The Diaper-Free Baby_ The Natural Toilet Training Alternative - Christine Gross-Loh [50]
In any case, as soon as you notice she’s going to or has gone to the bathroom, cue her. Do you remember how to cue from previous chapters? If not, let’s go over it again. When you hold the baby in position or place her on the potty or toilet, you make a cue sound (many EC’ers like the “psss” sound), and if you do this at a time when you are able to catch a pee, baby will soon start to associate that sound with peeing. If her bladder is full, she will likely pee when you make that sound in the future.
It’s also a great idea to have an open-door policy when you yourself are using the bathroom. Let your baby see that you go to the bathroom too, and that you do it in a toilet. “Cue” yourself as you’re doing it and keep up a conversation with your baby about why you are doing this. If you haven’t already done so, teach her the American Sign Language sign for “toilet,” and use that sign liberally when you are going to the bathroom. Your baby’s at an age when all these conversations are going to have an accumulated impact, even if you don’t think she seems to be getting anything out of them right now. And finally, showing her that you use a toilet to go to the bathroom will lead naturally to the next step, which is to teach her where to pee and poop.
Learning Where to Eliminate
You will want to introduce the potty and/or toilet (with seat insert) at this stage. Bowls and other portable containers still have their place, but with a baby this much older and bigger than a newborn, it really makes sense to use a potty right from the start. Some people like to let their child sit on the potty fully clothed for a few days before trying it diaper-free. Others find that it works well for them to start right away with naked time on the potty.
It’s not at all uncommon for babies to want to play with the potty, especially if you are using a potty that has a lid. (That’s why I like the Baby Bjorn Little Potty; with no removable bowl or lid, it’s less distracting.) Be relaxed about this; as with any new object in the house, your child is going to be interested and want to spend some time exploring it, but you also want her to learn that it’s for elimination. At some point, the potty will be commonplace to your baby, and then you will find it actually serves as a useful cue: many mobile babies will crawl over to a potty and even start patting it, playing with it, or trying to sit on it as a sign that they need to go to the bathroom!
Hannah, ten months
The challenge at this age is keeping baby interested enough to sit on the potty without coercing him to stay there. Your baby does need to sit for a minute to be able to relax his muscles and release his bladder. You can help him to relax at these times—quite a few parents have special toys or books or songs just for potty time. If your baby is on a potty, he will probably be so fascinated by his ability to get on and off it by himself that he will want to practice this skill over and over, rather than sit still on the potty. This is another reason why some parents start using a toilet insert at this age—if baby is happily sitting on a toilet insert and is entertained by toys or books, it won’t even occur to him to try to get off the toilet by himself, since it’s way beyond what he’s physically capable of. Thus, he will turn his attention to other things and will be able to sit there long enough to go to the bathroom. Be