4.01.2011

UHF: Adventures in Early Potty Training

I haven't done any undercover hippy file posts in a while. It's not really intentional. After our homebirth, I kinda feel like my "undercover" part should be stripped from me but I'm still chugging away with my hippiness, it's just old news hippyness and not new fun to talk about stuff - until now.

We've started potty training!

I know, I know, Lucy is only 10 months old. That's the crazy part. Unlike my normal UHP, I'm not going to wait until we've done it to write a how post about how great this is or how that worked for us. I'm not sure how this is all going to work but in the research I've done I've found books about it and been reading about success stories on the mothering forum but not a lot of step by step stories or blog posts so I thought I would share our story as it happens.

First off, the why -

I had heard about elimination communication (e.c.) and even attended an information about it and know several moms who love it. It sounded neat but honestly, it just didn't really appeal to me. I definitely think it is one of those things you have to really want to do if you have any hope of making it work. But several things happened a few weeks ago that got me started thinking about starting potty training.

First, Lucy started upping her solids and all of a sudden, I could really tell when she went. In fact, I would see her and know, then wait ~30 seconds before taking her off to be changed. I had to change her right away because she absolutely hates being poopy. But it seemed so ridiculous to wait there when I knew what was happening.

Then I was reading some Montessori resources where she recommends starting at 12-18 months. That seemed really early compared to what I normally hear so I tried to find other information and the more I read, the more it just seemed to make sense and fit with our philosophy of giving Lucy opportunities to learn skills and become independent gradually (baby led weaning, shot glass not sippy, etc).

Lucy already dislikes being dirty and since I use cotton diapers most of the time, she knows when she is wet. I want to build off that. And since we are starting so early, there is no pressure, we are just slowly going to introduce the idea and incorporate it into our routine just like most of the other skills she will be learning in the next year. So I stopped asking why, and starting wondering why not? If we are both having fun with it, even if the progress is slow, why not just give it a try. So we are!

A number of people recommended Diaper Free Before 3 which I got and read and between that and late starting e.c. protocols, I've come up with a plan to get started. Stay tuned to hear more about the fun times we are going to be having!

4 comments :

  1. You and Lucy seem to communicate well. Elaine first brought early potty training to my attention, but we struggle so much with communication that I think it would be a disaster for us. (I will probably do a back flip the first time John signs to me.) I hope it works well for you guys... I think it will. I can totally understand about the watching them go and feeling silly for waiting on them to do it in the diaper thing. Good Luck!

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  2. This seems like something that is a good idea but much harder to carry out when you have older children. However, that could just be my natural laziness talking. ;)

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  3. @Swindell - Is Elaine potty training Zuzu?

    But I love how our kids are so stereotypical. John seems like he is all boy just go, go, go, explore, explore, explore while Lucy is a little girl who would rather just sit and talk :-)

    @Karen - That is how I felt about e.c. It didn't sound at all feasible with any other kids around. I'm not sure how much energy this will take or that I'm willing to give it but I guess time will tell.

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  4. She did try it a bit before the baby was born, but it wasn't completely sucessful. Zuzu seemed to do well with the training she did do. I totally agree... John is definitely a go, go, go, explore, explore... and taste, taste, taste type of kiddo. Sometimes it's nice because I can doing other things, but sometimes I wish he wanted to snuggle more. The only time he snuggled was when he was sick... and he's only been sick twice :( Even though our newborn days were kinda crazy, I kinda miss being able to hold him more. Every stage has it's benefits!

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