The ABCs of getting baby ready - A for Awareness

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)?, let's go change your diaper". Promptly change baby's diaper. This will help you confirm your observation as well as provide you an opportunity to communicate to the baby what they have just done. If the baby has “peed”, when changing her diaper you can say something like, “I see there's pee in your diaper. Let me change your diaper so you can be clean and dry”.

Awareness for baby is built by providing her opportunities to listen, observe and learn from other people who know how to “pee” and “poo” in a toilet. Watching a video or an older sibling and labeling the action helps. For example you could say “I see Katie is peeing in the toilet”. If you have an open door policy in your home, you can take baby with you to the bathroom and explain what you’re doing in a casual, natural way. Before you flush, show baby the contents and say, "let's flush the toilet and say bye bye to "poo" (or "pee"). With practice, you will become an "expert" in your individual baby's habits, patterns and idiosyncrasies!

The length of this step will greatly depend on your individual circumstances. When I started toilet training my older daughter, I had not prepared her or myself this way...For all I know she may have thought that everyone wore diapers. I had a clue about when she "poo'd" but I had no clue when she needed to "pee". When her younger sister was born I was home for a year. I started to observe her right from birth. It was easier for me to know when she needed to “poo” than “pee”. With “poo” she would pass gas, push, make a face. When changing her diaper I would tell her – “I see you just went poopoo, let’s go change your diaper”. I let her go to the bathroom when her sister was there and explained what she was doing. I let her get accustomed to the sound of a flushing toilet, the smell of "poo", the color of "pee". Whenever I changed her diaper, I said, "I see you have "poo" in your diaper. Let's change it so you can be clean and dry".
Do you and your baby have this Awareness?