Day 23

If you google 'potty training' you'll come up with 2,960,000 results. AMAZING right?! Narrow that search down to 'potty training children' you'll get 1,700,000 results... still a large number of websites claiming to know the BEST way for YOUR child!

The 10 top phrases to interest you =
10. Signals your child is ready to be potty trained...
9. Signs to watch for to begin potty training your toddler...
8. Start with our checklist to determine if the time is right...
7. Potty training usually begins between the ages of 18-36 months...
6. Potty training in one day
5. Potty training made easy
4. Potty training is a complex skill...
3. ..this method is NOT for parents. It was designed for children in order to take as much work off the parents as possible.
2. The color I recommend for stimulation while potty training is red. Red is the color associated with the base chakra which controls the kidneys...

Any my personal favorite...


..."It's actually very similar to potty-training a dog"

Yes, that's right folks... some of these websites claim that potty training a child is VERY similar to potty training a dog. If this is the case... couldn't all children be potty trained by the time they are 10 weeks old? Maybe if babies wore red (see #2) the first ten weeks of life they would be potty trained FOR SURE and no longer need any diapers and always whine at the door to go outside and pee...I guess we'll have to try that with our next child.

The point is that everyone has their own theory... some pediatricians recommend waiting until your toddler tells you that they are ready. For some eager three year old children this may actually work... but for others that love to play and hate to stop the fun... well that's a different story. Haven't you ever been having so much fun that you don't want to make a pit stop?! Can you blame them?

To my delight there were websites on EC (Natural Infant Hygiene)... but these were few and far between the other PERFECT ways to potty train your two or three year old! Interesting enough the theories between 'conventional training' and EC aren't that different. In both you 'watch' for your child's signals (yes at two they can verbalize words, but in infancy they can verbalize sounds), you try to 'catch' a void, you use a cue word such as "let's try and go pee" equivalent to our "Annie go pee pee," and you make sure to be patient!

Ahh patience...we are practicing this daily with our sweet daughter. Amazing how a little thing like EC can teach you patience and how to show it to your young daughter.

Although it was fun to browse through these website they all had the same message... be patient, work with your child, let your child guide you, listen to your child, do not push your child, follow these steps and you'll have success, train them in sections (bowel first then bladder)... and most importantly if you want them to be fully potty trained early... you should have gotten a dog!

Today I learned: We should have trained Annie to ring a bell to pee... maybe then this would be similar to potty training a dog!
Diapers saved today = 7
Money saved today = $1.40
Money saved to date = $38.40