Potty training

As we are still in the process of potty training, I am not sure if our strategy will work out O.K. in the end. However, I did find it helpful to read about/listen to other people's experiences so I thought I'd share ours as a work in progress.

It seems to be going very well at the moment.  It is not the fastest strategy but it is quite stress free.  We have always been of the opinion that each child is different and therefore we will need to adapt whatever we read or heard from other people to suit our child's temperament.  Baby is quite chilled out and we have found that most things work out easily as long as we are calm as well, so we've pretty much let him lead us after we had made the decision and prepared a few things to help him along the way.  We did our fair share of reading and asking around before we decided to start.  I have to say that I did panic slightly when people mentioned that they had used potty training camps: could it really be so bad that one would need professional help?

We started potty training a couple of months ago. We are still mostly using nappies.  This is mainly because he is at nursery almost all day every day during the working week so we don't really have time to make a concerted effort to potty train. However, we do ask him whenever we change a nappy, or when he goes for his shower, if he would like to use his potty.  We also didn't want to put him off by making too much of a deal out of it. He accepted the potty as an occasional play thing pretty much straight away and is usually obliging when we ask.  Lately, we have been making more of a point of telling him when we go to use 'the potty' so he gets used to the idea that it is normal to use the toilet. 

We were told at the nursery last week that Baby has been asking for the potty, so last weekend we put him in pants and introduced him to the 'keep you pants dry' game. We reminded him regularly and he asked several times of his own accord. We have had one accident in the two days- he told us a bit too late to get to the toilet. We thought it might have something to do with the fact that he was avidly engaged with a movie at the time. Thus, I have made a mental note to exclude any activity that would hold his attention for too long next weekend to see if we can circumvent this,  at least until he has had a bit more practice.

  

The books warned that it would be messy so we bought a few precautionary things- mats and protector sheets to use around the flat to protect sofas and other upholstery and cleaning products- and these have done the job well.  We bought fun underwear with cartoon characters that Baby loved. He was tasked with keeping them dry and he does seem to like being praised that he had done a good job looking after them. We read up about potties etc and chose one that we knew would be practical and durable; Baby likes helping to empty the current potty after he's had a wee wee so it's a keeper. We chose a step that was known for stability and wasn't too big or heavy: we use the step for hand washing after the potty and also for whenever Baby wants to try the 'big potty'. Its light enough for him to carry around himself so he uses it around the house as and when he needs it, e.g. when it is his turn to feed the fish.  Both items were from the BabyBjorn range and, as with the sling, we are very happy with them.

I would say so far so good.  Its not been that traumatic and potty training camp is not on our list of necessary things at the moment.