About 2 months ago I got a small potty chair for Donovan. I know, he's only 15 months old, it's way early, etc. Really, I'm implementing Diaper-Free Before Three's first "step" which is to simply have the potty around, let him sit in it every once in a while, basically just get him familiar with it and know it as a regular part of our home. I have a semi-plan to get more aggressive about potty-training by the time he's 2yrs old, but we're taking our time and I will always follow his lead on this and not push him if he's not ready.Anyway, so yeah right now he doesn't even really sit on it every day. Sometimes when he's in the bathroom with me he'll go to sit on it with his clothes on, and I might take his diaper off to let him see how that feels, and that's about it. There was one time a month or so ago when Zach was getting D ready for his bath, and with all his clothes off D went to the potty, sat, and peed. Hasn't happened again.
Then the other day I was reading D a story and noticed he was kinda shifting his body around and straining a bit. I asked him if he was pooping, and if he wanted to go to the potty. He looked at me, looked in the direction of our bathroom, and got up to start walking towards it. This alone AMAZED me. By the time we got there I think he was already done, but I let him sit on the potty diaper-free for a few minutes anyway while we kept looking at the same book, then got him dressed again and went on about our day.
Today I noticed him doing it again-- shifting around and straining, etc. I asked if he wanted to use the potty, and he again immediately got up and started walking towards it. I took his diaper off and sat him down and we kept looking at his book. After a few minutes I noticed that he'd pooped in the potty. And, well, it was kind of a lot. As a side note, he's been having a little trouble pooping lately-- not really constipated, but sometimes he'll just strain a little with nothing coming out and when he did poop it'd be smallish and fairly firm. I've read that the position of sitting on a potty with feet on the floor, etc, is in itself conducive to pooping, and it think it really did help him do so today.He of course then tried to stick his hand in the poop, which I promptly stopped while at the same time trying to also tell him how neat it was that he'd pooped in the potty. I got him cleaned and dressed, and then after I'd also cleaned the potty he came back into the bathroom and kept wanting to sit on it again. lol
I have no idea if this might be the start of an association with him, or just a random event that won't be repeated for a while. We'll see. But I was proud enough to want to come share the story with all you lovely people, which I'm sure you appreciate greatly. ; )
POOPY IN THE POTTY!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis IS exciting. Just to let you know.
But I think by far the best part of the story is that you are teaching him that potty time = reading time. This is an important skill to learn early on, because when he gets older and has a jobby-job and all that other junk, the only time he'll have to read for fun will be potty time. So it's good that you're making that association for him right from the beginning.
POOPY IN THE POTTY!!! WHAT A BIG BOY!!! :D
Word verification: potier. D's a potier! He poops in the poti!
Yay! Good for him! You are on the road.
ReplyDeleteMy 22 month old sits for fun and reads but doesn't want to go in it. I plan on letting him be naked outside (and inside) most of the summers, so hopefully that will help.
Marcy, I don't think 15 months is too young. Every kid is different and I'm sure you have heard how early kids used to be potty trained before disposable diapers. Make sure to do a big celebration after each success. Also, it might help if Zach pees sitting down in front of Donovan too. I am sure Zach will enjoy that. :) Way to go Donovan!
ReplyDeleteThat's so great!
ReplyDeleteIn some of the pictures you post of Donovan, I think he looks just like a miniature man rather than a little boy. It makes me smile.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he could come over and show my 3 1/2 year old how to go. :)
ReplyDeleteMine actually learned a year and a half ago, was almost fully trained, and then one day he decided that he was not using it anymore. So, we're back at the beginning again now, only this time he knows how, but is simply choosing not to. It's pretty frustrating, to say the least.
I think it's a good sign that Donovan seems to get the concept with a little gentle reminder from you and that he seems enthusiastic about using it. :)
Wow, that's awesome! Way to go Donovan!
ReplyDeleteyay Donovan!! Eliza peed in the potty today. and the she peed on the rug. haha. I feel like we always stake one step forwarda nd oen step back. She does liek to sit and read on the potty and for now that is good enough for me.
ReplyDeleteLOL, this was great! I am almost ready to start into this again...I'm scared! You make it look easy!
ReplyDeleteIT is very exciting and the photos of him there are too adorable to pass up! :)
ReplyDeleteOK, I've been debating between getting a little potty chair like the one you have and getting a potty seat to put on our toilet ... obviously the advantage of his own potty is that he can just go sit on it whenever he wants, but then, ugh, it's the cleaning part that I'm not excited about. I know, I know, I use cloth diapers and clean poop off the diapers so it shouldn't be any worse, right? But somehow the idea bothers me ... how do you do it? scrape the stuff into the toilet and then clean it in the bathtub? Am I being ridiculous?
ReplyDeleteMonte-- lol Go with what makes more sense to you. The advantage of using a regular toilet is then when you're out in public you can use regular toilets and it's still the same, right? You can always get a small stool so that the adult toilet is also accessible. =)
ReplyDeleteThat is so cool. We have the same red potty and the same orange "G" dipes but my little one doesn't seem very interested in it yet. Closest we've come is her putting dollies on the potty.
ReplyDelete