infant potty training

This week me & Douglas are going to start potty training Isabella. Yes she is not even 2 months old but she is holding her head up very well, even scooting a little bit when I lay her on her belly, and I can usually tell when she is going poop.

If you don't know about infant potty training, you should. Have you ever wondered what people in other parts of the world do with their babies? The ones with babies strapped to their backs, I mean they don't just let them poop on them do they? I didn't learn about infant potty training until Douglas was around 9 months old. I wish I would have known about it sooner. My main source was "To Train Up A Child" by Michael & Debi Pearl. They also have a website, www.nogreaterjoy.org, where I also did some research. Now I don't agree with all of their teachings or everything they believe but when I hear something like this or like what "On Becoming Baby Wise" teaches I can't help but wonder why I hadn't thought of it myself. Why this kind of thing isn't common knowledge. It just makes sense. I think, "Duh!" With the help of Baby Wise now with Isabella when she gets tired I go put her down in her crib or playpen. I can walk away and she goes to sleep with virtually no fussing or crying. She just tries to go to sleep on her own. With Douglas we can be almost anywhere, I can take him aside, tell him it's nap time & that he needs to try and go to sleep & he will. It's awesome! It took a little bit of work but it was definitely worth the effort! It's so nice to not have to worry about fit throwing, crankyness, or anything like that. Don't get me wrong, they aren't perfect and things still happen. (tired kids are cranky kids) But knowing what to expect for the most part is so nice and I can enjoy my kids so much better, and so can everyone else. Don't you just hate it when you can't/don't want to hang out with a friend because you don't want to be around their kids. It's sad isn't it?

Here's an excerpt from one of the articles I read prior to starting with Douglas:

"Starting a habit is so much easier than breaking one. As adults, we have the will power and the understanding to change a habit. Yet, even so we find it difficult to go against a habit and are always tempted to fall back to the former ways. Think how hard it would be for a two-year-old to break a lifelong habit. It was okay for two years to soil a daily diaper or two or three, and suddenly their parents are looking down at them and saying, "Stop going in your diaper; I want you to teeter over this great big hole that if you are not careful you might fall into and get flushed down." I can easily see why an untrained child would be afraid and fight against it." {via nogreaterjoy.org} Now that you read that aren't you thinking, "well that makes sense, I never thought about it that way?!" That's what I thought.

In chapter 11 of To Train Up A Child entitled "Potty Untraining" Michael Pearl begins with a section called "no more diapers":

"On a missionary trip to Central America, we were amazed by the practice of the primitive Maya Indians in not diapering their babies prior to stuffing them into a carrying pouch. Their infants were all potty trained. After experimenting on our own, and after further observation, we discovered that infants are born with an aversion to going in their "nests". Parents "untrain" them by forcing them to become accustomed to going in their clothes a child instinctively protests a bowel movement. He kicks, stiffens, and complains. Being sensitive to the warning signs (after having changed 17,316 diapers with the first three), my wife tried it on our new arrivals. When she sensed that the child was about to "go", she would go to the toilet and place the bare infant against her bare legs in a spread-leg sitting position. Dribbling a little stream of warm water over the child's private parts helped provoke the start of an impending "tinkle". As the child began urinating, she would say, "pee pee". On other occasions, if she missed the signs and a bowel movement was in progress, she would rush the child to the bathroom to finish on the toilet, while occasionally saying, "do do". Even if the child was through with his elimination, she still set him on the pot in order to reinforce the training. He came to identify the sound with the muscle function. Our children became so well trained to the voice command that we had to be careful not to say the words at the wrong time. We could be bragging to our neighbor, say the magic words, and induce a release."

To me this made so much sense, and even if it didn't work what could it hurt? I was determined to try it! Guess what, Douglas learned in about 3 or 4 days what if felt like to poop and what he needed to do when he felt he needed to go. If I though he needed to go I would put him on the toilet and say "try and go potty" and he would strain. He still does that when I think he needs to try. Like before we go to the store, or I have him try before his bath, or before bed. The rest of the time he lets me know when he's gotta poop (for the most part) and I try and ask him frequently if he's gotta pee. He's doing pretty good and getting better. I believe that maybe if I had started trying to train him earlier he might already be potty trained.

On their website they also make the comment that "It is more the parent being trained than the baby. You just have to be consistent in "your" training." It just takes you paying attention to your child and "going with your gut"


Another thing to understand is that it's not a discipline thing. When they have an accident it's okay. All you're doing is trying to start the habit early and get them comfortable with sitting on an uncomfortable place for someone so small. Here's are links to other articles they have on the subject on their site: ("potty training answered", "baby-potty-training","one-more-time" )

There is also another website I kinda liked called diaperfreebaby.org. This is the page on their website I got some of my info from. I'm not crazy about their site, but they do have some good info, they are just a little "earthy" for me. I guess earthy would be the word lol. I believe we'll be practicing what they refer to as

{Part-time EC
Part-time EC'ers are generally committed to practicing EC consistently, but not necessarily round-the-clock. They practice EC to whatever extent they feel able to accommodate, and they and baby benefit by remaining aware of elimination.

Part-time EC'ers may use diaper backup but also employ some "diaper-free" periods, perhaps once a day or several times a week or whenever they feel they are in a situation which will allow them to enjoy a stress-free, enjoyable bonding experience - for instance, in a carpet-free part of the house or outdoors. Even by just catching some catches every day, parent and baby can remain remarkably aware of elimination and patterns.

Part-timers may begin to practice EC on a more full-time basis when baby is older and going longer between elimination, signaling more overtly to be taken to the potty, or showing signs of approaching toilet independence.}  {via}

I guess we'll see how Isabella does and I'll keep you updated.