Posts Tagged ‘
potty training ’
Thursday, January 17th, 2013
Check out blog posts by Rosie Pope, star of Bravo’s “Pregnant in Heels,” every week at Parents.com!
With New Year’s resolutions made, perhaps even broken and re-made, you might be thinking about some for your kids. Perhaps one is that milestone of all milestones: to potty train!
Before you start to fret that your little girl or boy will never get there, just ask yourself: Have you ever seen someone walk down the aisle, wedding dress or tux-clad, in a diaper? The point is, your wee one will eventually be potty trained and while you can push him (or her) to do it early, it is far better and easier to wait until he’s ready. And, I promise, it will happen way before he gets married!
In order to tell whether your wee one is ready, check for these signs:
*Able to pull pants up and down
*Tells you when he has a dirty diaper, and has words for pee and poop.
*Can sit quietly for 2-5 minutes–and therefore has a chance of staying on the potty long enough
*Shows interest in the bathroom
*Able to follow basic directions
*Is in the age range of 18 months to 3 1/2 years old
*There are no other big changes happening for your child, like starting school, recovering from illness, moving into a toddler bed, etc.
If you think your child is ready then you also have to make sure you’re ready. So:
*Are you able to be at home for two full days?
*Is there anything else going on that will make it hard for you to focus on this and be positive and upbeat? It can take a lot of patience.
If you are feeling like now is the time and all these items are checked, then I say go for it, making sure to keep an incredibly proud and positive attitude and never letting your wee one feel disappointed or embarrassed if he has an accident.
These pointers should help you reach your goal:
*Watch some potty-related DVDs, or read some bathroom related stories.
*Make sure to push modesty aside and show your child how the whole process works. Make a point of buying “big-kid” underwear as something really special.
*Consider a sticker chart and reward system, although many children will feel rewarded in the success of being able to use the toilet independently. However, if a little extra incentive is needed, that’s okay too.
*Make sure you return to the potty every 30 to 60 minutes for those first two days until your child gets the hang of it.
*When potty training, tackle daytime dryness first, and use pull-ups at night.
*If your child isn’t sure where to stand or sit, you can buy a special potty or training seat. For boys, draw around their feet on a box by the toilet, so they know where to stand.
*Make sure to always go with your child to the bathroom, and keep the atmosphere relaxed.
With all these tools you’ll be sure to get there and before you know it, you’ll hear the sound of the flush and you’ll realize your little one just went to the potty and didn’t even tell you! I cried the first time this happened. I know: totally crazy, but it made me feel like the next step was college. I was getting a little ahead of myself….
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
Is Early Potty Training Harmful?
Many experts’ recommendations to get children out of diapers before age three can be dangerous for some children. A child’s bladder, which continues growing to its standard size until age three, grows stronger and faster when it’s filling and emptying uninhibited. You interrupt that process when you train early, one expert claims. (via ABC News)
US Panel: Improve Child Custody Rules for Military
A national legal panel that works to standardize state laws wants to simplify child custody rules for military service members, whose frequent deployments can leave them without clear legal recourse when family disputes erupt. (via Associated Press)
Lack of Exercise Is a Global Pandemic, Researchers Say
Lack of exercise causes as many as 1 in 10 premature deaths around the world each year — roughly as many as smoking, researchers say. This global pandemic is largely due to four major diseases: heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, and colon cancer. (via TIME)
Study Reveals How Some Kids Can Overcome Egg Allergies
Giving children with egg allergies small, and then increasingly higher, doses of the very food they are allergic to may eliminate, or at least reduce, reactions, a new study shows. (via MSNBC)
Mothers Who Use Fertility Drugs May Have Shorter Kids
A new study from Australia found boys whose mothers used fertility drugs were on average 1 inch shorter at ages 3 to 10, compared with boys of mothers who did not use the drugs. (via Fox News)
Breastfeeding Tied to Kids’ Nut Allergies in New Study, But Not All Agree
Australian researchers claim children who are exclusively breastfed for their first six months have a greater risk for developing a nut allergy than those given other foods or fluids, either exclusively or in combination with breast milk. (via Huffington Post)
Categories: GoodyBlog, News | Tags: allergies, breastfeeding, children, custody, Exercise, fertility drugs, fertility treatments, food allergies, military, military families, Parents Daily News Roundup, potty training
Monday, February 27th, 2012
We’re gonna go ahead and guess that potty training isn’t your favorite part of parenthood. But it’s a task that every parent and child has to get through, so why not make it fun? This past weekend, How I Met Your Mother star Alyson Hannigan partnered with Pull-Ups to host a Potty Dance Party, introducing a new way to train. “Potty training is a big deal, so why not kick it off with a celebration?” says Hannigan. “The potty dance turns a daunting task into a fun, exciting experience.” (See video clips of Hannigan’s Potty Dance Party here.)
How do you know if your tot is ready to start? If she shows an interest in the bathroom, tells you when she has to go, or asks to be changed, she’s giving you the hint. When that happens, kick off the training journey with a Potty Dance Party. “When my daughter was interested, I would sit her on the potty, and if she went it was a huge deal,” says Hannigan. “It wasn’t until I picked a day and committed to it, and began asking her every 20 minutes if she needed to go, that it actually worked.” That’s not to say she hasn’t had any hiccups (Hannigan notes a couple public-restroom-automatic-flush incidents that scared her daughter, Satyana), but the combination of keeping it fun and offering an organic-gummy-vitamin reward for going potty in public has helped them both get through training.
Visit Pull-Ups.com to learn the potty dance steps and song and to start planning your own Potty Dance Party.
