Monday, July 20, 2009

Potty Training Continues

I happened to have a free few minutes one morning last week and found that Dr. Phil was having a look back over the years of his episodes. One was about day-long potty training, which we have been having issues with. So, I planted it on the couch, set the DVR to record, and watched in disbelief as the child on TV complied with Dr. Phil and in one afternoon began peeing on the potty. One of the tips he gave was to let your child teach something that was "lower on the food chain"- ie. a doll- how to go on the potty. A light went off in my head and I immediately thought about Monkey and how Piggy loves to sleep with Monkey, eat with Monkey, and play outside with Monkey. So, it was only logical that she should use the potty with Monkey. But first I would need figure out a way for Monkey to go pee pee. See, on Dr. Phil, he had a baby doll that would go when you squeezed at little bladder on its back. We have no such babies in our house, in fact the majority of the babies are stuffed animals- so I had to improvise.


I grabbed a peri-bottle (you know the wash bottles for postpartum) and I snuck it behind Monkey and called to Piggy to come and see Monkey pee pee on the potty. Well, Piggy was quite impressed with Monkey and demanded that Monkey do it over and over and over again. Finally, both Monkey and I were worn out and I had to explain that Monkey was "all done" and now Piggy needed to try to pee pee on the potty. You would have thought I had just told her I saw elephants flying (or monkeys peeing on toilets)... she has no interest in doing anything other than sitting on the potty and begging for M&Ms. I guess it will just take more time... Thanks anyway, Dr. Phil.

Until we get there, we will continue using our various assortment of wonderful cloth diapers...

5 comments:

  1. Well if you would like, I have the book and we used the methods for Potty Training in One Day, just not in one day. But our kids did pick up pretty quickly. If I can dig out the book you want it?

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  2. I saw that episode the other day also! I was hoping I could put it to good use here in a couple of years. Did you make sure to throw a big party when Monkey went pee pee on the potty? hahaha

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  3. Oh, we had a huge party... lol. Not really. All the silly noise makers from her birthday got eaten by my littlest baby- the goat. And so I just sang her a song... "That's how we tee tee on the po-tty. That's how we tee tee on the po-tty. That's how we tee tee on the po-tty. Yay yay yay yay yay." Hey, at least she likes the song... :)

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  4. That is BRILLIANT! I need to dig out my peri bottle...

    Peanut has gone on her potty about 6 times now, and twice has actually asked to go on the potty - she's knows when she's going, so I think that's the first step, but we are having making it. We went mostly diaperless yesterday and NOTHING made it in the toilet. Oy!

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  5. Molly, I cannot believe that your Peanut is old enough to go to the potty!! Virginia will hold it all day long, do the pee pee dance, let a little bit come out, and then refuse to continue. She will wait until nighttime when we put a diaper on and go then, completely leaking through. I'm sure her bladder will rupture... it is all very dramatic. :)

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