Potty-cleaning occupies such a large part of my life nowadays that it's no wonder the first word the letter, P, reminds me of is "potty." My husband and I first started to potty-train our daughter after she turned one. We went through a lot after that - we braved many storms. And at one point, we simply gave up.
Every child has his/her own growth chart. Some babies learn things earlier than the others and vice versa. When I heard that the daughter of a friend was potty-trained at 18 months, I felt I should make that happen too. I asked my friend for tips, she gave me a bunch of them. But I was not satisfied so I went to parenting websites for additional potty-training tips. I tried them. I tried many things, which included, but were not limited to, decorating my daughter's potty with stickers to make it appear appealing to her, and buying a musical potty, which screamed, Yay! when the sensor felt the heat of weewee and poop. Everything failed!
I talked to my biomedical engineer friend again and she suggested that I don't push my toddler but rather wait a month and then start trying again. I listened to her happily 'cause I wanted someone to tell me exactly that, for I desired a break too.
One day when my daughter peed on the floor 7 times (yes, I counted), I weeped in frustration. That was the day when I gave up. I understood that she needed some more time - she did not comprehend my instructions and requests no matter how much I tried.
We waited a month. During that one month, we did not push her, we only made her sit on the potty a few times daily. After she turned 20 months, we began to try again, this time very seriously. And this time, it worked, it really did! I could not believe it. My daughter began to say, potty, every time she needed to use it. She finally began to understand our instructions.
She is 21 months old now. She knows when she needs to use a potty but cannot always say it at the right time. The result? She pees in her underpants, which seeps through the fabric on the floor. Thankfully, we don't have carpet on our floor or else the house would have reeked of my daughter's urine. Sometimes, she poops in her underpants too but that is kind of rare.
I am encouraging her to take her underpants off and sit on the potty by herself. She is successful most of the time but not always. On some occasions when I am busy somewhere else in the house, she pulls her underpants down but poops before she can seat herself on the potty. Consider yourself lucky if you have never had to clean feces from a hardwood floor. I have done that many times already. The first few times it felt yucky! Now, it does not feel as bad -- humans can adjust themselves to so many things!
Potty-training a child is anything but easy. It requires a sea of patience and a mountain of faith in one's ability. You will meet and see things you never met and saw before. One time when I had to answer the call of nature, my daughter had to answer a similar call. The result? I came out of the washroom and found her using a bib to clean the fecal matter from the floor. My head went blank and to describe what I went through to clean the baby and the mess will require a new blog. So, I leave that to your imagination.
Comments