Trying to make sense of the minefield that is potty training

So, a few days ago I was about to start potty training my son. He is almost 27 months old, so two and a bit.

However, something told me to wait. I kept hearing the advice of others or google in my mind saying don’t start him too early, once you start do not give up and because of fear and a gut feeling I have decided to wait another little while. I would like to prepare myself and educate myself a bit more before I start.

So, I talked about this on my Instagram stories and wow I think I received about 70 private messages from other parents with their personal advice, tips and tricks. However, they were all contrasting.

Two of my lovely followers sent me Lora Jensen’s manual who is known as the Queen of Potty Training, she has a three-day potty training manual, which I have now read cover to cover. For anyone interested you can find this on www.3daypottytraining.com.

So, I will give you a feel of what I was sent, and I will also give you some information on the three-day potty training manual. However, please know that I am no expert, I am still totally confused but you may take something positive from the different (although contrasting) pieces of advice, hopefully.

Fellow mums shared their words of wisdom with me from their own experiences and their advice was second to none. Some suggested doing short bursts of positive sessions, then return to nappies, leave it a few weeks then go again. Others said not to try to start at Christmas or over any holidays as the child needs to be in their regular routine.

Others recommended going straight to the toilet seat with an insert, do not use an actual potty because then it feels like you must train them twice.

And most importantly: Mummy keep calm and they will keep calm.

The three-day potty training manual has some excellent points which I will take on board and I am glad I read BUT I think it’s a bit intense for me. She suggests doing things like rewarding your child with treats or stickers when they use the toilet.

She also advises parents to explain to your child that it is very important to keep your underwear dry. She suggests saying “Tell Mummy when you have to go” do not say “Do you have to go pee?” because children like to be in control, so it is a subtler way of asking them which I think is great.

In summary, I think she is a big believer in not taking your child to the loo every 20 minutes to try. NEVER take your child to the bathroom to “try”. The three-day method is about training your child to learn his or her own body signs, which I can see makes a lot of sense.

Finally, she also explains to never ever clean your child’s underwear after an accident by laying them down as this makes them return to baby mode. Always clean them standing up.

Seriously, I really am none the wiser, well I am I suppose, there are definitely bits and pieces I have learned from doing this research that I will take with me but a clear overall strategy I still do not have.

I am thinking, I will probably go cold turkey with pull ups at night time, until they eventually run dry but who knows, wish me luck.

We have a little boy who is 13 months old and I also have two beautiful Step Children - a 13-year-old and an 11-year-old. We live in Douglas in Cork. I started my blog as honestly, I had no idea how hard being a Mom really was until I was in the thick of it! I knew if I was feeling overwhelmed, there must be 1000's of other Mommas feeling the same.... yet no one seemed to speak about it honestly. So yes although it is the most AMAZING job in the world, it is really HARD!

My Snapchat Username is: littlemummyblog

  • Total Article Views:19k
  • Average View Time:1m 17s

Latest

Trending