I am actually a bit embarrassed about this. Zane is basically potty trained.
That doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone, so for clarification: Zane goes potty both ways on the toilet. He wears training pants during the day and is diapered when he takes his nap and goes to bed. And while I am taking extra pants and “underpants” on our outings, we rarely need them.
He will ask to go when he needs to and sometimes he’ll ask to go ‘cause he’s bored or because he wants to wash his hands. He does need some supervision to make sure he doesn’t fall in while climbing up, flush 800 bazillion times, waste a ton of TP, and to keep him focused on the, um, task at hand. (And, well, to keep the tasks out of his hands, hence all the hand washing.) His wiping also leaves... something to be desired.
But for a kid who’s not yet two, I’d say this was pretty darn fantastic.
Here’s the embarrassing part: Ryan and I had nothing to do with it. Zane potty trained himself.
Sometime after his first birthday I bought a kid sized potty for the bathroom. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. We planning to start training when the kid was at least two, probably older, why rush things? But I wanted it the potty to be familiar when we did start. One less intimidating thing about this whole process.
Zane had other plans.
He sat on it and peed. I thought it was a fluke. The next night he peed and pooped. The train pulled away from the station without me.
A few weeks later he was spending all his time pants-less and had shirked the “little” potty for the big one.
Pants free is great. It’s convenient and easy. But if you want to go to Target, they prefer customers wear pants. Restaurants too, oddly enough. Three weeks ago Ryan and I decided to step in and take an active roll in this whole potty adventure. We were going to teach Zane to wear pants. Really, least we could do, right?
Step 1: Find training pants.
I thought this would be easy. I remember training pants from my childhood. They were cotton and had some extra padding at the crotch just in case you didn’t have your timing figured out. Turns out training pants are now called Pull Ups.
We didn’t use disposable diapers, we sure as hell weren't going to use disposable underpants.
Thank goodness for the Internet. We found Little Beetle Learners, and they are awesome. They’ll hold a small bladder-full, but Zane can tell he’s wet, and they’re bright and fun and cushy. (Jillian’s Drawers is also awesome, if you wanna try cloth you should check out their Try Cloth for $10 program.)
Step 2:Teach Bribe the kid to put them on.
I admit it. We were soooo smug behind other parents' backs. Our kid didn’t need bribes to go to the toilet. I never had to rummage through my purse in vain hope there was a forgotten lolly-pop in the bottom so the kid would go potty while we were visiting Grandma. Aren't we special.
At least we thought we were.
Given the choice Zane would rather go ultra commando then put the effort into trying to dress himself. So we busted out the gummy worms. Honestly, I don’t blame him, there are some days I wish I’d get a treat for bothering to dress myself.
We didn’t have to bribe him more then a handful of times, which is good, and now the critter can put on his big boy underpants all by himself. 3 times out of 5 they’re even on frontwards.
That was all it took. Zane now wears pants all the time (ok, most of the time, he still gets a fair bit of nakedy time on the weekends) and is even waking up from some of his (diapered) naps totally dry.
Don’t worry though, I bet the next one won’t potty train until they’re 5.
That doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone, so for clarification: Zane goes potty both ways on the toilet. He wears training pants during the day and is diapered when he takes his nap and goes to bed. And while I am taking extra pants and “underpants” on our outings, we rarely need them.
He will ask to go when he needs to and sometimes he’ll ask to go ‘cause he’s bored or because he wants to wash his hands. He does need some supervision to make sure he doesn’t fall in while climbing up, flush 800 bazillion times, waste a ton of TP, and to keep him focused on the, um, task at hand. (And, well, to keep the tasks out of his hands, hence all the hand washing.) His wiping also leaves... something to be desired.
But for a kid who’s not yet two, I’d say this was pretty darn fantastic.
Here’s the embarrassing part: Ryan and I had nothing to do with it. Zane potty trained himself.
Sometime after his first birthday I bought a kid sized potty for the bathroom. I didn’t expect anything to come of it. We planning to start training when the kid was at least two, probably older, why rush things? But I wanted it the potty to be familiar when we did start. One less intimidating thing about this whole process.
Zane had other plans.
He sat on it and peed. I thought it was a fluke. The next night he peed and pooped. The train pulled away from the station without me.
A few weeks later he was spending all his time pants-less and had shirked the “little” potty for the big one.
Pants free is great. It’s convenient and easy. But if you want to go to Target, they prefer customers wear pants. Restaurants too, oddly enough. Three weeks ago Ryan and I decided to step in and take an active roll in this whole potty adventure. We were going to teach Zane to wear pants. Really, least we could do, right?
Step 1: Find training pants.
I thought this would be easy. I remember training pants from my childhood. They were cotton and had some extra padding at the crotch just in case you didn’t have your timing figured out. Turns out training pants are now called Pull Ups.
We didn’t use disposable diapers, we sure as hell weren't going to use disposable underpants.
Thank goodness for the Internet. We found Little Beetle Learners, and they are awesome. They’ll hold a small bladder-full, but Zane can tell he’s wet, and they’re bright and fun and cushy. (Jillian’s Drawers is also awesome, if you wanna try cloth you should check out their Try Cloth for $10 program.)
Step 2:
I admit it. We were soooo smug behind other parents' backs. Our kid didn’t need bribes to go to the toilet. I never had to rummage through my purse in vain hope there was a forgotten lolly-pop in the bottom so the kid would go potty while we were visiting Grandma. Aren't we special.
At least we thought we were.
Given the choice Zane would rather go ultra commando then put the effort into trying to dress himself. So we busted out the gummy worms. Honestly, I don’t blame him, there are some days I wish I’d get a treat for bothering to dress myself.
We didn’t have to bribe him more then a handful of times, which is good, and now the critter can put on his big boy underpants all by himself. 3 times out of 5 they’re even on frontwards.
That was all it took. Zane now wears pants all the time (ok, most of the time, he still gets a fair bit of nakedy time on the weekends) and is even waking up from some of his (diapered) naps totally dry.
Don’t worry though, I bet the next one won’t potty train until they’re 5.