My daughter is now 2 years old and 4 months, and we are right on time for potty training. I feel like we've been dragging it on forever. We started before Thanksgiving and we were doing good until we went away for a few days. That made us start over. Same thing with Christmas. So with all that, I feel like we've been going back and forth forever. Each time, I'm trying to approach it with a different angle, and for that I've been reading a lot on the subject. So I've decided to blog about it. So here it is:
First, you need to find the right potty seat. There are a lot out there, so you can choose whatever you prefer. I personally went with a 4 in 1 type. It can be used as a foot stool and my daughter gets a kick out of that because she can wash her hands all by herself afterward. I've read a blog Today, it was talking about a potty seat that had a "drawer" on each side of the seat. Go check it out: http://www.mommygoggles.com/potty-training-tips/ The only thing is that she's talking about putting wipes in one of the drawer... I just want to throw it out there; make sure that your wipes don't have a warning; "Do Not Flush". I'm just trying to eliminate some problems later;-) I read some nightmare stories about flushing wipes and clogged drain pipes; don't let this happen to you!
Now, I would like to show you the video from Dr.Phil: http://www.youtube.com/user/drphilshow?blend=1&ob=4#p/search/1/CVcady5-uIU
I actually saw it on TV, and it's better on TV than on this video, sorry! The bottom line on this is to "practice" with your child on a doll that "pees". When the doll does it, you throw a party, kind of... ... you make a big deal about it. So you do that a few times, and in between each time you ask your child if they would like to go potty, eventually they will say yes to have their own party!
OK! I just realized that I could go on forever about every trick that I learned, but that blog would become a little too long. So I'm just going to bottom line it for you. Here are some ideas that might help you out:
- Encouragement goes a long way (that is what Dr. Phil was getting at)
- Use consistency and patience; stick with it!
- Call it a bribe or prize...it's up to you; can be food (M&M), stickers or just the thrill to flush the toilet
- For little boys; Daddy does it... & have target practice; Cheerios float on water you know! ;-)
- For those field trips... those auto-flushing toilet can be scary... put a post-it in front of the screen, take it out when the job is done!
- Buy big girl/boy panties/underwear; we went with Elmo panties... she LOVES Elmo. So, we don't want Elmo (Dora, Diego, Princess, Lightning McQueen, etc) to get dirty, do we??
I think that sums it up! I know their is a lot more out there, but these are the ones that I really liked. I hope you'll find this helpful!
Please feel free to post your hints / tips & tricks-
Good luck and God bless!
Patsy Champagne
http://www.champagnebaby.com/
