into the toilet, you'll mostly just be washing pee (no big deal, right?).

The following are training pants that we own and have test driven extensively with children from age 9 months on up to 3-years-old. For each set of training pants, I will be addressing:
  • materials
  • absorption
  • how waterproof they are
  • ease of pulling up and down
  • fit/ bulk
  • comfort
  • when we prefer to use each variety
  • price (tip: buy prints you consider gender-neutral to faciliate reuse by other children)

Top Methods of Entertaining a Child on the Potty

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How to get your child to sit on the potty and stay on the potty long enough to relax and do her business: this is one of the central dilemmas of potty training, whatever age your child may be. I'm currently potty training my third child. Since I've done early potty training with my 2nd and 3rd children, I've had a chance to hone my skills for entertaining a wide range of ages on the potty, from 3 years all the way down to 5 months. Whatever age your child may be, here are some ideas for getting them to take a seat and make a deposit.

Potty Time Entertainment


The list below is roughly in the order I have used them with my third child, who started sitting on the potty around 5 months and is now about 18 months. 


Board Books
Books are my most often used entertainment device in the potty department, regardless of age. The smallest ones love the board books of baby faces and nursery rhymes. As they get a little older, we might have to kick it up a notch to board books that are also songs. Once we hit the busy toddler age, I find the key is novelty. As soon as my 18-month-old loses interest in a book, I'm ready with another one to take its place. I recently got my 3-year-old to transition from a small potty to the toilet by giving her special books that she could look at by herself only while sitting on the toilet. Reading material is how my older children still choose (independently) to entertain themselves on the toilet, just like the adults. But sometimes, especially with my busy toddler, the board books don't cut it.

Finger Play
Rhymes with finger play such as pat-a-cake and itsy-bitsy spider were enough to keep my 6-month-old excited about sitting on the potty for many months.

Drawing
We got through one period of particularly reluctant potty use when I hit on the idea of letting my one-year-old draw with a pen. Because she regularly draws on the floor and walls, I normally do my best to keep pens out of my toddler's hands. Which made pens the perfect forbidden object to be used only in the bathroom under my supervision. I would carry her to the bathroom, let her turn on the light switch herself, take a notebook and pen out of the bathroom cupboard where I had stashed them, hand her the pen and then put her on the potty. The pen in hand was enough to overcome any resistance. Best of all, I could leave the room for short spurts while she kept herself entertained drawing in the notebook placed on top of a stool in front of her. Before the pen, we also used a magna-doodle for entertainment periodically.

Food
Yep, food. Especially right after she wakes up dry, when I know she needs to go, but she's still a little grumpy and resists me taking her to the bathroom. Sometimes a little bowl of cereal, a pita chip, or even one chocolate chip is enough to get her to stop fighting me and take a seat.

Older Siblings
With my very busy, very energetic toddler, this is currently my ace-in-the-hole. When I cannot convince her on my own to come sit on the potty, I enlist one or both of her older siblings to come to the bathroom with us. Sometimes they will sit next to her while I read them both a book, or sometimes I can get the older sibling to read her a story or do a finger play with her.

Company
Some little potty users love company. For a long time, me using the toilet while I set my little one on the potty across from me was a sure-fire way to get her to use the potty. But now Mom isn't special enough anymore and I have to enlist an older sibling or Daddy to use the toilet so that the youngest will sit on the potty and go too. My favorite is when my 3-year-old and toddler need to go #2 at the same time, and I can leave them both in there together unsupervised for a long stretch while they do their business.

Other Methods I've Used


 I haven't had to resort to any of these methods with my third child, but I did find them useful with my first two.

Stickers
I don't use this one with my third, because she mostly just tries to eat stickers, particularly little ones, but stickers were a great way for me to get my 2nd child to sit on the potty long enough to go #2. I would give her a sheet of little stickers and let her put them in her special sticker notebook which we stashed in the bathroom.

Blowing Bubbles
The truth is, I don't really enjoy blowing bubbles because it's just plain messy. You end up with bubble solution all over your hands and also the floor from drips as well as popped bubbles. But my first child, who I potty trained the latest and who was my most challenging, loved bubbles. So for months I blew bubbles for long stretches to get him to sit on the potty long enough to go.

Annoying Electronic Toys
You know those annoying electronic toys that other people give your children that you hate to listen to? Use them only in the potty and they become a great source of novel entertainment. Also, it's not that tragic if they accidentally get ruined in the bathroom. I haven't relied on this method much with my third child, but a play cell phone's beeping often kept my second child happy on the potty when we she was 9-months-old, and often allowed me to do something else (like brush my teeth) as long as I stayed near her. A pretend laptop often kept my 2-year-old alone in the bathroom and seated on the potty for 30 minutes at a time.

Favorite Toy
I've never used this one much, because honestly I don't really want to encourage bringing regular toys into the bathroom, but if you are having trouble luring your child to the potty and she is very busy with a particular stuffed friend/ puppet/ toy animal/ doll/ toy car, consider just bringing that toy with you and maybe even having the toy use the potty first.

