Adventures in Potty Training

Right before my daughter turned 15 months, I decided it was time to potty train. She had begrudgingly started to walk at 14 months and that was the developmental milestone I would mark for the beginning of her potty training.

We decided to take the mild approach. For a few weeks, potty training involved sitting with her at the same time everyday on the potty and playing games, reading books, and anything to keep her entertained and use to being on the potty for extended periods of time.

Then the hard part began. It was time to teach her that the potty had a sole purpose. Now at the designated time, I decided this to be in the morning and slowly ebb as the time progressed into the afternoon, we would sit at the potty until she went. This took time and patience...mostly patience. Most normal children do not enjoy sitting on a potty waiting for an indefinite period of time. And this time we took away the games and toys, trying to have her focus at the task at hand. She didn't enjoy this at first. She struggled with us and threw fits, but we trudged on clinging to the hope that she would catch on.

And then the bomb! Strip her of the diapers and keep her in training underpants or nothing at all. For a solid week she refused to go on the potty. She waited for the exact moment I let her off the potty and peed on the floor. It was an absolute horror having to clean up her mess, race her to the sink/tub, clean her up, clean her soiled clothes, and then get her into new clothes which were certain to be soiled in under one hour. This happened all day every day for one week.

It started to get better. I realized her week of refusal to pee on the potty was a stubbornness on her part, she was trying to prove to me that she didn't have to start using the potty when I wanted her to. I wonder were she got that from?

By 16 months she was a pro. Since she still didn't use words, she learned to sign us when she wanted to use the potty and would hold it until we got her on one. Of course she still had accidents every now and then, but I was certain the ordeal was over.

I even took pride of my potty trained baby everywhere we went. As soon as I took my small daughter to the bathroom with her potty, people would always exclaim at how young she was to be potty trained, how it was so wonderful. It was great to feel that my daughter was indeed as special as I always knew she was.

It was difficult, I'm not going to lie. I remember the worse day, she had SIX accidents in under 2 hours. These were full-blown accidents too. I have no idea how such a small child could hold that much urine, but she did it. And each time I was certain I could catch a glimmer of satisfaction in her eyes. It took hard work, dedication, consistency and the patience of a saint. There were times that I thought this was fruitless, but thankfully I had my husband to encourage me.

I am a firm believer that any child can be potty trained around a year. You need to start early and keep in mind that our grandmother's had to potty train that early out of necesity and they survived, so can you!