Infant Pottying - Parent Experience
I am following advice from my Nan, who did it, and my Mum. They told me to put my baby on the potty from day one. Yes, as a newborn baby! They both did this with their respective children and consequently had no problems with potty training. It just became a natural transition from being put on the potty to wanting to sit on it ourselves. So no problems of children being scared of the potty.
My baby is nine months old and here's how I've done it. I started when my daughter was a month old and found it awkward and was a bit lazy about doing it, so I didn't really seriously start until my baby was at least 2 months old. I have to admit I was a bit sceptical, until I started to listen to mums at baby group who were having terrible times training their toddlers. So I began to try and predict when Ellie would need a wee - ie. just after waking, after a feed, or after a poo! Then I just sat with the potty between my feet on the floor, holding the baby's legs in a sitting position over the potty (under the thighs) and one day managed to catch her doing a wee!
I heaped over-the-top praise on her and kept this up for a few days as often as I could. Sometimes I wouldn't do it for a couple of days (too tired to bother!), but that didn't seem to matter. Soon she got to know the feel of the potty and would 'strain' to wee if she needed to. If she didn't need to she'd just sit for a while then wriggle to be taken off. Now I save a lot of nappies and time in the day by just popping her on after taking a nappy off or after she wakes up.
I cannot comment yet on toddler stage or getting out of nappies, but can only say my Mum and my Nan had no problems at all. I can update you later! It seems logical though - Ellie is completely used to the potty - I even managed to get her to poo on it last month - much easier than a mucky nappy! It does require patience initially but seems to be well worth it later! I am eager to see how it turns out!
I started EC not long after I started using cloth nappies at six months. I realised I could tell when he was having a bowel movement (his facial expression changed and he made a few grunty noises) so started taking his nappy off and holding him over the toilet. He is now 17 months and is nappy free quite frequently at home. From about 13 months he has said "Ba" and runs to the toilet when he needs a number two, and with pees I just look for any fiddling or quiet spells with a funny face.
We use cloth out and about, for naps and at night time. I only do part time. I work two days a week and since I went back to work in September, my mum has not had one poopy nappy when looking after him because he says 'ba' we think it is short for bathroom but don't actually know.
I’m sort of doing EC with my second – from day one I held him over a washing-up bowl at every nappy change, and from about a week old we started catching wees and poos. We cued him using "Pswswsws" sounds – he caught on very quickly! We’ve never gone nappy free as I haven’t got the time or confidence to. But he’s nine months now and doing his business on the potty at least once a day, and I’m really pleased that he won’t have to learn how to use the potty later on.