DVD
When it comes to potty training, I don't really consider anything to be off limits. Whatever it takes to get the job done. With my second child, there was a period of time where the only way we could convince her to sit long enough to go #2 was to let her watch a 20-minute show. This was partly the case because we were often too busy with her older brother or a new baby to sit with her long enough for her to do her business. The only trick was to set up the portable DVD player in the bathroom so as to minimize the chances that she would play with the buttons or drop it and break it.

For more tips, tricks, and tales from our potty training adventures, including the very best times to put your child on the potty, visit my Potty Training Page.


What is your best trick for getting your child to sit and stay on the potty?

How to Clean the Potty

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How do I clean my child's potty? Mostly, I don't.

Recently a friend sent me this email:
Hey, I've been interested in your early potty training adventures, so I ordered [my 7-month-old] a potty chair. Today I put her on it for the first time. She sat there happily, although her feet don't touch the ground so she's a bit unstable. The next time I put her on there, she peed! She did it again about an hour later! I was amazed. We shall see where this leads...

Hooray for immediate success! That's the way we like it. I'll be interested to see where it leads too. Remember that the goal is not to get the baby to pee every time in the potty, just to do her business some of the time somewhere besides the diaper.

Later my friend emailed me:
Oh yeah, how do you usually clean it [the potty] ? I'm not really looking forward to that part of the process...
So now I'll tell you how I clean the potty, for you first-time parents who've never potty trained anybody. Before reading any further, you should know that, as a general rule, I like to keep cleaning standards nice and low.

Everything Eco-novice Knows About Early Potty Training

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{This page is continually updated.}

Early potty training isn't about never putting a diaper on your newborn. It isn't about getting your 9-month-old to pee every single time in a potty. It's about sometimes giving your baby an opportunity to do her business somewhere besides her diaper. Early potty training is as simple as taking off your baby's diaper and plopping her on the potty.

I first delved into early potty training (a.k.a. elimination communication) when attempting to potty train my first child around the age of 2 1/2. I found it maddening that he would sit for 30 minutes on the potty, put his underpants back on and immediately poop in them. How could that be normal? Out of frustration, and just for the heck of it, I decided to put my second child (then 8 months old) on the toilet and see what happened. She pooped, and I was hooked.

This page includes every post I have written about early potty training, including:

So if you are interested in learning more about early potty training, read on!

Early Potty Training 101


A Brief History of Potty Training
In addition to outlining a brief (and enlightening) history of potty training, this post discusses why you should ignore the AAP guidelines for potty readiness, which are based upon myths and theories that have been proven false in published medical studies.

10 Benefits of Early Potty Training
This post describes various medical benefits for early potty training, as well as Eco-novice's own view on the greatest benefits of early potty training.

How to Potty Train a Baby
This post introduces three basic stages of early potty training.

The AAP guidelines for potty readiness (e.g., child can put on/ take off clothes) are based on outdated and debunked theories about potty training. So I decided to create my own list of signs or indications that now is a great time to start putting your child on the potty. See if any of Eco-novice's "signs of potty readiness" describe your child!

Tips and Tricks for Successful Early Potty Training


Top Ten Tricks for Early Potty Training Success
Just want a quick summary of my best tips and tricks for early potty training success? Start with this recent post. It includes links to more in depth information for most of the suggestions.

The Best Potties for Early Potty Training
Most potties are designed for toddlers. This post describes our favorite potties for potty training those less than one-year-old and up.

Favorite Potty Training Stuff
An earlier post that also includes our least favorite potties as well as training pants, books and DVDs about potty training and prizes.

I Love Board Books of Baby Faces
Entertainment is an important part of success with early potty training. These board books have served me well during potty training.

Comparing Brands of Reusable Training Pants
A comparison of four different brands of cloth training pants test driven extensively on kids from 9 months to 3 years. I discuss materials, absorption, how waterproof they are, ease of pulling up and down, fit, bulk, comfort, when we prefer each variety, and price.

Absorbent Yet Trim: Hanna Andersson Training Unders
Our new favorite! Hanna Andersson's Training Unders are an absorbent training pant that fits and feels like underwear and is made of 100% organic cotton.
These are times during the day when it is either especially easy to put your baby on the potty or when he is especially likely to use the potty, or both!

Top Methods of Entertaining a Child on the Potty
How to get your child to sit on the potty and stay on the potty long enough to relax and do her business: this is one of the central dilemmas of potty training. Whatever age your child may be, here are some ideas for getting them to take a seat and make a deposit.

What clothing you put on your baby influences how often you are willing to plop her on the pot!

How to Clean the Potty
Cleaning pasty poop off the potty is a lot more fun than cleaning it off your child's bottom.

Early Potty Training My Third Child


My latest adventure in early potty training.  If you'd like to read an overview that shows the process from beginning to end, this post provides a summary of my experience potty training my third child from 4 months to 2 years. The links below provide the gory details for each stage of the process as I lived it.

Early Potty Training My Second Child


My first adventure in early potty training. Read a tale of early potty training from start to finish!

