potty training enterprise 1

At about 18-20 months we started introducing the potty concept to Ana and bought her a little potty.

She would sit on it with her clothes on. And, I would take her with me when I needed to go and she would sit and pretend to make a deposit, unsuccessfully...

This went on fine for a while and she agreed to go diaper-free most evenings when we get back home. But, she still didn't actually make an effort to deposit.

So, D bought her this Go, Girl, Go Potty! book, which seemed to have some positive influence on her and she immediately caught on about sitting on the potty bare-bottomed and then washing her hands with soap and water afterwards.

Still no consistent deposit even after 2-3 months of cajoling. And, I did not believe in forcing her as she ended up crying a lot and hating the experience... pretty counter-productive!

Then, D rented this Potty Power DVD from Netflix for her. It seemed to have caught her attention. The songs are catchy, the kids were fun and she seemed to get the concept by now. Just not the motivation.

To help with the motivation factor, seeing her sticker fancy, we even set up a system where she gets a sticker to put on her potty when she makes a successful liquid or solid waste deposit.

Which seemed to work for a while - she collected about half a dozen stickers in a row and then not sure what happened, she decided to protest.

She started holding until it was diaper time and no amount of patient encouragement induced her to try peeing/pooping in the potty. The holding got quite extreme that she ended up constipating herself!

Then, we eased up a little, and tried again after a week or so. She would sit on the potty, quite happily, and read her books too, but, would simply hold it in - the stubborn monkey!

If we catch her sneaking off to a corner behind the sofa and grunting and straining, and ask her to come and sit on the potty, she would scream and ask us to go away and start holding it in again... so, we had to really back off for a while.

Anyway, then D kept playing this Japanese video from YouTube for her and she seemed to want to try again and she has been making progress...

It would help if she gets consistent and intensive training, but, daycare doesn't seem to offer that service - with their hands full minding several kids, I am sure the daycare care-givers would groan and protest if parents want to tack on this added responsibility to them.

So, we have been doing what little we can on evenings and weekends...

My contention has been that she will outgrow this diaper phase in her own time (hopefully by age 3) and that I needn't worry about it too much. As an incentive, much against my wish^†, I got her Elmo™ and Hello Kitty™ panties which she seems eager to wear all evening, till bedtime even, most days. My mom doesn't remember really putting much effort into potty training us - when we had to go, we went, and got washed up - so did the floor and what-not.

^†My mom sent about two dozen bloomer-style soft cotton panties from India with generic flower patterns, in pretty colors, sold at about 3 panties per dollar, but, somehow, these character-panties sold at about 3 panties for six dollars seem to have won by sheer Marketing ploy and through extended exposure at daycare.

But, D is convinced that without dedicated training and effort, it will not happen. And, he cannot wait for her to be fully potty trained - he hates buying diapers, but daycare insists on disposable diapers for hygiene and convenience, naturally.

We probably will intensify the approach around Thanksgiving break when we have a few days off and can consistently remind her to go and try...

We'll see how that goes...