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7 Months of Infant Potty Training

Infant Potty Training is a method of start to take your child to eliminate on a toilet or other receptacle starting early in life. I started potty training my DD regularly at 2 ½ months. My reasoning for doing this was that it is done successfully in 80% of the world where they spend more time with their children; I wanted to wash less diapers, and I HATE changing soiled diapers.

At the beginning I only had about 60% success with keeping her diaper dry. This success rate has increased dramatically over the past few months as she seems to void less during the day and she is voiding on the potty more. She also seems to understand that she is going potty. Recently, she has shown signs that she knows to go potty when we say her potty signal. In the last week I have also stopped using a diaper while at home during the day, except for naps and going out, with great success on the potty and my clean floors. However, there are still days where she will still wear a diaper all day if we are going out of the house or I am too busy to have her sit on the potty ever few hours.
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My Infant Potty Training Story

My daughter has never cried or fussed over having a wet or dirty diaper. I finally made this realization after watching another child who fussed if her diaper was too wet. After this became known to me, I almost lost hope for DD becoming potty trained early; however, I am still convinced Infant Potty Training is the best way for me as I despise changing soiled diapers, I want my daughter to be potty trained early, and I want to conserve on water usage.

At about 2 months which was before the training officially started I watched DD for a few days to learn her elimination timing. I placed a waterproof pad under her. I also tried to set her on the potty right after she woke up and after feedings. Once I felt I knew when she eliminated, I started placing her on the potty more.

I started out holding DD over the toilet from 2 ½ months to about 4 ½ months. On the day I officially started IPT, I placed DD on the potty about every hour starting when she woke up. I quickly realized she voided more often right after she woke up and then tapered off to about every hour after the first hour. She seemed to need to void about every ½ hour for the first 2 hours of then day then every 45 minutes to 1 hour thereafter for the day. I mainly stuck to timing and would take her to the bathroom after feedings and after she woke from a nap. I was successful after feeding and nap times about 80% of the time. The rest of the time, I only averaged having a dry diaper about 60% of the time.

I had some days where I changed a wet diaper every time I went to change her and she didn’t void on the potty at all. I also had other days when I only changed 2 or 3 diapers in the day and she voided every time I put her on the potty. Generally, thought, she voided 3or 4 times on the potty and I also changed 4-5 diapers in the day.

DD only had 1 BM a day in months 2 - 4 ½ . She almost always waited until she is on the potty before she had a BM. I even put her on the toilet for her to void and then she unexpectantly had a BM or I could tell when she needed to have a bowel movement because she would start to tighten her stomach muscles and grunt. I was successful at having her BMs on the toilet 95% of the time. I did not rely on timing with BMs as she was not always consistent with when she had a BM in the day. If she was with another person from the family she usually went in her diaper, as they couldn’t tell the signs of a BM. I can count the number of times in a month when I washed a soiled diaper so I was generally successful with understanding her signs of a BM.

From months 4 ½ to the start of month 8 she used a potty seat by safety 1st that attached to the toilet . I didn’t actually attach it, but took it on and off every time I set DD on the Potty. This was a wonderful seat and I don’t know how an older baby could use this as her bum fit over the hole perfectly, and I did not feel she could fall through. I started solids at 4 ½ months so her BMs changed and I only had about 1 soiled diaper to clean each month. She also started voiding on a regular pattern which was also less frequently. When we went out of the house I tried to remember to set her on the potty before we left and would still hold her over the toilet after a feeding or nap while we were out. Most days we only used 3 or 4 diapers.

At about 7 months DD tried to have a potty strike by arching her back when I tried to set her on the potty. I would then hold her or put her on the potty backwards. She would still try to arch her back, but it was into my chest. This worked until she discovered she could pull the toilet seat down and pull herself up at the same time. She may have been trying to tell me that she didn’t need to go potty; however, she still did void sometimes (she never arched her back when she had a BM.)

When DD started crawling I noticed that she would come to me and start to grunt when she was starting to have a BM. She has continued to crawl to someone when she needs to have a BM as long as she is able to and I promptly take her to the potty.

I finally broke down a purchased a Baby Bjorn Little Potty at the beginning of the month (her 8th month). This has worked out wonderfully so far. She loves to sit on it, and prance her feet on the floor or play with toys while on the potty. She did try to arch her back once or twice and I put her on the little potty backwards as well. I also seem to be timing her voids more adequately as she has gone several days in a row with only needing 2 diapers and I check them hourly.

I stopped using diapers while at home during the day except for naps when DD was 9 ½ months. I realized that DD knew to go potty when I said a potty cue, and I also knew that she went potty about every 1 ¾ hours to 2 hours. We have had a few “accidents”; however, they weren’t accidents. They were times when she had not voided in over 2 hours and I found myself too distracted to take her to the potty. I could have easily avoided the cleanup by taking time out for her to setting her on the potty, as I was never doing something where I couldn’t have stopped. Luckily, we do have wood floors in most of the house so cleanup wasn’t too messy.

My overall experience with Infant Potty Training has been positive. My mother and I are the only ones who take my DD to the potty and my mother only visits about once every other week. Therefore, the majority of this process has been my doing. I feel that this is worth the time and effort as I have only changed very few soiled diapers over the last 7 months, I’m sure I have washed less diapers, and I feel that DD is learning what it means to go on the potty. Early in the process, I needed to remind myself often that this is a means to an end. I now feel that my efforts are successful, my daughter is inching her way closer to being fully potty trained during the day, and I see the end of diapers during the day is near.

*Note: I use disposable diapers at night as my daughter is a super-duper soaker.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 19th, 2005 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Diapers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.