Potty Training My First Child When He Was a Preschooler 


This experience provided the motivation for trying early potty training with my second child.

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Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Your purchase via these links helps support my blog. Thank you for your support. Read my full disclosure policy here.

The Poop Report: Diapering and Pottying at 15 Months

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Potty

I've been putting my third child on the potty since she was about 5 months old. Now at 15 months, I feel like we are in the home stretch. She goes in the potty many more times per day than she goes in her diaper. In fact, one day recently she exclusively used the potty. She went zero times in her diaper for an entire day! Another day, only one wet diaper. However, then there are the days when she refuses to sit on the potty and then wanders off diaper-free to the living room and pees a huge puddle on the floor. If there is one term I would use to describe this period it is Hit and Miss. It's mostly hit, but the misses tend to be fairly annoying and memorable.

The Poop Report: Diapering and Pottying at One Year

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Sometimes my 3yo entertains my 1yo on the potty for me.

 Potty
My one-year-old reliably uses the potty when she wakes up in the morning and after her two naps. In fact, I will even leave her in a Kissaluvs fitted diaper with no waterproof cover for a nap because I know she will not pee on the bed when she wakes up. She'll wait until we put her on the potty. And she occasionally wakes up dry in the morning too. She will pee many more times on the potty if we put her on it. One day I realized around 5 pm that she was still in the same diaper I'd put her in that morning. We go through few enough diapers that often I realize I haven't washed diapers for five or six days. Once I ran out of cloth wipes before anything else.

Early Potty Training: Dress for Success

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When friends and family members discover that I put my babies on the potty, they express surprise that I have time for such endeavors. The truth is, if early potty training cost me much more time than just changing diapers, I'm not sure I'd still be doing it. My goal is to make early potty training as easy as possible for myself, and one of the ways I do this is by dressing my babies to make taking off and putting back on a diaper quick and easy.

The Poop Report: Diapering and Pottying at 9 Months

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I love letting my 9-month-old wear a Kissaluvs fitted diaper
(without cover) around the house.

 Potty
My 9-month old pees and poops on the potty every morning. Maybe twice a month she only pees without pooping. And here's the really crazy thing. Two days in the last month she has woken up completely dry. That's 10+ hours in the same diaper, folks. Dry. And that's how I know that babies can hold it.

The Poop Report: Diapering and Pottying at 7 Months

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Unbleached prefold inside a Thirsties cover: my current preferred
method for cloth diapering my 7-month-old baby.

 Potty
My 7-month-old baby uses the potty every morning to go #1 and #2. Her diaper is often dry after naps, and I put her on the potty then and at other times of the day if I feel like it. She rarely poops in her diaper. I haven't had to change a poopy diaper for at least a week. The conventional wisdom -- that children can't be potty trained until 2 or 3 years -- is still so ingrained in my mind, that the novelty and thrill of my baby doing her business in the potty has not worn off, even though we've been doing this for 2+ months.

Cloth Diapers
My favorite cloth diaper choice at the moment: unbleached prefold (in thirds) inside a Thirsties cover. But she's growing out of the small, and my medium size Thirsties covers are pretty shot after heavy use by two other children. After consulting with the good people at Jillian's Drawers, I have ordered some Flip covers, because they have snap closures, and a flap to hold the prefold. The new Thirsties-duo covers have a snap closure, but don't have the flap I know and love. I'll let you know how I like the Flip covers. Unbleached prefold inside a waterproof cover is my preferred diaper on-the-go as well.

Early Potty Training at 6 Months

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For the past several weeks, my baby has made a deposit in the potty every single morning. We are well beyond this being a fluke.I've been putting her on the potty first thing in the morning for nearly a month. If I get her on the potty really fast, often her diaper is barely wet at all. Ninety percent of the time she pees and poops. And on those days I rarely have to change a poopy diaper. She spends five to ten minutes on the potty at a time. I still have to hold her on the potty as she doesn't yet have the control to sit up unassisted.

My 5-month-old Baby Uses the Potty

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Happy Earth Day last Sunday!

For 4 of the last 5 days, I have put my 5-month-old baby on the potty first thing in the morning. And all 4 times she has both peed and pooped (sometimes an incredible amount). Of course I make my "pssss" and "uh uh uh" cue sounds when she does. So we are having some success. I'm smart enough to know that it won't necessarily be smooth sailing from here out. I'm just trying to be happy that wiping her bottom has been so very simple during this past week.

Potty Training a 4-month-old Baby

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Yesterday I wrote about how early potty training turned out with my second child, now 2 1/2 years old. I first put her on the potty around 9 months. Today, I'm writing about how I'm starting even earlier with my third baby.

What does early potty training (or elimination communication) look like with a 4-month-old baby? Some folks try to "catch" a newborn's pee by holding a bowl between their knees or holding the baby over the sink or toilet when she needs to pee. I tried that once and decided it wasn't for me. I decided to wait until my baby could pretty comfortably sit on a Baby Bjorn little potty before I would try any pee/poop catching.

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