This will be the first part of a two part post on potty training. This part will deal with the basics of potty training, and the second part will deal with the various and assorted complications of potty training.
The Difference between Stay-at-Home and Childcare
When I first started trying to potty train in a child care setting, I quickly learned that it was entirely different than trying to potty train my own biological children. Number one, when my children were small, disposable training pants were just beginning to be a big thing. We could barely afford the diapers. Therefore, continuing to shell out for disposable training pants was not an option. I did it the old fashioned way with cloth training pants and lots of laundry. Also, I was a stay-at-home mom and had the luxury of putting everything else on hold for a couple weeks to concentrate on the potty training. Most child care providers do not have that luxury. Lastly, the regulations in our state did not help matters. Many of the techniques I had used with my biological children were deemed developmentally inappropriate. I did not even know where to begin but I gave it my best shot.
For the first couple of years I really struggled. I was used to potty training taking about a month to get to where a child was basically potty trained unless that child was extremely stubborn like my middle child, and she took six months. However, in the childcare setting it was taking a year to a year and a half to get the children to the point they were basically potty trained with accidents continuing regularly for another six months or more. Something was wrong with this picture.
Using Rhythms and Consistency
The first step I took was to apply my knowledge of how much rhythms and consistency are important to small children's biological clocks. I had known for a long time that if naptime is consistent and around the same time each day eventually a child's biological clock will take over, and nap is no longer even an issue. Therefore, I applied this same concept and had potty times scheduled into our daily routine at around the same time each day for those who were in disposable training pants. Of course, fully potty-trained children just took themselves when they needed to go. This was only for those who were in the potty training process, and it did shave off about 3 months in how long it was taking to potty train. However, many children just simply waited for the pull-ups to go back on to do their business especially pooping. At this point I decided the disposable training pants had to go.
Disposable Training Pants Are Not Your Friend
I had come to the same conclusion in which many experts who deal with children with special needs have come. Disposable training pants are just glorified diapers and do more to hinder the potty training process than help. This was going to be a hard sell. Disposable training pants were convenient and protected the floor from pee puddles. Parents were not very open to going back to the old fashioned way of doing things. I knew I would have to prove my point before I would be able to win the parents over. Therefore, I bought a bunch of cloth training pants and plastic pants and prepared to do lots of laundry myself. I had not used the plastic pants with my biological children, but I needed a way to protect the children's clothes for the most part from accidents. I still used disposable training pants for the first three months or so in order to give the child time to adjust. Then I switched them to the cloth training pants with plastic pants. Again, this step shaved off another 3 months from the process taking us down to six months to a year for children to reach basically potty trained instead of the year to year and a half. This was still not acceptable.
The "Whoosh" Effect
At this point in the history of this childcare, we completely remodeled our big room and put down laminate flooring to replace the carpeting. I now had the opportunity to test out how much the plastic pants were hindering the process. Therefore, I ceased using the plastic pants and low and behold, I did discover the missing piece. I call it the "whoosh." When a child pees his/her pants for the first time when they simply have on cloth underwear, they get to experience the sensation of not having their pee caught by a diaper, disposable training pants, or plastic pants. This is an absolutely necessary step to complete the potty training process. Many children do not like this sensation at all and conquer potty training soon after the switch to cloth underwear occurs. I was having children attain basic potty training status in a couple of weeks instead of months. Not all children were getting there so quickly, but over half of the children were. However, there was one more vital piece of information I lacked.
The 20 to 21 Month Window
I received this vital piece of information while I was taking a class on infants and toddlers. We were discussing the developmental milestones of toddlers around 20 to 21 months, and one of my fellow classmates piped up and said this was the perfect time to start potty training. I had always waited until after the child was two years old to start potty training. This woman had been a family child care provider for 20 years so I wondered if maybe she was on to something. I determined right then that the next normally developing child I potty trained would start at 20 to 21 months. I was flabbergasted at the results. My experience had been that the first 3 months of potty training would have little or no progress while they were still in disposable training pants. However, even in disposable training pants, these children were making significant progress on potty training before they ever reached two years old. I decided to switch to underwear around two years old and had the same or better results as I had when I stopped using plastic pants. This has to be the best kept secret in America. Who knew that we as a society have been waiting too long to potty train. Actually our ancestors had this knowledge. When I made this discovery, I asked my mother when people would start potty training before the advent of disposable diapers. Her answer was between 18 and 20 months. Turns out that the convenience of disposable diapers caused us to lose a valuable piece of information.
I will continue the discussion of potty training in my next blog, which I hope to have posted in the next several days. I hope you have enjoyed this post. Goodbye and God bless!! Check out Natalie's children's books at: https://www.amazon.com/author/nataliewade7457
No comments:
Post a Comment