Elly Joy Johnson's Experience in Potty Training

 

    UPDATED ON February 16, 2000!
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February 3rd, 1999-
Today Elly ( 10 weeks) showed progress in our training experiment.  I say experiment because this is my first attempt to train an infant to void on cue.  I caught Elly before her bowel movement, which usually are not very regular.  She was sitting in an infant seat on the floor next to me when I heard her make grunting sounds.  I needed to be quick or I was going to miss my chance to get her over the bathroom sink before she started pushing.  I praised her by saying "That's great Elly.  You're pooping!"  I took off her clothing from the waist down and held her over the sink, with her back to my chest and my hands holding her legs up, in a squatting position.  I made "our sound" which sounds like "ssssss" and she began to grunt again.  In one rather explosive sound, she pooped and was done.  This took about three minutes in all.  Because I was moving my children's bedroom arrangements around, I put Elly in a diaper.  She did wet in it because I missed her cues.  I am remaining flexible as I have five other children to care for and cannot always be so observant.  My goal is to train (her and myself) every day as best I can...praying all the way.

February 4th, 1999-
I would like to explain a few things about the post from yesterday.  First of all,  Elly is breastfed exclusively and because of that, her bowel movements are very small and loose.  When I say that she pooped in the sink, I never thought that some people might think that is gross.  To me, it is no big deal.  I just rinse it down the drain and wash the sink with a cleaner.  It is up to you to choose the container you would like to use.  I also use a little plastic bucket when we go out or at night when I do not feel like getting up.  I rinse that with a mild cleaner after each use.
Today is going well.  Elly remains dry and our routine is being formed.  It seems that Elly wets within ten minutes of her feedings and then again in a half an hour.  She has never peed while sleeping.  I love that I feel more in tune with Elly because of our attempt to potty train.  I feel I know her better than I did with my other children.  I pay more attention to her needs because I am more aware of her signals and her attempts to communicate them to me.  I'm feeling really positive about this and this has affected our relationship in a good way.
February 7th, 1999-
This weekend has been very busy.  We have been out alot and busy while at home.  Our training has gone fairly well considering our schedule.  I am trying to train my ten year old daughter, Kaitlyn, to learn Elly's signals so that I can get some extra hands involved.  It will be a blessing to have her help.  Elly is going through a growth spurt right now.  She is nursing alot more than normal, therefore she is eliminating alot more.  I have noticed that our normal times for peeing are off because of it.  I plan on spending some of my afternoon tomorrow getting back on track by observing her, making our sound ("ssss") while she pees and  recording it on paper so that I can get into a rhythm again. It really does seem to "go like clock work."  Just as she seems to be hungry at certain, regular times, she also eliminates regularly.  I plan on including Kaitlyn in our afternoon's observation time.

February 20th, 1999-
I am finding it difficult to get time to enter my journal on the computer, as you can obviously tell.   Our days are just flying by and I cannot believe that it is the middle of February already.  Elly is three months now.  Her training continues and we are having new success.  I took a suggestion of a friend (Marie, thank you!) and started setting a timer to remind me to get Elly to the potty.  This has helped me tremendously.  Now I can get my things done knowing that I will not forget when the last time I took Elly to the toilet.  Elly has more control of her neck muscles now and can hold her head up nicely.  It seems to make her happy and we find that she picks her head up slightly when she has a bowel movement, almost as if she is finding a better position to push in.  She responds well to our signal to her that it is time to pee ("ssssss") and she even knows that when we hold her in our position (her back to our chest with our hands under her knees, drawing her knees to her chest) that it is time to go.  I am finding that our verbal signals are becoming less important, although I still use them.


April 19th, 1999-
We are in the midst of selling and buying a house.  Due to the lack of time on my part, I am afraid that  my efforts in potty training Elly have gone by the wayside.  I have NOT given up hope.  Once things settle down, I expect to hit it with full force again.  One thing I have noticed is that Elly cannot stand to have a wet or soiled diaper.  She fusses at once if I do not change her, which indicates to me that she IS aware of her diaper being wet.  She still responds to the "sssss" cue and that will help me when I can get back to our training.  This experience has been wonderful.  I LOVE the closeness that I have shared with Elly through potty training as an infant.  I loved getting to know her cues so early in life.  I will continue to update this page once we are in our new house.  God Bless!

September 9, 1999-
We have moved into our new home and life is returning to normal once again.  Elly will be 10 months in three days and I cannot believe that time has passed so quickly.  I had completely stopped my efforts to train Elly to use the potty because our life was so very unsettled for several months. Around the middle of August I decided to try Elly on the toilet again.  I was expecting her to have forgotten everything we had begun, but she DIDN'T!   I put her on the toilet and made our "sssss" sound. She started grunting immediately and within a few moments, she had a bowel movement.  Keep in mind,  I had not been working with her at all since before April!  I had not  received any of her signals that she used to use to indicate that she was going to move her bowels.  She just simply responded to something deep within her.  At first I thought it was a lucky break.  I tried later on in the day when I was changing her diaper.  I set her up on the toilet and she pushed instantly.  The result was another bowel movement!!  I called all the children in to watch and they could not believe their eyes!  We broke out in giggles and a round of applause for our little Elly.  This is amazing to me.  We started off using a technique that I was very skeptical about and now I am seeing incredible results after months of postponing our training!  It is my prediction that Elly will start using a small potty chair within a few months.  Once she can walk, I expect that she will sit on the chair by herself when she feels the need to go potty.  I am so excited to think that our babies can retain this kind of memory and it re-emphasizes to me how crucial these first few years are to our children.  Elly may not remember being placed on the toilet, but she remembers what to do when she is set on one.  She may not remember all the hugs and kisses she has received, but she knows how valuable she is to God and to us!  If we are ever blessed with another child,  I am going to use the Trickle Treat method without a doubt.  The benefits are so wonderful.  I love to see Elly smile and giggle when she knows she as pooped in the toilet.  She KNOWS!!  Babies are amazing!  God Bless and we will keep you posted!

