Warning: This is gross…
This morning I woke up to Lilian crying and covered head to toe in an extreme poop explosion. The kind where it was all over her sheets and crib and pajamas and body and hair, etc. Eliot attempted to take her pajamas off gingerly when finally we decided screw it – we ripped them off her and literally carried her under her armpits with her feet dangling and headed straight into the tub to be cleaned.
There is a lot of potty talk lately. Mostly because we are semi-potty training and trying to figure out the best methods. Our pediatrician’s philosophy is to let a child pee and poop around the house freely without a diaper until they become more or less ashamed. While this may work for some – for us – I can’t see it. I can’t.
I’ve also seen a lot of this happening around the neighborhood as of late – mini travel potties with a Ziploc bag like thing attached at the bottom:
The first time I saw this method it was a mother setting it up in broad daylight in front of the movie theater near our house while her daughter took down her pants and underwear and sat down. I was totally freaked out and called a Mom friend to ask her if we have to do this? She said no. Maybe it works but what is this teaching kids? Pee and crap whenever and wherever you want while people watch you. Maybe it works. I don’t know.
Still working on our methods. Although right now it just seems fun to spin the toilet paper roll and watch the mess.
Oh, KDW, potty training time- ugh!!!
Potty training can be easy or super hard. Nina was a breeze and Dave was a nightmare.
Nina trained herself one afternoon after announcing she was done with diapers.
Dave almost had to drop out of school b/c he had to be trained to attend. I dragged a potty seat around all summer, bribing him with m&m’s and embarrassing both of us. Finally, he got tired of me harassing him, addicted to chocolate and shamed by the potty seat. I hope there’s no long term psych damage from that project.
I’m going to let Mae’s teacher train her next year and hopefully Nina can train Mark for me one day.
So far, my least favorite part of parenting. I wish you patience and courage!!!!
al
The portable potty thing seems ridiculous until you start training and realize there’s like a 3 minute window between your kid yelling “Poop!” and your kid crying that she pooped herself. Especially in NY these things are essential, because once the diaper comes off it has to stay off. Put it back on and you lose a year or two being diaper-free.
Mercifully most kids figure the whole thing out pretty quickly. Just let them watch you and praise/reward them one they start to connect things… like at first even when they tell you they have to go and actually go, whip out a life saver or something. I have no idea if this is kosher by the books, but it works!