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Unconventional Advice
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Unconventional Advice

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HauteMommy
 
HauteMommy
Posts: 1
Registered: 9/4/08

Unconventional Advice

Sep 4, 2008 7:19 AM
I have potty trained well over 30 kids in the course of being a nanny and a pre-school teacher, as well as having my own children. The one things I refused to do, or allow the parents I worked for to do, is put pull-ups on the kids except at night. Yes, washing out underwear is a pain, but so is wiping a hiney for an extra 6 months. All of my kids trained within 3 months, most much sooner than that, by my insistence on the "big boy/girl panties". They get a sense of pride being able to pick out their underwear, and instead of treating with stickers, or worse candy, if they went a week with no accidents, they get to pick out a new pack of fancy underpants. I have found it's not just the being wet part that is uncomfortable for little ones, but the feeling of it leaking out. Try it for a day and see the difference. A child wearing underpants will sto what they're doing when they feel the wetness while a child wearing absorbent underpants or diapers will happily continue their activities.

I did/do still use pull-ups at night. It's a lot to expect a sleeping toddler to wake up to potty in the dark. But daytime use of any kind of absorbent material is prohibited in my classroom/home.

Some parents still choose to use pull-ups in public, but I disagree with this as well. Yes, it's inconvenient, but most things parenting related are! Having a child in underwear forces you to always be on your potty training game! I had a couple of parents that would set their watches to go off every 45 minutes so they would remember to get that baby on a potty! My daughter, in fact most of my girls, never had accidents in public.

Another thing I did/do that raised eyebrows, was put the potty in the central room. The room that the children were in the most during the day is where the potty chair sits. This is not gross if you clean it out after each use, (which you should be ding anyway). If you get down on your child's level and crawl to the bathroom, you can understand how to a small child this is a LOOOONG way. Often they don't recognize the urge to go until seconds before.

Put the potty in the room a month before you want to start training. Let them touch it and play with it. Read to them on it while they are dressed. Let them get comfortable with it. Sometimes during a diaer change, sit them on it for a minute, but don't expect anything. Let them lead you so you don't feel like you're banging your head against a brick wall.

Work your way towards sitting on it for longer periods, especially after meals and sleeping. They'll get the idea and before too long you'll have a potty trained little one!