Pssssssss vs. Shhhhhhhhhhh

[laralou]

Do your babies get these sounds confused? I need to qualify that I do the shhhhhhhhh not to quiet the baby but to soothe the baby (it is thought that the sound mimics intrauterine sounds and is therefore soothing). I was wondering if they do learn the cue will they pee when I say shhhhhh or can they tell the difference?

[mamarosa]

I use a more Tssss Tssss sound for our pee cue. (PQ: LOL )

[CrunchyGranolaMom]

I've been wondering lately if the auditory cue is a long-term necessity? For our dd (born right after your girls, on 11/28), I've lately stopped making any cue sounds, and I just ask her "do you need to make?" or say nothing and just hold her over the potty. I think she's clued in to my holding her under the thighs more than the sounds (I was also a little worried that a "shhh" at the library would unleash the floods if it was mistaken for a "psss"). It all seems to me a better way to keep her in touch with listening to her body rather than turning this into a Pavlovian exercise. (But I think a cue sound could be very helpful in the early stages of beginning EC. You just got me on a ramble for something I've been thinking about lately)

Good luck with starting EC, Laralou. I think you're doing an amazing job with those fabulous kids!

[mamarosa]

I agree that the que loses it's necessity once babe gets used to the whole idea.

[rubelin]

the cue really does loose the neccessity, but we did still use it occasionally during veyr distractable periods to get DS's attention to the task at hand I also use a shhh for soothing, and he never ever confused the 2 sounds. I have always made them very different sounds and I used the PPssst cue more for a reminder than to create a Pavlovian response so that might have made a difference.

[laralou]

Thanks everyone! I changed my sig line in honor of this thread.

[CrunchyGranolaMom]

I am VERY impressed that your mind works enough to come up with that sig line, Lara! If you're sharing spare brain cells, I'll take a few!

[Karen1974]

Love that sig line too!! I still cue DD, but it's really more just to get her started. I've never had her get confused between ssss and shhhh (which I also use to soothe)

[Dodo]

I still use the ssss sound. I find it helpful, especially in new settings. We've never had any problems with incidental noise and accidental cueing.

Today dd used the sss sound to potty her stuffed animal. Very cute.

[veganmamma]

I love your sig line! We say Pee pee and poo poo. I know, very original. We also say and sign potty. Pee pee is the only signal we really give otherwise we just identify poo poo and potty so she kind of knows.
Lauren

[laralou]

Originally posted by lovinglife
I am VERY impressed that your mind works enough to come up with that sig line, Lara! If you're sharing spare brain cells, I'll take a few!

I didn't think of it on my own, I got it from mamarosa's post above. My mom always used to say we should "mind our p's and q's" when we went to neighbor's houses.

[buttercup]

When I first started, I used shh shh shh or just whistled when dd peed. For poo poo, I would nnnah nnnah. No, I really don't make noises anymore...I stopped when she was in her 7th month. She just does whatever decides to come out.

[Thalia]

Hi Laralou,

Babies can discriminate consonant and vowels sounds very well from VERY early on. In fact, they can discriminate MORE sounds when they are younger; they quickly learn which consonant distinctions are important in their native language, and lose the rest.

For example, babies born in a Japanese-speaking environment can discriminate between the /r/ and /l/ sounds from very early on, but lose that ability later as they learn more about their native language, which lumps these two sounds into one category.

Since the two sounds you are using are distinct consonant categories in English (I'm assuming this is baby's native language) she should have no problem telling the difference.

Aren't babies cool?