Potty Training Yuri: The Success!

I was supposed to publish this yesterday but I had to deal with the bane of my existence: no internet connection.

It has been more than 4 weeks since Yuri has been relatively successful in using the potty during daytime.

I say "4 weeks" because Yuri had finally consistently used the potty chair a week before his 2nd birthday, which was 3 weeks ago.

Sorry for the foul language; I couldn't find one more accurate hahahaha!

Yes, I couldn't still believe it. My boy was daytime potty-trained before his second birthday, and, well, I did it single-handedly. Yeah!

*accepts medal of valor*

*accepts gentle but firm slap by the Holy Spirit and returns to seat*

Anyway, I say "relatively" because ther are still, as expected, accidents. Especially the time when he ate too many slices of watermelon during dinner. The next morning, there was poop everywhere! To give Yuri credit, though, he did say "potty" before he helplessly pooped down my shorts. And he looked more mortified than me! Poor boy!

So how did we achieve this relative success? Here are some tips I can give you:

1. Do not force the child.

My kid is used to schedules and routines because both I and his yaya are sticklers for routines. However, in the case of potty-training, I let him be mainly because I know Yuri can be easily discouraged. I just bought a potty chair and let him be familiar with it.

One thing I did which you shouldn't do is be visibly stressed around the child. Stress is contagious and he can easily see the act of pooping and peeing as incorrectly stressful.

Also, don't ever force the kid to sit on the potty chair. Gently guide him to it and encourage him to sit down but don't ever do what I once did which is physically restrain him to the seat. Choose your battles, momma!

2. Do not stress yourself about the 2-day or 3-day methods.

Like what I mentioned, Yuri is familiar with routines and is visibly becoming a schedule-person. However, these routines, like naptime and outdoors-time, were established over months. While I heard of 2 and 3 days methods, I know it wouldn't work for Yuri.

Why? Because it's pretty shocking. I mean, the boy was pooping and peeing in his diapers all his life! Suddenly making him do these stuff seated on a chair can be downright scary. It wouldn't be fair to make them shift into this new stage in life in just a couple of days.

Then again, some babies really do learn to potty in just a matter of days. If yours does, congratulations! If yours does not, high five!

--- Okay, what I gave you were more on mental and emotional tips. What about physical and material preparedness? Here are more of my tips:

3. Potty-training is most stress-free if the child can communicate.

I'm pretty blessed to have a talkative child, and to be honest, it made the process of potty-training a lot easier. This is because he can easily tell me if he needs to go potty.

I'm not talking about just verbal communication either. Some smart mommas teach their babies sign language which makes communication easy and efficient. Even if your child can't talk yet but can easily relay to you the poop and/or pee message, then I say go for it!

Not all will agree with me, but if you're not yet very comfortable about your child's communication skills - but he'll get there! - I really suggest you be patient. Save yourself and your child from the unnecesary stress. Again, choose your battles!

4. Choose the right potty chair.

I cannot recommend a specific brand or even a specific style of potty chair. This is because children are different, and the potty chair needs to suit the child well.

For example, my son has pretty simple tastes in toys. He would favor cars over electronic toys with all the bells and whistles. In fact, he's happy to play with blocks and the parts of his indoor basketball ring. Because of this, I'm confident I can buy him a simple potty chair.

But not just any potty chair! I chose one that has the same color of our toilet bowl. Because of this, he can easily see the connection between his "potty liit" and our "potty laki." And I realized it helped him understand the chair's purpose!

What about you? Is your child the bells-and-whistles type or is he more of the simple, low-maintenance type?

5. Place that potty chair IN ONE AREA.

I believe it's vital to have different potty chairs in different parts of the house to avoid accidents - but only after months of potty mastery. Don't quote me on that because it's just a personal observation of my son but, hey, it makes sense!

You see, at the beginning, when I talked about his few days of regression, I placed the chair in the living room so that his yaya could assist him. However, I realized two things. First, he wasn't comfortable doing the deed in "public." Second, he's more comfortable to have just me at the audience.

So now the potty chair is firmly planted inside our bathroom. Yuri is also very strict about having just me handling his potty business. When I'm in the middle of something and he tugs on my sleeves and says "potty," it's hard to complain because he looks very cute! Yours are, too!

6. Let the babies start wearing panties/briefs early.

As opposed to the US culture, cotton underwear for babies is not a foreign concept in our home. In fact,a few pieces of underwear were included in Yuri's newborn shopping list. It didn't help in the newborn days (ITALIC) at all, but wearing them from time to time made my Yuri's patintin breathe. Ahh.

I'm not sure it really helps but by the time Yuri was ready to potty-train, he was already very familiar with briefs and panties. In fact, when he was around 20 months old, he could last throughout an entire morning without wetting his underwear. But the point is that when he did wet them, he knows the icky feeling, which - (ITALIC) maybe - boosted his potty readiness.

So if you want to minimize wearing diapers (even cloth) and do not mind having additional laundry load, I suggest you start having your baby wear panties to make them realize what wet really feels: yucky and icky!
.....

I could really go on and on with these tips - sometimes, I think I'm a pathological, compulsive unsolicited-advice-giver - but I need to stop there to avoid making potty training look really complicated.

Because it's not. It is difficult, time-consuming, and patience-testing, but in hindsight, it wasn't really that complicated. All one needs to do is master proper communication with her child, remember to be relaxed and gentle, and always affirm the child.

PS: I say "daytime" because truth be told, I'm not in any hurry to potty-train Yuri for nighttime. I still enjoy my 8-hour sleep, thank you very much.

However, Yuri might have different plans. Just last night, at 5am (his usual waking time is 7-7:30 am), he hugged me when I was sleeping, and, in a sleepy voice, whispered, "Potty. Potty tayo, yes."

Okaaaay. :-)