We started potty training my daughter right before she turned two (before we knew there was something actually amiss with her). She did not walk or talk at the time.
She was in cloth diapers (sensitive skin), and she knew when she wet it was NOT a comfortable thing. It was pretty obvious she would pee at certain times of day. We started to put her on the little potty, figuring any pee in the potty was one less diaper to wash. We did all of the old tricks (hand in warm water, running water in the sink, squirting water in that area) to help it along. She already knew that peeing in her diaper got cold and clammy quickly and she did not like it. Six months or so later, we were told she was disabled, might have AS and would never be potty trained.
We continued with what we were doing and moved her up to the small insert seat that goes on the regular toliet, and when she started preschool she was put into pullups (they don’t do cloth diapers at school!). The pullups only gave her a rash if she wet in them, so she was fine in this type of disposable because she just didn’t go at school.
When she was almost 5 and starting her 2nd year of preschool, her teacher said that since she had not had an accident in the past school year, perhaps it was time to move her into underpants. It was a bit of a shock, because I had held onto that thought “She will never be potty trained” and I couldn’t even see that she was, in fact, potty trained. I’m ashamed that I let my perception be so driven by what a professional said.
When I switched Maddie over to underwear, I just brought wipes and extra clothes in the car. She did not like the hassle of being cleaned up after an accident, so if anything having a few accidents helped her become fully potty trained. We would limit our outings (like if she was over-due for a BM), but these are the same steps I’ve taken when doing the “typical” potty training with my other kids.
I did resign to throwing away poopy clothes instead of cleaning them because I found that part, the second cleanup done at home, kind of depressing. Not disgusting, but depressing that I was scraping poo yet again. Years of poop can wear a person down! And the poop of a five year old is regular people poop, not the cute baby stuff. My kids aren’t in designer duds, so no big loss for the little bit of mental comfort.
When my kids were down to one accident a day, they moved from training underpants (the super thick underwear, some of them have a thin plastic cover that doesn’t really do any good… none of my kids could stand the plastic pants because they made them sweaty and itchy) to regular underpants.
Maddie has been completely potty trained since age 6, although she needs help to undress, wipe and redress. But she does not have accidents (with the exception of being sick perhaps or someone not paying attention to her signing that she needs to go or not paying attention to her going into the bathroom.)
From ages 2-5, I don’t think Maddie was “prepared” to be potty trained like my other children were “prepared/ ready/ at the right age” when I started with her. She understand “being in a wet cloth diaper is uncomfortable” but I don’t think she thought “I feel like I have to pee now” like my other children did.
I think those 3 years or so was all in the timing, only putting her on the potty when I knew she would most likely be successful. Those 3 years was more assimilating her to “this is what you do’. She did not inititate “I have to go” until she was about 5-6, after “practicing” it for three years. And now its still mostly timing. She goes when she gets up, after lunch, when she gets home, and before bed. The difference between now and a few years ago is she will let me know she has to pee an additional time (I think because she doesn’t want to be fussed with and have her wet clothes changed) and when she has to poop (in the past it was all my watching and smelling for when she was about to go…she hates to be wiped, so I think that is why she poops in the potty rather than having to endure having her butt scraped off).
I was so overjoyed that she was actually toliet trained and out of diapers. . . I burned that damned diaper bag (like literally burned, in a fire). That was cathartic! Then, ta da! I find out I’m pregnant and the best diaper bag in the whole world was gone!
1 Comment
May 12, 2008 at 2:21 am
I am sitting here reading this particular post as we have just begun to travel down the potty-training track to success. Miss Emma has gone at school both days since the introduced it to her within a matter of a couple of minutes! Horray for Em. Now we are going to try to catch her at appropriate times at home like when she wakes up, before or after a meal and so forth.
And idea where to buy the training pants with plastic protecting on the outside? I keep looking here……….ugh!