Potty training a 17 mo old and an infant

[Wendy HS]

I hope this post is in the right spot. I am looking for some suggestions on potty training a 17 mo. old. Is there any recommended books? I trained my son, and it was not exactly easy, but no big deal it just took some trial and error since I've never done it before. I wish I would have started with my daughter when she was an infant, but I didn't know that was even possible until now. She is 17 mo. old and I have another baby coming in Oct. so I would really like to get started on the potty training with her now and not wait so long on with the next baby. What are your experiences with older babies and also newborns. I've been told you can actually train a new born to go in the potty, but I have no idea how to do it. What do you do at night, what do you do when you are in the car for awhile? What is the best book on potty training an older (17 mo. old) baby?, and what is the best book for training a newborn or infant. I know it must be different, but I have no idea how. Thanks.

[lisavark]

Hey Wendy, welcome to the EC forum! EC is a blast, it's easy to get hooked very quickly. Here are some great tips on starting older:
http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/index....ion=285:14:230

That site also has a lot of resources for starting with newborns as well.

My personal absolute favorite book on EC'ing (and I think I've read most of them) is The Diaper-Free Baby by Christine Gross-Loh. It has very practical ideas for starting at any age, so it's a great resource for you with both your toddler and your newborn. I was able to get it from my library, but I also found it in stock at Borders, which was pretty cool! You can get it from amazon, too.

While newborn is in some ways the easiest age to start, 17 months is actually a really good time to start EC--it's definitely a window of interest in potty learning, because they're so into imitating everything adults do at that point. Have your DD come with you to the toilet and see what you do, and get her a little potty that she can climb onto easily without help (the Baby Bjorn Little Potty is my favorite, but Ikea has a similar and cheaper one that will work if your DD is tall enough for it; it's a little higher than the BBLP). Switch to cloth diapers if you're not already using them, and start checking her constantly so you know right away if she pees and can change her so she will start to get unused to being wet. Whenever you can, have her nakey-bum (outside in the yard if that's easier, or on a wood floor, or else protect the carpet with a big fleece blanket and have some Bac-out handy), and talk to her when she pees. Pick a word (like "pee-pee") and say it with a similar inflection every time so she can recognize it by the sound of the way you're saying it as well as the words. Make up a song about how pee goes in the potty and sing it for her. When she pees on the floor, make a game of going over to the potty and sitting on it (only if she's willing). Watch her timing and try to get her to go potty with you at regular intervals. Expect lots of pee on the floor and don't stress out about it! Don't expect her to get it right away or to fully get it before the baby arrives. Be laid back about it and have fun with it, and keep your focus on communicating with her and helping her pay attention to her body, not so much on stressing about where pee should go. Pay lots of attention to her body language and try to recognize how she indicates her need to go (she might not do that at all at first). Pay attention also to factors like what she's eaten, the time of day, and the weather, all of which can affect how frequently she goes and how aware she is of her body. (Watermelon, for example, makes my DD pee on the floor without even noticing it, even though normally she's 100% in the potty now.)

No matter how much progress your DD makes before the baby comes, plan on her having a setback after the birth. Big changes like that almost always cause setbacks in EC. However, you can help her have less of a setback by letting her help you EC the baby. To start EC with a newborn, the easiest thing to do is to just observe at first. Put the baby naked on a blanket (or naked from the waist down) and watch when (s)he pees. Notice any body movements, facial expression, grunting, passing gas, kicking, etc. that might have been an indication that he is going or that he was about to go. While he's going, make a "cue sound"--usually a hissing sound, like water running--so he'll start to associate that sound with the act of elimination. Pay attention to how long the intervals are between pees (usually very short at that age, maybe 15-30 minutes). After you've observed for a while (maybe an hour, maybe a day, depends on what feels right to you), try picking him up when you think it's about time and holding him in the "classic EC position": head and back supported against your chest while baby is facing out, your hands supporting his thighs so he's kind of in a crouching position. With a girl, you can aim pee just by angling her legs up or down a bit; with a boy, you can use your index finger to aim his penis. Aim the baby into the toilet (or a bowl, or a potty, or a sink...) and make your cue sound.

I haven't tried myself yet (looking forward to it with the next baby, eventually!), but I've heard that older siblings often love to watch the baby for possible elimination signals and tell Mom when they think baby needs to go!

[Wendy HS]

Thanks so much for your help.

[Niki25]

I used The Potty Boot Camp. www.thepottybootcamp.com I downloaded it right off of the website for only $5.95 and I LOVE it. I got my daughter potty trained in less than a week. Goodluck!