Early potty training used to sound like a completely unnecessary hassle to me. I’d read articles about mothers trying to read their babies cues as early as 4 months of age. They developed the ability to know when their child was about to pee. About to pee? How did they do that? It’s not like a baby grunts to go number one.
And yet, there was something appealing about having a 2-year-old who was completely potty trained. Still, I didn’t plan to do it with my kids.
As children begin eating solids, it becomes very obvious when they are about to poop. Gone are the days of easy, explosive, breast fed poops. It requires a little pushing to get the new, firmer poops out. Since I could almost always tell when my baby was about to poop, I decided to give early potty training a try. It’s going well, and here are some tips for other parents interested in doing the same:
1. Don’t get stressed out about it. If your child poops in his diaper without you realizing it, no big deal! Try to get him on the potty when you see him pooping, but the rest of your life doesn’t have to stop.
2. Consider buying a small potty. I have mixed feelings about this, as I want our daughter to be accustomed to going on the “big” potty. I want her to be able to go regardless of where we are, and public restrooms don’t typically carry child-sized toilets. However, it is very nice to be able to set your child down on a toilet and walk away. A child also may feel more secure sitting on a toilet with his feet planted firmly on the ground.
3. Make going poop on the potty a normal activity. Sometimes our daughter poops on her potty in the bathroom. More often than not, I bring her potty into the living room, and let her play with toys while she’s pooping. (Warning: beware of babies who try to put their toys down into the toilet. It makes for a disgusting discovery at the end of the toilet session, and a yucky clean up for mom.) When she poops, I say, “Good job! What a big girl!” but don’t make a huge deal about it.
4. If your child resists the toilet (aka throws a fit as soon as you sit him down), take him off the potty, wait for the next time he has to poop, and try again. The toilet shouldn’t be a scary place, or a punishment, and you don’t really want negative feelings associated with it.
Good luck!