A Good Pooper

When James was about 7 months old, I ran across a potty training article on some parenting website (I honestly don't remember which one). This article mentioned that when most toddlers start potty training they have had little to no experiences with the toilet. It was suggested that this could make the first times on the potty very intimidating or even scary for the child. The article proposed that letting the child have some positive experiences like playing games, singing songs, or even reading books while sitting on or near the toilet before starting potty training might be helpful.

They really meant this as advice for parents of children around the ages of 18 months to 3 years, however when I saw the Baby Bjorn potty seat in the store I thought, "Why not start now?" So began our "Positive Potty Time." I took off James' diaper, sat him on the potty, and we read books and sang songs. He loved it! Something about having Mommy sitting on the floor with her head lower than his made him so happy. He could look in my eyes, grab my hair, and easily take the books out of my hands. So fun!

We continued to do "Positive Potty Time" a few days a week when, suddenly, something new happened. James pooped in the potty! I gave him tons of praise and we waved bye-bye to the poopy as we flushed it away. James was thrilled with Mommy's happy reaction even if he seemed confused about why I was so happy.

Since James generally poops first thing in the morning, we moved our "Positive Potty Time" to this part of the day. Between the ages of 7 and 10 months, James pooped in the potty 10 times.

James seems to have recently entered a new stage of understanding and his ability to remember events and make associations is far beyond what it was even a month ago, so I decided to ramp up my potty efforts. In seven mornings, James pooped in the potty four times and each time he pooped within 5 minutes of being placed on the potty. The other three mornings, he just plain didn't need to go. On the eighth morning, I forgot to take him and my reward was a dirty diaper. Oops! Bad Mommy. Today was day nine and we are back on track.

So, to sum it up, if James needs to go and you put him on the potty first thing in the morning, he will go. He's 5 for 5 on that front. Best of all, fewer diapers to wash = happy Mommy.

And, when Mommy is happy, everyone is happy.