Potty training early works! As I have successfully potty trained both our kids before 18 months old, I can assure you that it does!
When Ivana was a newborn I was reading all those parenting magazines where they give you all the advice you need as an unexperienced parent. I read a lot and found some article to be very helpful, but some were a total waste of my time. And the articles about potty training were especially disturbing to me. I was not experienced about that issue back then yet, but felt that whatever they were writing about this topic was rediculous! Statements like "...don't worry, your kid will let you know when he/she is ready...", "...have you seen an adult wearing a diaper, they'll learn sooner or later...", "...use 50 cents coupons to cut the cost of diapers...", "...sit on the toilet yourself while your toddler is next to you and sing a song together...", "...put some food coloring in the toilet to encourage your 4 yo go to the toilet rather then pants...", "...put a couple of cheerios into the toilet bowl if you are teaching a boy to use the toilet, he'll have fun shooting the cheerios...", and so on...
So when Ivana was 6 months old (that's right!) I started to put her on the potty. It was obvious when she was "doing her duty" as she would stop doing whatever she was doing, her eyes would start bulging out and her face would turn red. I completely disregarded all that advice about "waiting till they are ready" and started putting her on the potty that early. So first I taught her to do the "big thing" into the potty and then later started teaching her to pee there as well, which was a bit more of a challenge. I stopped using the diapers at home long before she was one and let her wear underwear. Yes, it was messy at times, but surely it paid off. I observed her, payed attention to how much water she drank and learned how often she goes and was putting her on the potty before the "flood" had occured. This way we spent hours and hours of reading! We had a stach of books by the potty and were reading one book after another. Both of our daughters did not mind and enjoyed every minute of it, as we were actually having so much fun with our books. Both of them started talking very early and have a special bond with books. Maybe it's not a 100% beacause of early potty training, but surely it helped since we had spent these two activities as one a lot of times.
Teaching them to go on the potty early has so many advantages. Doing that I've "killed" quite a few birds with one stone! Countless hours of reading, less mess to clean, less diaper rash outbreaks (practically none in our case!), a lot of money saved, less plastic pollution dumped into our planet, no need to drag a diaper bag everywhere you go, a real pleasure to put you child on your neck and not feeling a subtle moisture, etc.
Are there any disadvantages? Well, sure there are. Try to tell anybody that you are putting your 6 mo on the potty and see their reaction! You see "a child abuse" kind of reaction! Can't dress the baby into the cute overalls, but rather twopiece outfits (time to undress is cruitial!). Have to pull over on the curb of the highway or pray that she doesn't need to go while we are in the tunnel. Know where the bathrooms are in every supermarket or other stores you go. Carry an extra outfit with you, just in case. Putting your child on the potty in the middle of the night. Nor being able to buy the smallest underwear in the US stores, but ask realtives in Europe to send them over.
I'd rather go for the disadvantages, but won't have to deal with explaining the 3-4 yo that potty doesn't bite and there is no reason to fear it. Won't have to get frustrated over inventing new tricks that will work for my 4 yo who already knows what firefighters are for but refused to go on the potty.
Why was it possible for the previous generations and now we easily get comfortable and then have to deal with the concequences. Let it be only a tiny drop in saving the planet, but it's what I have done and so can you.
3 comments:
Good for you! I read to my older son on the Potty. He loved it!!! He was trained before he turned 2. My other 2 kids were trained right around 2. I really think kids not getting trained early on is laziness on the parents part. You have to be aware and on top of your child's needs for awhile. You also have to be prepared for accidents and have a good sense of humor and patience to deal with them. It is riduculous the sizes of diapers are getting bigger and bigger. There are some cases kids really needs them...but I think potty training has gotten so ridiculously complicated, parents just need to get back to the basics. (Yep...good for the environment too!!!)
I am hear to support you on this one. For generations, children were trained early, because there were not nice comfy thick diapers that pulled the moisture away, and pull ups and every other thing out there to prolong what a child is capable of. Reagan was trained very early, just as your girls, and I remember her even crawling and banging on the potty before she could say the word when she had to go! The more difficult was getting her to keep underpants on between 2-4 yrs old, as she loved to run naked. I often joked diapers would have been more difficult to remove on her own! ;)
Wow, Julia, this is great. My little girl (18 mos) tells me everytime she has to go and I've put her on the toilet a couple times, but she gets scared. Did you use one of those little training potties or just the regular toilet?
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