P is for Potty

The ABCs of getting baby ready are Awareness, Beginning and Conditioning. AWARENESS: The first step in getting baby ready starts with awareness. Awareness is a two-way street for caregiver and baby. As caregivers, we use the three key principles.  “Follow my baby’s cues, she’s the expert”  “ My baby is an expert communicator.” “As a parent, trust that I am the expert in my individual baby” Awareness of baby’s “pee” and “poo” cues is built by observing baby keenly, listening, watching, sometimes – even smelling. At this stage, the aim is to learn your baby’s cues and understand their unique communication. No change in behavior or habits is required – just observation. If baby is in diapers – continue with diapers. Use this step to learn and observe baby. If you think they’re about to “pee” or “poo”, watch carefully. Notice if they make any sounds, body movements, facial expressions . When you think baby is done, ask, "are you done "peeing" (Or pooping)?...

When my daycare teachers declared that my 21-month old daughter was not “ready”, at first I was angry and disappointed. As I thought about it later, I realized that the question of readiness is debatable depending on who you talk to, what book you read, the culture you’re from and a parent’s personal preferences. I also started to question whether “readiness” is really about the child or the adult. As a parent, when do you decide to teach your child to speak? eat? sing? say the alphabet? Do you have a checklist to let you know if your child is ready? What do we mean by “ready”? When I started toilet training my older daughter, I waited impatiently for her to be “ready”. Based on the “readiness Signs” I was watching for, I determined that she was ready at 2 years, 7 months in October 2010. By then our second born was 1 month old. My daughter was confused about the arrival of her little sister, she was at the height of a toddler’s search for independence – her favorite word was “...

I asked my Kenya-based Facebook friends this question, “When is the right age to start potty-training? Is 18 months too late? I got a wide variety of responses. ‎ ” I potty trained mine at 24 months.” “ Toilet training starts from 6 months. Just put them when you know they’re ready to go and clap for them when they do it. By 1 you’re done.” “ I started at 2.5yrs. There's hope.” “ I started mine at 6 months. She’ll be 8month next week. When she’s on it she is relaxed as long as the TV is on”. “ I tried at 15 months, it wasn’t working. Now at 19.5mths, he’s taking an interest. “ “ I started at around 12 months. They are now three years and we are still trying*frustrated mothers of boys” “ My eldest LO learned to use a potty at 2 and a half. There's no "right" or "wrong"…they learn easiest when they are ready.” “ Babies are different..some can use the potty very well at 13months while others at 3 years. Just be patient. Star...

One of my favorite TV shows, is One House, Two looks hosted by Jane Lockhart and Jason Cass that’s aired on HGTV.  I find it fascinating how they’re able to create 2 completely different designs for identical homes. Toilet training for my daughters Michelle and Joanne was bit like One House Two looks – the only difference is that instead of getting two different great looks – one of the looks was great whule the other one was – well – ehm not so good. With my first born Michelle, it was stressful, confusing and exhausting. With my second born Joanne, it was relaxed, refreshing and fun. Their personalities are similar in many ways – they’re both independent, focused and intense. The main difference was that we did not have a clue how to get Michelle “Ready”. With Joanne, we learnt a new intuitive technique that has helped us get her “Ready”. Confident that we had done everything right and that Joanne was ready, we requested her daycare teachers to start training her. T...

My 21-month daughter is diaper-free at home - except at nap-time and sleep time. She often wakes up dry after a nap. However, her daycare teachers say she is not ready because she does not get a score of 8/10 in this questionnaire. She has been diaper-free at home for two months now...every morning on a weekday I have to put a diaper on because her daycare teachers insist that she's not ready I'm SO tempted to pull my daughter out of that daycare...the only reason I can't right now is that I'm working full-time and everything else about the daycare is SO good!!! PS: I was also very upset by the question just below the questions... The BIGGEST question is, "Do you REALLY feel your child is ready or are YOU tired of diapers?" When Joanne was ready for serious toilet training, my husband and I intuitively knew. We followed our intuition and the cues Joanne was giving us. She's doing great at home...However according to these "Experts", she...

I recently learned from my aunt, Cecelia, that my siblings and I was “lofty” toilet trained.  She described the process in an email. Her email provides a good idea of how the Lofty method works. “When I was taking care of all of you, I remember we started getting you to sit on the potty as soon as you could sit up. I used to put the potty on my laps and hold you while you sat on the potty. I would then entertain you with stories or sing nice songs to ensure you enjoyed the position. On occasions when you had to “Poop”, we would both push and when it came out, it was victory . We would both shout “Hurray” , clap and laugh. We made Potty use fun. When my daughters were born, I started using potty as soon as they could sit at around seven months. I placed baby on the potty and held her and played with her. It was so smooth because we made it natural. Since I was working full-time, I asked the nanny to get the baby to sit on the potty every 3 hours, always before feeding. ...