Monday, April 4th, 2011
So my 2 1/2 year old, Lila, is turning out to be so much better at toilet training than I dared to dream. I almost don’t want to jinx it by explaining how comfortable she is with the process or how few accidents she’s had. But I’ll tell you that I know things are going a little easier because of a few tools in our arsenal. One are these toilet seat covers—an indisputable must now that we’re taking her out of the house in underwear. Unlike the ones you see in public bathrooms, these “potty toppers” have adhesive backs, so there’s no risk of one falling off the seat. I lived for these when I was training my older daughter, and my love has not diminished.
New to the game is a product called The Little Looster. As you can see from the photo, it’s a white plastic stool that wraps around the base of the toilet and keeps little legs at the perfect height. Lila didn’t dig it at first, but now using it is all part of her routine. (The makers say that it’s narrow enough that you don’t need to move it when it’s not being used, but we like to get it out of the way.) The Looster really adds to Lila’s confidence and reduced her initial fear of falling in.
What products have made potty training easier for your family?
Tuesday, March 29th, 2011
Yesterday I had the chance to chat with one of our advisors, Harvey Karp, M.D., author of The Happiest Baby on the Block and The Happiest Toddler on the Block (one of my all-time favorite parenting books). I told him how Lila’s doing with potty training and he asked, “And you’re not going overboard with the praise, right?” Umm… why, yes, I believe I am. He explained why that can backfire: If you make a huge deal out of it every time your child goes to the bathroom, she starts thinking along these lines: “Wow, this is really important to them. I can’t handle the pressure. I’m not even going to try anymore.” Or your child might realize that she’s got the upper hand in this situation, and embark on a power play by not going on the potty.
Instead, Dr. Karp recommends a technique he calls “gossiping,” where you tell others how great your child is doing. (Do it in a whisper right in front of your child, to give her the impression that you don’t realize she’s listening to the “conversation.”) I actually did this the other night, when I told her favorite duck how Lila let me know at the birthday party that she was ready to use the potty. She then handed me her sheep, Pillow Pet, and turtle so that I could tell them the story, too. So from now on I’ll do more gossiping and dial down the unbridled enthusiasm after each trip to the potty.
Monday, March 28th, 2011
Check out this proud little girl! This picture was taken this morning. Lila now asks to go straight to the bathroom as soon as she wakes up, and even though her diaper was soaked, she still managed to go.
Lila really impressed us this week. Especially yesterday, when we were at a birthday party at Pump It Up. I put her in a diaper and decided to not even mention potty training to her. But in the middle of the party chaos, she told me she needed to use the potty. I scooped her up and sprinted off to the ladies’ room, asking her to hold it. She calmly replied, “I am.” I did the whole routine you’re surely familiar with: put my hand inside the toilet paper holder and then spun it furiously to collect as much paper as I could, then gingerly covered every inch of the seat, yanked my child’s pants down, and ripped off her diaper (all while trying not to create too much air flow around us, thereby causing the toilet paper to gently float down into the toilet or onto the floor). I plopped her down and within seconds, she went. How cool is that? As we exited the bathroom she shouted to the people coming in, “I JUST WENT PEE ON THE POTTY!”
PS: I decided I’m going to spare you (and older Lila) the details on her exploits learning to go #2 on the toilet, but I’ll say that she’s starting to have success on that front, too, and leave it at that!
Monday, March 21st, 2011
The update on potty-training my daughter Lila: We’re getting there, but I think this is going to be a slow road. She had some success on the potty (both real and portable), but she was sitting there for so long, it was almost inevitable. By Wednesday of last week she got tired of passing the hours this way. When I made my lunchtime check-in phone call, Lila answered the phone by proclaiming, “DON’T WANT TO SIT ANYMORE.” Another day she greeted me with, “I NOT SITTING ON THE POTTY!” We’ve been tracking how often she actually goes, and when you subtract the naptime and nighttime diapers, it’s not that often. So over the weekend I wanted to see if Lila could try sitting on the potty only when she needed to go. Two accidents later, I can tell you the answer: not yet.
I’m not discouraged, though. She’s actually doing pretty well considering how many (unmissable) events and activities we crammed into the past two weekends. This week’s challenge is helping her understand that she needs to go before it’s too late. Any advice? I’m all ears!
Monday, March 7th, 2011
My younger daughter, Lila, is 2 1/2, and it’s time for us to start potty training. We trained her older sister, Julia, when she was that age, and if I remember correctly, it only took several weeks for her to stay fully dry during the day. (Night training was a whole other story.) But I expect no such timeline with Lila. She and Julia are almost nothing alike. For one thing, Julia likes to please, and what others want or expect doesn’t have any bearing on Lila.
With Julia, I did the research, my husband and I plotted out our strategy, and we jumped right in. I’m taking baby steps with Lila. Two weeks ago I busted out the plastic toilet seat and soft potty rings and had her try them out. When she sat on the plastic toilet, she immediately stood up: “Don’t like it.” No problem, I said, and I placed her on the soft potty ring. Her eyes bugged out and she gripped my hands with terror before wriggling down. “When I’m older,” she declared, using her new catchphrase for whenever she doesn’t want to do something.
So this past week, we’ve been doing a lot of talking about potty training: “Soon you’re going to use the potty!” “We’re not going to use diapers during the day!” She seemed intrigued, so I asked her over the weekend if she wanted to try using the potty now. “No thanks,” she said cheerfully.
But the talking stops and the action starts this Saturday. I’ll report back each week and let you know how it’s going. I’ve already printed out this story on five common potty training problems because I suspect I’m going to encounter all of them. If anyone wants to chime in with their tips, I’ll take ‘em!
