We have signed with Zahra since she had her first bite of cereal at 5 months. The program we used ‘Baby Signs’ had a potty time program specifically for starting potty training before 2. So we started introducing it to Zahra late winter and very casually introduced the potty to her. At that time I was not motivated to go full swing into it ~ there was just too much going on. But Zahra did well with even that part and would sit on the potty, read books, and at times would have success.
Here she is tonight using the potty and showing off her signs
Signing ‘Potty’ Signing ‘More’
Signing ‘All done’
Signing ‘Good Job!’
We haven’t quite mastered the thumbs up yet. Even though she can say all these words she still loves to sign them too. It was actually useful tonight at dinner because she had her mouth full and so she signed ‘potty’ so I whisked her off to the potty and sure enough she had to go.
The Diaper Doodles before they got their ‘big kid underwear’
Finally, our schedule was looking like it was slowing down. All of our classes, bible studies, and overnight visitors ended and left. We tried to do all of our traveling for visiting our out of town friends in May or the very beginning of June. So we had a good part of June just too focus on potty training. I really wanted to do it over the summer, in Rochester (not in our new house) and a few months before the baby comes. We stayed home for a few days and lived & breathed practicing going potty. I have used the baby signs program & the naked method and combined their strategies. Zahra has been naked waist down alot (good thing its been hot) and we don’t use any pull-ups or underwear (yet) and only have diapers on while sleeping. Of course when we go out now if its hot enough she wears a summer dress and if its cool she wears very loose pants. Yes there were a couple days where I was over it and wanted to give up. The first couple days I would watch her like a hawk and as soon as she showed signs of having to go pee/poo I would take her to the potty. We also would go at regular scheduled times (before lunch, before naptime, before dinner ect). A couple days into it Zahra started holding her pee for HOURS- sometimes 6 hours! And the whole purpose is to get them to pee as often as possible so that they can get the hang of controlling their bladder. That was very frustrating and to actually see her bladder was full and sit on the potty for quite a while and have nothing happen. One night Zahra sat on the potty for an hour. The funny thing is she was pretty content to do so. I wanted to go for an late evening walk and wasn’t going to take her until she used the potty. She hadn’t peed since naptime and she drank a ton of water and could see her bladders was full. Well luckily those frustrating times are over. Zahra figured out how to control and release her urine after about a week of practice. We now have her sit on the potty every 2.5-3 hours and she will go pee within a minute. We haven’t had any accidents since Thursday so going on 5 days! She is about 50/50% on pooping on the potty~ if she doesn’t go in her potty she will go in her diaper during naptime. I tried going without a diaper at naptime twice right after she had a big pee but at this point she is not quite ready for that yet. I think the main reason is that she still takes 3.5-4 hour long naps and I don’t really want to slow her intake of water during the day. So I think we will work on sleep time potty training in a few months. One thing I said I wouldn’t do and did was give her candy for rewards. First, I would use smarties (sugar candy) to get her to drink a ton of water so we would have more opportunity to use the potty through out the day. For every one smartie she would have a big drink of water~worked really well once she stopped holding it. And then we started using M&M’s for rewards when she went. 1 M&M for pee, 2 for a poo. Zahra had candy a couple times in the past (never M&M’s) I am really glad I waited to give her too much because it made potty training that much more effective & fun. Overall, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and am so glad I did it before the arrival of Zahra’s sibling. So I am hoping that our next little one will be as easy to potty train, not that we are completely done by any means. I’m sure there are a few more accidents to be had. I am glad I have this post to look back on so I remember what worked for my big girl Zahra and maybe apply the same strategy for the next one!
I am so much more vigilant with teeth brushing now that candy has been introduced. Good thing Zahra loves it!
