Potty Training Round 2 (No More Diapers – 20 months)
Here is my first stint with potty training and N was without diapers by 17 months. Please read that post before you read this.
A is now 20 months and is diaper free too.
What I did in common with both:
- Started early
- Let them soil themselves and the house at times to get the sensation of things running down their legs
- Used mostly cloth diapers (nappies the first time and modern cloth diapers the second time)
- Let them lead the way
What I did different:
With A I started as soon as he could sit and was putting him on the potty regularly from 6 months. Then when he was 7 months and was doing beautiful we had a couple of trips back to back where I kept him only in disposable diapers and didn’t take him to the loo at all. This was a major setback and after that he refused to even sit on a pot for a second. I totally gave up on potty training for a long time then. However I do feel this early stint helped, as he was quite aware of the usage of the potty.
What I would do is make him watch his older brother or me peeing or using the bathroom and give him a running commentary of what we were doing.
At around 18 months he displayed an interest completely on his own to start sitting on the pot. We followed his lead and started putting him very regularly on the potty and realized he would go there.
Soon we realized that his diapers were staying totally dry and he would hold on for hours to pee in the pot. Once that happened it was bye bye to diapers. He has been saying potty for a while now and we take him everytime he says it.
At night time there are some nights that he stays dry and some nights that he does wet the bed unless I take him to the loo. For not I have taken a call to let him pee in a cloth diaper at night and maybe if need be will start taking him to pee after a while but would prefer a whole nights sleep for everyone concerned at this point.
Starting really young, giving the baby credit for understanding and taking the lead is a key I feel. I call it baby led potty training and yes cloth diapers really as per my experience. All in all there is no substitute for hard work and being dogged about taking the little one to the pot knowing very well messes and misses will happen and being ok with that.
Thanks for reading. do share your experience here!
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Hello, my daughter is 11&1/2months old now. When she was about 3 months old I started using cloth nappies completely and made a point that after every nap, I take her to sink immediately so that she pees or if want to poop she does there. I paid close attention to her poop cycle (she did on an average 4-5 poops in a day till 9 months). I learned mostly when she had to poop (in between her feed) she would fret a little, will move her body, I would immediately take her to sink and she would poop. Sometimes there were all clean days (I. E. All poops in the sink) and sometimes there were accidents and poops were in cloth diapers… I realised when we were on our first vacation when she was 6 months old she remained so uncomfortable and didn’t poop in the diaper and only did when we reached hotel and used washroom… From that day onwards I noticed she wasn’t doing any poop in the nappy… So it worked for me, Read the clues and learned her way of elimination communication with me :).
The sooner we start doing this, the better for us….
hi guneet agree with you. i think babies prefer to pee and poop in the potty as opposed to the diaper. ofcourse what you did – elimination communication from such a young age is realy hard work and i salute u!
its so much easier to put them in diapers but when i see kids as old as 3 and above in diapers i am very happy i started early and managed to get them out of diapers early. whatever works for each family is fine though don’t get me wrong but for some reason i have just been a bit squeamish about diapering in general.
thanks so much for sharing your story!
Hello Aloka, that’s true whatever works for each family… I was so concerned about the wastage, dump created by used diapers on earth that made me to start so early. As I read 81% of babies excretion Is liquid only… And I always think how those people are managing who can’t afford or before the availability of certain things, like in this case diapers….. But I use one diaper for night… As clothes diapers get leaked and baby gets disturbed sleep = tired mumma..,. I wish I could find the solution for night as well 🙂
i too used one disposable at night for the longest time. felt bad about it but like you said better sleep for mamma and baby.