Sitting up, crawling, walking, talking and potty-training are things all babies learn but at different paces. As a stay at home mom, I have been the first one to see my daughter achieve each one of these fundamental acts, well, all but one. Potty-training is something that a baby or toddler can pick up anywhere from when they are one years old and up. There is no real “trick” to potty-training as I’ve learned there is however techniques that people have claimed worked and others have not. I have decided to try these techniques for thirty days as part of a quest. A quest to achieve or try something new and write about it during thirty-days and I hope to achieve what I have set out to do.
Everyone from friends, family, doctors and the internet will tell you that there are signs your child will give you to know when to start potty-training. These signs range from disliking their wet or dirty diaper, giving verbal or physical sign that they are having a bowel movement, pulling pants up and down, and being able to follow simple instructions. There are also cognitive signs such as having no words or not being able to hold their pee that might mean the child is not ready. My daughter shows all signs from making faces to not liking to be wet etc. I have come to the conclusion that she is ready to potty-train.
Just as it is important for my daughter to be ready to potty-train, it is also important that the parent (me) be ready to start this journey. If the parent is not ready to take on such a difficult task, the potty-training journey might not take place how you would want or will take a toll emotionally on the parent. I feel I am ready to take on this journey which is the reason I chose this as my quest. Along with being ready emotionally and physically one must be ready with the supplies it will take to start potty-training.
When my daughter turned one I was so anxious to see what she would do on a potty that I bought one. It is a simple potty green in color that looks like a frog. The bowl comes out with ease for cleaning and such. Since then she has played with the potty and gotten used to it being around. Another tool I will be using is a toilet seat adapter; it is a small toilet seat that has Dora the Explorer on it that my daughter loves. One tool some mothers would not use that I am using are Pull-Ups training pants. There are some that disagree with using a diaper like tool to potty-train because it can set the child back in their potty-training. I find them to be the same price as regular diapers and an easier way to clean up after an accident rather than underwear or nothing at all. Although I will be buying underwear as explained later in this essay, I will be using it as a technique suggests I should. All of these tools may or may not be necessary for potty-training but I feel I can never be too ready for anything that may happen.
I have been given tip after tip after tip on how I should or could potty-train my daughter. The most said tip would be, “wait until your child is ready.” Some may feel a child is not ready until a certain age but unless they are with that child most of the time they will not see the signs that the child is ready. Some develop cognitive skills that are needed between eighteen and twenty-four months, meaning that some children can potty-train earlier than others. Another tip a mother gave me was, “make a plan.” Make a plan on how you will be going about your journey. How are you going to begin? Which technique will you be using? What would be a punishment if the child had an accident? Do you agree with a punishment at all? All mothers are different when they think of their plan but the key is to stick with it. The third and final tip I get the most would be to not push the child or starting too soon will make it harder for the child later. I agree, I believe that if I were to start my daughter at age one, if she did not learn right away she would be frustrated with the potty and have accidents more when she trained again. I held off until this time when I knew it was right and had a great opportunity to begin.
While choosing a topic that I would do a quest on, I considered what topic would most benefit me. I searched many techniques on potty-training and discovered that with these techniques I could easily (or not so easily) try to use them all within thirty days. Some techniques I came across were the “cold-turkey underwear approach,” a “naked and $75 method,” a “sticker chart” method, and a method where you sit the child down every fifteen minutes on the potty. All of these methods intrigued me into really wanting to begin the potty-training process. To explain in more detail, the “naked and $75 method” is where you let your child run around naked and the $75 is for the carpet cleaning you will need afterward. I thought this was pretty clever.
With explaining my quest and why I wanted to take on this journey, I am very eager to begin and hopefully achieve what I will set out to do. I am hoping to take this quest and share it with everyone and anyone who might need insight and ideas on how to begin their own journey of potty-training. Wish me luck!
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