ABCs of Potty: B is for Begin

B is for Begin!

Beginning the practice of getting your baby to “pee” and “poo” in the potty is an exciting and sometimes scary thing. In order to begin, all you need is a potty or a toilet seat. At this stage, if your child is still in diapers, you don’t have to switch to underwear.

Beginning involves taking baby to “poo” or “pee” in the potty. Awareness helps the parent take the baby to the potty when the baby needs to go. When you sense that the baby wants to “go”, be gentle, casual, relaxed. Be free of expectations. The idea at this stage is to get baby to start the experience. Be positive, encouraging and consistent. Avoid asking baby if she would like to go – most likely she will so no. Casually and positively tell baby “hey, let’s go potty”. If baby is completely against the idea, give it a break for a few days and gradually re-introduce the practice. When using a potty, be flexible about where to put it at this stage. Some children like to have the potty in their room, the hallway or some other favorite spot. Allow them the freedom. Additionally for children who are used to diapers, the idea of interrupting play in order to try a new skill may seem like an unwelcome, unnecessary interruption. Be flexible.

When baby is in the potty, bond with them, make it a fun experience. Sing, read books, do whatever works to keep them comfortable.

Get a copy of P is for Potty today. 

https://www.amazon.com/Potty-My-ABCs-Training-ebook/dp/B08DKKJR7L

Potty ABCs - A is for AWARE - in practice

As soon as my younger daughter learned to sit, at about 7 months, I started getting her to seat on the potty. For a long time, nothing happened – however, I continued and made it a fun time for bonding. I wanted her to be AWARE  that potty is a place for "pee" and "poo". However, there was no pressure or even any expectation on my part that she would do anything.

One day, when she was a year old, she “peed” in the potty. I was excited and clapped and danced.

Every evening at bath time, I would get her to seat on the potty. I had no expectations – I wanted her to have a pleasant experience and associate the potty with good times. We had our “potty” time every evening before or after her bath as well as just before bed time.

When Jo was 18 months old, she started to “poop” in her potty every evening after dinner.

Gradually, she started to “Pee” and “poo” in the potty at home. Over the weekend, when she’s with me, she wears big girl underwear just like her big sister. We told our daycare provider that she was ready and was diaper-free at home. We asked them to give it a try at daycare. They said she wasn’t ready based on a “readiness” questionnaire they gave us.  The questionnaire indicated that for her to be “ready” by their definition, she would have the ability to dress independently; sit quietly for 2-5 minutes; tell the caregiver that they need to go potty; go to their potty on their own.

At first, we were disappointed. Later on we thought, “Since she’s not “ready” based on this criteria, we can prepare her.. Since we did not want the experience to become stressful for Joanne, we continued to use underwear at home and make it fun and she continued to use diapers at daycare. We’re confident that when the daycare teachers eventually decide that she’s “ready” she will indeed be ready because we have prepared her.

My experience from my daughter’s toilet training is that starting earlier and making the process natural and fun is less stressful. The downside was that Joanne enjoys pooping in the toilet so much that when we put her to bed at night she says “I have to go poo” and she spends about half an hour bonding and playing with her sister as the “poos”. This was a great relief because for my first born Michelle, it was very hard to get her to "Poo" in the potty.

Awareness can start at any age. In my next blog, I will share with you how my friend Naitore got her baby ready by building awareness first.

Get a copy of P is for Potty today. https://www.amazon.com/Potty-My-ABCs-Training-ebook/dp/B08DKKJR7L

Potty Training, where do we start?

My kids and I love The Sound of Music.

One of our favorite scenes is the one where Maria asks the kids if they can sing - and they're like "no"...she strums her guitar to ..."Let's start at the very beginning...A very good place to start
When you read you begin with  A-B-C".

I believe that with Potty Training, ABCs are a good place to start. The ABCs are Awareness, Beginning, and Conditioning.

Awareness is the first step in getting baby ready. Awareness is the time of exposure, learning, and observation without any specific action. It’s like job-shadowing..When we job shadow, we read and observe and ask questions – but we don’t have to do the actual work. The parent and the child get a chance to use their senses as well as intuition and instinct to get familiar with toilet training(for the parent) and toilet learning(for the child).

Awareness gives both the parent and the child the confidence to take the next step – Beginning, In order to prepare baby for potty the parent begins the process giving the child opportunities to practice. At this stage,  get baby to sit in the potty, get familiar with the process, the sensation. The key during this stage is to get the child accustomed to the idea of going to “pee” and “poo” in a specific place.

Once the child has began to use the potty, the next step is Conditioning. The idea of Conditioning is for the parent to gradually install the habit in the child of using the potty. Most children are conditioned from birth to “pee” and “poo” in their diaper. Conditioning is a step that will eventually expose the child to a better choice – the Potty!

I will share more details on how I used the ABCs to get my younger daughter Joanne ready in my next blog.  I will also share testimonials from parents around the world who have been on a similar journey.

Get a copy of P is for Potty today. https://www.amazon.com/Potty-My-ABCs-Training-ebook/dp/B08DKKJR7L