In the name of Allah, the most Gracious, the most Merciful
I’ve been excited to talk about potty training with you guys for a while now but it has definitely been a journey.. Ultimately, I wanted to be comfortable sharing these keys from our own personal experience, which means I wanted to wait until we we’re on the other side. Not a bad thing though as I definitely think that’ll add some fun to today’s topic so let’s jump in..
For background, in case you’re new around here, my dear son just turned 3 years old in the beginning of January and I feel safe to say that now he is 98% day-time potty trained. Apparently night time is a whole other ball game and to be honest, right now we’re just enjoying our victory and resting here for a moment. We’ll probably start working on night time potty-training toward the end of this year… so maybe we can circle back and talk about that in the future.
Our potty training journey began when our son was a couple months old. While I was pregnant, a friend of mine introduced me to the idea of elimination communication. After our conversation I went and looked into it a bunch more – Andrea Oleson on YouTube is a great resource! I was very intrigued. It was a very new idea to me…but at the same time, it made so much sense!
So basically, within a day or two, I made up my mind that I was going to do E.C with our son… but it didn’t work out the first few months. I had an emergency c-section…so I was healing. Then he was circumcised and he was healing. And we had some breastfeeding issues… Phew, there was a lot going on for those first few months. But once the dust settled a bit, we got started.
I knew going into it that I didn’t want me or my baby to feel overwhelmed so we started off small. I was focusing on the four ‘easy catches’..and whittling it down even more, I started off with just one. We decided to start off offering the potty whenever he woke up from a nap. I love the idea of the official tiny potty but we just used something I already had – a sitz bath seat for the toilet. I’d set it between my legs on the floor and hold baby boy against my chest and let him sit and pee.
Once we got the hang of that, after a week or two, I started on a second ‘easy catch’, which was for us – when baby boy had to go #2. So pretty much from the time our little guy was 6 months old, he has been pooping on the potty.
We gradually continued until we we’re offering potty-time at each of the four easy catches… and we just coasted there for a while. There were times I had to give myself grace and loosen up a little bit. There were times when we did really well with it. There were times I tried doing more than that. But whatever happened, we just kept going forward.
Today, I’m sharing 4 golden keys that have helped me over the course of potty training my toddler and I hope they are helpful for you as well…
1. Look at your mindset around babies and potties.
I don’t know much about the diaper industry and all of that but it’s a big business for sure.. I also don’t think it’s wrong to have your baby in diapers and/or not do E.C. It is so important to do things that feel good for you and your family… However, I think it’s worth taking a look at your mindset around babies and their bathroom business. One thing that really resonated with me from Andrea Olson is her reminder to consider what people did before diapers were around. I encourage you to imagine what you envision when you think about wrapping up your potty training journey…and align your ‘now’ to that. Also, be aware of any stereotypes you may have stuck in your mind. Regardless of how you want your little one’s pottying journey to look, it starts with your mindset.
2. Start early on.
On my own journey, using elimination communication with my son, I noticed there’s a bit of fear around the idea. However, I think it is worth looking into. Whether you want to start from birth or a few months old. Whether you want to jump in with both feet or start with just one ‘easy catch’ at a time… You don’t have to do anything that feels like it’s too much for you or your baby. However, starting early…ideally before your baby is moving on their own, cultivates your little one connecting that toilet business happens on the toilet. It might still take a while to get all the way there… but it’s all about keeping a steady pace.
3. Make it normal.
Not going to lie, we tried stickers for a couple days in a moment of feeling like it just wasn’t working…as in, it wasn’t going as fast or smoothly as I was expecting. But overall, I really don’t believe in creating an environment of rewards and/or punishments for pottying. It can be tempting… But we don’t want to bribe our children into doing things, especially things that are simply part of their existence. We want our child to know that pee and poop goes in the potty and that’s just that. It’s part of our human experience. This goes with our reaction to accidents as well – we want to simply help them to clean up, offer the potty…and keep going. There’s no need to shout or shame for something that is a normal part of this experience.
4. Be prepared for zigzags.
This is perhaps the most difficult part of potty training. It is important to prepare yourself ahead of time, that regardless of the specifics, it’s going to take some length of time to potty train your little one. Maybe a few weeks, a few months…maybe even a few years to be completely through. When I say journey…it’s definitely a journey. There will be days where your little one has no accidents and you’re thinking everything is hunkydory and then the next day, they go through 10 pairs of underwear. It’s a part of the journey.
If you take nothing else from this post, I’d love for you to take away this: Potty training is a journey. Going on the potty is a normal human experience, even for little one’s. There will be days that are harder than others… but ultimately, keep going at a steady pace and you’ll get there with your little one.