Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Potty Training: More Work Than Necessary?

Now, I know what you're probably thinking.  It is way too soon in my experience of motherhood to have an opinion on potty training!  And in my defense, there are some things that are always better thought about beforehand.  However, this is more of query to those with opinions than anything.  Recently I ran across a highly recommended pediatrician that has very radical instructions/opinions about potty training.  At least they sounded radical to me because I'd never heard them before.  His take is to not 'train' at all and eventually the child will do it on his own.  I would love for you to read what he has to say (it's just one page) and let me know what you think.

Dr. Kelly Stephens - Potty Training

Dr. Kelly Stephens - Radical Thoughts

On the way to church Sunday we passed a local nursery and they had pumpkins out! Not sure how handy I'll be in the carving department this year, but it made me excited and nostalgic all at once.  This is last year's adventures.

I made a couple of pumpkin pies from fresh pumpkin - no cans!  And yes, you can taste the difference - they were delicious!


5 comments:

Becky said...

Its funny that I happened to open this entry and read it. Dr. Kelly Stephens is my kids pediatrician and we love him, me and the kids. When Kaelin was first "old enough" to potty train, I ignored Dr. Stephens advice and decided one week we were going to potty train. And it was the most stressful, frustrating few days before I realized that he just wasn't ready. A month or so later I decided to try again, and much to my frustration he still didn't get it. I then finally decided maybe Dr. Stephens knew what he was talking about, I've followed lots of advice from him in the past and he was right. So I quit trying. We talked about using the potty, but I never tried to make him go. People told me it was time to potty train him and I told them we would when he was ready. Just before his 3rd birthday he decided he wanted to use the potty. He did and so we started using training pants instead of pull ups. He had some accidents, but it was extremely unstressful because he wanted to and he was 100% ready, not by my guidelines of ready but by his. It was so easy and it took no time before he was out of his pullups forever. I highly recommend anyone potty training to skip the stress and wait on the child to be ready, I plan on doing the same with Lily.

Anonymous said...

Hey Amy, you may also look into Elimination Communication. I won't say we were always consistent at it. But we will definitely be doing it again for any future children. I never "knew" she had to go, but rather just took her sometimes. And do wish I had been more consistent as it would have helped her out more, but at about 2 Jillian was COMPLETELY potty trained. Now, we did cloth diapers and I was definitely ready to be done. If you don't mind waiting until they get it, that may work for some. But some kids don't get it until they are like 4.....I wasn't willing to wait that long. The idea with EC is that it is natural to go in a proper receptacle and we simply train them to go in their pants by not offering them a good place to go. Just some thoughts :)
Debbie Washington

Melissa Wallace said...

Potty training is one thing that I never forced upon Ashlynn. Shortly after she turned two, I tried it and it didn't go well. I decided to just wait a little while. About three months later, she decided that it was time and she did it on her own. It was way more successful the second time around and she had it down within a couple of weeks.

I have contemplated about when to start Peyton. I've tried a couple of times because she has told me at times that she needs to go potty. It's basically after the fact.

I agree with Dr. Stephens when they say that when the child is ready, they will let the parents know.

In my experience with children, I have learned that each child grows at their own pace. You can't measure a child by charts or compare one to another or it will end up frustrating you. It is even more true when the children are in the same family. It is something I've had to work on because Peyton and Ashlynn did not hit the same milestones at the same time.

Thanks for the articles. They were really good and I enjoyed reading them.

I know you are going to be a great mom!!!

Amy Butler said...

Thanks everybody for your input! It helps me so much to consider lots of options long before I have to decide!

Tifany said...

I just came across this. We didn't potty train in the way that we spent months running back and forth between the bathroom and using pull ups and doing hit or miss. We did something called "Toilet Training In Less Than A Day" (It's a book - here it is on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Toilet-Training-Less-Than-Day/dp/0671693808). Dr. Phil has a rip-off shorter version of it here: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/264/

Anyway, that is what we used with both Lacie and Javan and it absolutely worked. I plan on doing it again with Westin. In the book it talks about the keys to knowing when your child is ready, and we did follow that so we weren't pushing too soon - but I highly recommend it! Just another option for you to consider. :o)

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