Potty Training

I didn't use any particular method for potty training. I did read up on them but I knew I wasn't cut out for the 3-day-lock-yourselves-in-at-home-method. I first introduced her to the potty at 9 months because I had read that a high percentage of kids around the world are potty-trained before 1 year. She would pee on it and even pooped once but it seemed like a waste of effort until she could tell me she needed to go. I wasn't sure when you start potty training after that but we kept the little potty in her bathroom upstairs and one downstairs. She also had a little book she liked to read about the potty.

About a month or two before she turned 2 my husband was getting her bath ready for her. She was naked and just sat on her potty and peed.  Then, when she finished she picked it up, dumped it in the toilet and flushed it. We decided to follow her cues and put a potty in the living room. She would sit on it and pee but she didn't really understand how to take off her pants so she would pee on it through her pants. The main problem with this stage was that she wouldn't tell either of us before she had to go, she would just do it on her own.

We started just keeping her pantless while at home and that worked great for a while. When we would go in public I put a Pull-Up on her and took her to the adult toilet in every place we visited. I wanted her to know that there were toilets everywhere, not just at home. After about a month of this, we quit using the Pull-Ups. By then, she was keeping one dry all day.

About a month after we began this whole process she started to tell us before she had to go. She would say "Oh, I pee pee!" and run to her potty. We through a huge party every time she did this and told her how proud we were of her for telling us!

When we first switched just to undies, she had some accidents here and there but we stuck with it. She still uses a diaper at nap and bedtime because I still put her down with her sippy cup of milk. Until I wean her off drinking milk for bed I don't think I can expect her to stay dry at night.

She has been potty trained now for about 3 months and almost never has an accident. She went through a brief regression stage when we put her in preschool but I think it was more of a control thing more than the lack of ability. We kept her in undies and after 2 days of that, it stopped.

I've heard sometimes potty trained kids will regress when there is a new baby so fingers crossed that doesn't happen. I didn't follow a plan but I did watch Avelyn and respond to her cues of being ready. I felt like she did it backwards with going on her own and then telling us when she needed to go but that's just our girl for you!