Glam By Amna: Potty Training Your Toddler

Every mom nowadays ,eyes potty training as a milestone in baby’s growth which is hard to achieve, and very very messy.

You are always searching for solutions to the potty training problem…secretly admiring the moms who have achieved it, and hating the feeling that your mothering skills are measured and judged according to how early you train your baby.

Well get rid of the inferiority complex because it really is challenging and if you feel exhausted at times you are no different from all the other moms.

Personally, my 1.5yr old in diapers used to make me feel inadequate, but when I begin to appreciate that mastering the art of restraint and telling mommy is a BIG achievement for a baby, I started taking it easy.

FACTORS:

Actually a lot of conscious and sub-conscious effort goes in the process because all the things listed below play a part in it.

1-The nerves to bladder and bowl are not very mature.

Bowel control is easier (achived by 2 years) but bladder control…even I,myself, have difficulty with it sometime.

2-Environment. Baby’s don’t handle change easily.They are very sensitive…things like travelling,new baby in the house, changed routine of parents, all make the baby go back a few steps in terms of training.

3- Mother’s attitude Sometimes we become so frustrated that, we push the baby a little too much, evoking a stubborn response.

4-Baby’s will. May be your baby is JUST not ready for it.Give her a break.

I started training my boy when he was 1.5 years old.I read somewhere that, if you let your baby run around the house without diapers, he will be trained in a week.All I got at the end of the week was a baby in diapers and a week of cleaning.Well I learned my lesson.So I took it easy.I knew that potty training is something my baby will learn eventually, and by being hard on him, I was just making things difficult for us both.

WHAT I DID:

I bought three cheap potty chairs. Put one in my bathroom, and the other two in play area and bedroom.

Every month, during a relatively relaxed period of one or two days, I would take off his diapers and took him to potty chair every 15minutes or so. If he didn’t like or didn't want to sit on the chair, I didn’t make him.

If he let go in the room or on the carpet, I used to grit my teeth and say in a cheerful voice, “oh its ok.next time you feel like going just tell me first”.(This was the hard part; acting normal when I was angry).

I knew that if I make a big deal out of it so will my baby. So I tried to make it very normal. Of course, my husband helped me, a lot, to keep this attitude.So, at least, I never scared him into holding his pee which is a common case.

With these monthly exercises my baby finally got the message, that he should tell
mama BEFORE letting go. By the age of two, he used to tell me 5 out of ten times but, that wasn't good enough.

WHAT ACTUALLY WORKED:

One innovation I did on my own was, that, I didn’t take off his diapers and still took him to bathroom every 15 min asking,"chee chee ai”(Do you wanna go pee?).

The first two days he didn't cooperate but, afterwards he started getting the message,and would go on the potty chair.

Another successful innovation, (I pat myself on the back for this), which actually worked great was to buy cheap diapers(local brands), and not the super-duper-absorbent-all-day-dry ones.

This helped me two ways:
1-They prevent soiling of cloths and bed
2-They don’t give a dry feeling after baby pees.

So, that my boy knew something was wrong, and had to get it changed.( Actually these diapers acted as training pants which were like 1500 PKR apiece and not easily available in my city.).

At night I used the absorbent dry ones for safety.A few days like this, followed by two no-diaper days, and he was fully potty trained.

MY OPINION:

The first step in training is to make your baby used to dry clean, feeling,(even with diapers). This is achieved, if you make a routine of changing every two to three hours, since your baby’s first day.

Second step, is asking every 15 minutes and taking the baby with you in bathroom,and turning the tap on(it is a stimulus for urination and baby wont be able to hold ).

Second step, and cheap diapers, save your carpet and bed.(but be prepared for no diaper stage and be kind in case of accident).

Finally,bear in mind, that no-diaper stage has to come. All of what I said above was ground work for no diaper stage, and this final step is the most crucial in training).

NIGHT TIME TRAINING:

After two weeks of dry day time, I took off his diaper at night, and laid him down to sleep, after placing a mat under his sheet. Now, he has achieved night time dryness as well(I have to get up at 9am to take him to bathroom otherwise…)