Saturday, August 14, 2010

Ready to toilet train?

This post prompted by several recent events and mamaseoul's post on EC (elimination communication).

I've been a bad mom. Grace has been giving me so many signs that she may be ready to start toilet training, but I've been too lazy to work with her. In fact, I've ignored her signals several times when I thought she wasn't serious. She knows the words (pooh and pee) and the sign for toilet and will use them, but she's often a bit too late, or I'm too slow getting her to the toilet. What I need to do is put her in underwear and let her go and make a few mistakes. But it's not easy, is it? Who wants to clean it up off the floor?

I felt so bad this afternoon. Grace notified me at the party when she had gone poop (pointing to diaper and saying it), so I changed her diaper. About an hour later she did the same thing, but I didn't think she was serious. Sometimes she'll say it just for attention, or for fun, or I'm not sure why. Anyway, lots going on, so I ignored her and carried on. A while later I checked and sure enough, she had gone. If she could talk, she would have said "Told you so." So I felt kind of guilty and like I may be causing some damage when it comes to training. She's so good at communicating, so she's not the problem. I'm going to have to start taking her more seriously and putting her on the toilet more often. I'll also have to talk to the daycare so that we're on the same page.

We didn't get home from Gerry's party until around 8:30 tonight and she was just zonked. She's so used to going to sleep around 8:00, so when that hour rolled around, she went kind of berserk in the taxi. I had to keep her calm with a lollipop and crackers, and even that didn't work that well. By the time we got home she was so tired and high on sugar she fell over doing this kind of psycho laugh that was really scary. I should have left a little earlier, but we ran into traffic. Thank goodness she's all cozy in her crib now and I can have some quiet time before going to sleep myself. I'm exhausted.

6 comments:

Mama Seoul said...

She will have you trained in no time! Korea has wood and marble floors so it is a great place to toilet train with some accidents along the way.

I've found that letting Eva carry the pot (with a bit of assistance) and dump it in the big potty and flush is lots of fun for her. Between that and Grace's love of communication, I bet she will become nearly potty independent fairly quickly.

You aren't damaging her either way, but she is definitely ready.

Another tip is don't make it your goal to have potty independence. Make it your goal to have potty communication so that you respond to her cues when she says or indicates she needs to go and help her remember to go when she doesn't. You'll reduce the number of diapers and boost her confidence and independence and comfort.

Also, MommyCha got me small (size 60) and cheap underwear at HomePlus.

Have fun! You'll find that it surprisingly fun, a lot more fun than diaper changes!

Becky said...

I found my daughter much easier to train than my son. They were in daycare parttime and that helped a lot. The daycare kids really got into it. M&M's also helped.

Sarah said...

MS - Yes, I'll have to let the accidents happen. You're right, these Korean floors are much easier to clean than western carpeting!
And I really do need to reduce diapers. Strangely, since she has shown this readiness, we have been going through MORE diapers because she always tells me AFTER or WHILE she's going! So many diapers!

Becky - I think you're right about daycare. They always want to keep up with each other. Grace always mimics her older friends, so maybe she'll want to use the toilet as well if given the chance.

Bethany said...

We've started pottying Layla for poos because she's so darn obvious about going. Not really sure how to figure out pees but I think I just need to have her in panties and be ready to clean up some messes. I just ordered some panties for her on GMarket and I'm excited about figuring this whole potty thing out.

Lolimahro said...

It's awesome that she gives you such cues! I wish I had been able to do EC when Dex was younger and he used to give me cues - it seems that since he started walking he's waaay too busy to talk about his elimination needs. Sometimes he says "uh, oh!" after he poops but that's it. And sometimes he says "uh, oh!" just for fun, so I really never know what's going on. ^^;;

Sarah said...

Bethany - Grace has been pretty obvious, too, which is why I have no excuse. I'll have to look on gmarket for cute underwear.

Danielle - Dexter is a busy little boy. I can tell by your pictures!