How to Get a Head Start on Potty Training

Potty training, potty learning, whatever you want to call it, it is a milestone filled with bribes, questions, drama, and a few accidents. Why not start as soon as your child is aware of their movements? I started when mine was itty bitty, about 6 weeks, and would watch her signs that she needed to go and then hold her over the potty. She made her BM in the potty a few times as an infant, then life got in the way and I resorted to cloth diapers to catch them for me. Recently, around 9 months old, I realized that she would actually squirm and cry to be put down if I was holding her and she needed to go. She didn't want to soil her momma! I utilized this opportunity and bought her a potty, just to see what would happen. Holding her over the toilet bowl no longer worked, because she didn't want to be held while going.

I was so excited to order our potty I even told the post office people what it was when they helped me haul the huge box out to my car. Yeah, post office people are nice like that in small towns, they also know my name, my husband's name, my daughter's name, and my address. And I can write a check without giving them ID. About the potty, I was so excited to order it. I hardly have bought anything for our babe, I'm just like that, I didn't want to buy a bunch of baby paraphernalia. But when I do buy something, I research and choose something that will really work for us, like our Ergo. With the potty I actually got a little wild and ordered the big red throne-looking potty as well as a little blue potty just to see what worked for us.

We cloth diaper, and sometimes I'll let her go without a cover just so her bum can breathe a little bit. I started to notice last month that she *didn't* go while I was holding her without a lot of fussing and squirming beforehand. Hmm. Then she started going poopy (yes, I am a mom now, and I say poopy) either when we were making dinner and she was watching while in her high chair, or while we were eating dinner, while she was also sitting in her high chair. Hmm, I thought that maybe if she was sitting on a potty instead of her high chair, we could learn to go there!

After I finished our errands in town I brought in the babe, brought in the groceries, and finally got around to opening our package up. We took out "The Potties" and set them on the living room floor. By now it was almost 6, her regular pooping time, so I decided I'd set her up on the big one and see what she did. She thought it was pretty cool and just looked around. Her feet didn't really touch the floor, but she was able to balance just fine. She started fussing, so I put her on the little one. Like Goldilocks, she liked this one better. Within a couple minutes she was starting the poop grunts and I heard a little splat! We cheered and clapped and pooped some more! Then, of course, I called my husband, my mom, and my sister-in-law to share our news! She poopied in the potty!

I had read up on elimination communication/infant potty training when I was pregnant, and I knew that I wanted to do it when babe was born. We caught a few pees and poos, but with the Montana winters and a newborn in a not so well heated bathroom, I gave up on it. I did continue to change her pants often, hoping that she'd not get used to the feeling of wetness/dirtiness, so all of this may have helped. The 'infant potty training people' generally say that it doesn't work well to start after 5 months, but Babe is 10 months as of last week, and it seems to be working well for us!

More info on cloth diapers if you want to start with that is here