December 10th, 1999-
Elly is continuing to use the toilet with great results.  If I put her on, say after a nap, and she does NOT need to go,  she makes it very known to me by pushing her body forward in protest.  I imagine her thinking "Hey!  I didn't tell you that I need to go!"  I am learning to trust her to communicate the need to go, rather than assuming it is time. This is the time where I am truly seeing the fruits of this method.  I am so glad that I will not face toilet training during her "two's" and "three's."  In the past I have waited until this time, only to be faced with my children's temper tantrums and defiance when they would rather go in their diaper than to do something I wanted them to do.  This milestone in Elly's life will pass with only joy!  She has grown up thinking that this is how we do it.  She knows nothing else.

One of the criticisms I have received recently after sharing Elly's training was this:

"Children aren't animals that need to be trained like dogs.
With my children we didn't even mentioned potty
training until they were over 2 years old, and then
they understood what was going on and were ready for
it.  It was simple."

This was from an older mom who felt it was rushing childhood to potty train from infancy.  I couldn't disagree with her more!  I explained that this experience was not one of rushing through babyhood.  (Anyone who knows me would know better than that!)  Rather, this experience left me feeling very bonded and close to Elly.  I must say that I feel a bit of pride about knowing Elly so well.

This same mother went on to say:  "The same with teaching our kids to read, they read when they were ready.  My son wasn't ready until he was 9, but when he finally started to grasp reading he learned very fast."  While I applaud this mom for not pushing her child,  I pointed out to her that she still exposed this child to books and the alphabet song, knowing that the reading would follow.  This is what I have done with Elly.  I have exposed her to the toilet from infancy.  Soon she will be using it completely on her own.

I encourage mothers to ignore negativity regarding infant potty training.  The rewards are priceless.

As a side note, I am expecting our seventh child in the middle of May, 2000.  You can bet that I will be training this baby to use the toilet from birth .  I can hardly wait!
 
 


 Kaitlyn, age 11 helping Elly go potty.


February 16th, 2000-

Elly is now 15 months old and is communicating very well.  Her potty training was not going so great UNTIL we started training our two year old, Isaiah, to go on the potty.  Suddenly Elly's interest has peaked again and we are finding that she is wanting to be placed on the toilet.  (Through her illness back in December, we put disposable diapers on her because she was just too miserable to bother with being placed on the toilet. She got out of the habit and when I tried to reestablish our routine, she was not interested.)   Now she is going to the bathroom door and knocking on it to let us know that she has to go.  When she does this, I ask her "Elly, do you need to go potty?"  At which she shakes her head no, which is her backwards way of saying yes.  She still has "accidents" when she is busy playing, but so does my three year old.  I expect this.

Our large family thrives on routines.  We have a certain time for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We have quiet time , running time, reading time  and lego time to name a few examples.  I have found it very easy to include potty time into our day.  This has somewhat formed Elly's elimination habits as her body is accustom to going at certain times of the day.  I know that she usually has a bowel movement around 9:30 AM and then again after her nap at 3:00 PM.  This helps me watch her carefully in case she forgets.  My goal is to have my two year old trained before the new baby arrives in May.  I could possibly have had three in diapers had I not used this method of training with Elly.
Instead, I will have more time to spend with my new little one, and you can bet we will use the Trickle Treat method with him or her.

May 17th,  2000-

Elly's response to seeing her little brother pee and poop on the toilet!  Elly is now 17 months and I was hoping to be nearing the end of  our training stage.  For a while she was showing NO interest in  using the toilet so I didn't push her.  Now I am regretting that
 I wasn't a LITTLE more assertive in our training.  She is willing to sit on the toilet again and she cues herself verbally, which is very amusing to me.  She gets on the toilet  and says "sssss" to herself. The results are actually better if she handles it herself.

 Elly has recently began showing lots of signs that she is an  independent girl.  I can't help feed her at all.  I can barely  help her get dressed!  She says "Me!" when I offer help. While I encourage that to a degree, I feel she also needs to know that she still needs to obey my directions. It will be interesting to see how this pans out with our training.  I am watching the clock and telling her that we need to go potty instead of waiting for  her to remember.  She often is too busy to notice when she needs to pee and poop, or maybe a better way of saying it is that she's too busy to care.  :)
Between Elly's continued training, Nathanael's training, and Isaiah's (2 1/2 yrs) training, I am a very busy person.   Sometimes I feel like my day is only about bodily fluids!  :)
 
 

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