Peeing the baby - getting there!
Mar. 7th, 2009 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fruitkakechevySince Josh was about 2 months old, we've been holding him over a container of some sort (sink, bathtub, toilet, bucket, rosebush, etc) so he could put his body waste somewhere other than right next to his skin. All in all, I'd do it again. It's been a longer process than I originally envisioned; I started out thinking that I was going to have a potty-trained 8 month old (and learned that I don't actually WANT a potty-trained 8 month old because they pee All The Time), and now I have an almost potty-trained 22 month old.
Except for a month or so at around 15 months, Josh has been reliably using the potty for all of his solid waste since about 6 months; that alone has made this whole thing worthwhile. We made it through two horrible bouts of diarrhea, most of teething, and lots and lots of trips out of the house without adequate changes of clothing in preparation for poop disasters. Though he usually goes first thing in the morning and then is done for the day, he makes a little coughing-grunting noise if he has to go again and will come get me from whatever I'm doing so I can help him.
Here's where we are now: As much as possible given the fact that I am cheap and don't want to heat my house past 18 degrees, I have Josh running around bottomless. He's not good at sitting on a light plastic potty by himself, so I have a special heavy enamel pot sitting on a receiving blanket in the kitchen, and every so often I remind him that that's where pee goes. Sometimes he pees there, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he pees there, and then looks down to see his pee, thus moving the stream from the appropriate location to somewhere closer to his toes (thus the receiving blanket). Yesterday I heard him calling for me from the kitchen, and he'd peed in his pants and was unusually distraught.. he was close to the pot, so I think he'd tried to get it in there but couldn't manage his pants by himself.
When we're out, I have him in training pants that will catch one miss, and I take him to pee regularly. Usually we come home in the same trainers; the only times we don't are when I get really involved in doing something else (like a really good conversation) and lose track. I have a small bucket with a lid in the car, so I don't have to find somewhere private-ish for him to pee. No one looks twice at someone emptying a bucket on to the base of a tree. I feel like toddlers should be able to pee wherever dogs can pee, but I can understand if someone else feels a little squeamish.
We can go for days without a miss. He likes the ability to go by himself when we're at home, though I have to check the pot every so often because he sometimes likes to have his toys use the potty too, and the toys tend to use the very bottom of the pot :( We have him in baby leg warmers to keep him warm - so cute!
It's fun; I hear from other parents sometimes that potty-training is a total nightmare, and while this is constant and sometimes a little freaky-looking, it's not stressful and it's not really coercive. It's kind of like a dance: "Oh, look, a potty! Do you want to pee there? How about in the bathtub instead, or in this handy bucket? No? I guess, you don't have to go.. perhaps in half an hour, or so."
I'm pretty sure that once Josh can manage his pants, we'll be done. Until then, I'm still happy to take him to the potty every hour or two; it takes half a minute, and he's usually happy to go.
Except for a month or so at around 15 months, Josh has been reliably using the potty for all of his solid waste since about 6 months; that alone has made this whole thing worthwhile. We made it through two horrible bouts of diarrhea, most of teething, and lots and lots of trips out of the house without adequate changes of clothing in preparation for poop disasters. Though he usually goes first thing in the morning and then is done for the day, he makes a little coughing-grunting noise if he has to go again and will come get me from whatever I'm doing so I can help him.
Here's where we are now: As much as possible given the fact that I am cheap and don't want to heat my house past 18 degrees, I have Josh running around bottomless. He's not good at sitting on a light plastic potty by himself, so I have a special heavy enamel pot sitting on a receiving blanket in the kitchen, and every so often I remind him that that's where pee goes. Sometimes he pees there, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he pees there, and then looks down to see his pee, thus moving the stream from the appropriate location to somewhere closer to his toes (thus the receiving blanket). Yesterday I heard him calling for me from the kitchen, and he'd peed in his pants and was unusually distraught.. he was close to the pot, so I think he'd tried to get it in there but couldn't manage his pants by himself.
When we're out, I have him in training pants that will catch one miss, and I take him to pee regularly. Usually we come home in the same trainers; the only times we don't are when I get really involved in doing something else (like a really good conversation) and lose track. I have a small bucket with a lid in the car, so I don't have to find somewhere private-ish for him to pee. No one looks twice at someone emptying a bucket on to the base of a tree. I feel like toddlers should be able to pee wherever dogs can pee, but I can understand if someone else feels a little squeamish.
We can go for days without a miss. He likes the ability to go by himself when we're at home, though I have to check the pot every so often because he sometimes likes to have his toys use the potty too, and the toys tend to use the very bottom of the pot :( We have him in baby leg warmers to keep him warm - so cute!
It's fun; I hear from other parents sometimes that potty-training is a total nightmare, and while this is constant and sometimes a little freaky-looking, it's not stressful and it's not really coercive. It's kind of like a dance: "Oh, look, a potty! Do you want to pee there? How about in the bathtub instead, or in this handy bucket? No? I guess, you don't have to go.. perhaps in half an hour, or so."
I'm pretty sure that once Josh can manage his pants, we'll be done. Until then, I'm still happy to take him to the potty every hour or two; it takes half a minute, and he's usually happy to go.
