We began potty training Atticus back in November. At that point he was around 14 months old. Prior to that we had laid the groundwork a little by teaching him words like "poop" and "pee" and drawing attention to his bowel movements by telling him what he was doing. We also brought him into the bathroom occasionally so he he could see how it was done.
I picked him up a colorful and noisy potty seat and we started by having him sit on it clothed when he was having a BM. For a little while that would just result in him stopping altogether, so I was glad I had prepared mentally that it could take some getting used to.
The next step we took was to get a book about going potty. This was a hit (although not with my husband who finds it extremely boring). The book is My Big Boy Potty by Joanna Cole. After looking at the different options at Barnes and Noble I decided that this one had enough detail to help me teach the concept and create excitement but not so much detail that I wouldn't want it in the living room. I was prepared to get the more detailed exposes if necessary, but so far I haven't found it to be so. For Atticus the highlights have been noting that the boy has many similar toys and that on one page he can see the stream of pee going into the potty.
So, how we got really underway: I waited for a time when he would likely have a BM. Then I put him on the seat bare butted and read him the book. If memory serves, he went on the second try. Point is, success came quickly, much more quickly than I had expected. As a reward, he got to flush the toilet which was EXTREMELY exciting. At this point my only goal was to teach him to poop in the toilet. The plan was to be pretty casual about the whole thing and he was still wearing diapers.
Taking him in for the occasional poop was easy, much easier than changing those diapers. And while doing that he would pee from time to time, which I of course encouraged but I didn't think, since he was still in diapers, that he actually knew when he needed to pee. I was wrong. Thanksgiving Day, at our house, he began asking to go potty just to pee. (It went something like this: "potty! potty! potty! potty!) At first I didn't even believe him, I thought he was just saying it. A few rounds of this proved me wrong, however, and we started spending a lot of time in the bathroom.
What was difficult was that I needed more cooperation from him. This was difficult to get because he wasn't walking and he wouldn't stand on cue. Even when he finally did start walking he wouldn't necessarily cooperate and stand up in a public restroom. If I had it to do over I might have waited until he was more sure on his feet, but only because of how quickly he picked up on the whole thing.
Somewhere along the way I picked up some Pampers Easy Ups. I hadn't planned to use those kind of training pants, but since he frequently knew when he was peeing in his diapers I figured we wouldn't be setting ourselves back at all and I wasn't actually ready to get serious about pee training. The Easy Ups are just much easier to change in a bathroom.
Another challenge we encountered, that I was not prepared for, was that he hated using regular sized toilets (at his size I can't really blame him), but would still insist that he needed to use one when we were out. One time we ended up at Culvers and he was urgently shouting "potty" so I took him and reluctantly put him on the seat where he touched everything in reach but he refused to go yet kept begging to go "potty." Not my favorite moment and I found myself several times begging him to pee in his pants. Irony, for sure.
What helped a TON with this problem was a portable potty seat. It has revolutionized using public restrooms. Not only is he happy to use it, but it also helps keep his hands off the public seat. Another plus: it was $11. Win Win Win.
Then in December we both caught a cold. He didn't want to sit on the potty and I didn't want to take him so we stalled a bit. Then it was holiday craziness and then we all got sick, Zac and Atticus with the stomach flu. So for a few weeks his use of the potty was much more sporadic. And that catches us up to today. He's over his diarrhea and so today we started back up for real. In the next installment I'll report on today's adventure in early potty training and explain a little more about why we decided to train at this stage.
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