I don't know about you but after two
years of changing cloth diapers I was
ready to be done but the question is
when do you start potty training well in
this video I will share seven times that
it could be to some mom star very early
with a practice called elimination
communication I mean some of these
children don't ever even wear a diaper
and there's other moms that use age as
kind of their marker so they'll say okay
at 18 months I'm going to start or two
years or two and a half years or
whatever and then another set of moms
will actually have their older children
teach their younger the way of the potty
but based on my research and experience
I decided to let my child tell me when
he was ready and I just found that this
was the most gentle and easiest approach
for both baby and mama so how did I know
that my child was ready well here the
top seven signs one child takes pride in
accomplishments and like some
independence this is actually really
important because it's showing you that
the child is emotionally prepared to be
potty trained because it is kind of this
mark of independence I mean no longer
will you be caretaking for them in this
way by changing all their diapers I
think this is really important so some
signs of this would be if your child
says hey mom look at this look at this
or look what I did or I made this or I
can do it myself those are just little
signs that your child is starting to
break free and ready emotionally to be
potty trained now if your child isn't
showing this kind of sign you can't do
little things to help encourage
independence for example if you have a
family pet like we have a fish I started
letting Griffon feed the fish it was
only something that he would do and he
loved it or let's say you go to post
office and you've got some mail to drop
in the box you can have your child
offer them the mail and they could put
it in themselves and just see if they
start to like this feeling of doing
things by themselves to child will
occasionally have dry periods
now I remember Griffin would sometimes
wake up from his nap I'd go to change
his diaper and it would be try like wow
that's pretty crazy he took a two hour
nap or sometimes had been three or four
hours I'm like okay Griffin it's time to
get changed again I would go to change
him and his diaper was dry well this is
showing us up
biologically they are learning bladder
control and that their little bladders
are able to contain liquid for longer
and longer periods of time 3 your child
doesn't like wearing dirty diapers for
long periods at some point your child is
going to start getting really
uncomfortable with a poopy diaper or
really wet one and they'll come up and
tell you poopy diaper or I got PP or I'm
what or change my diaper and this is
good this is a sign that they're
understanding kind of the connection
between their bowels and their body and
they're kind of how they feel about it
you know Griffin frankly never had this
experience however once he was potty
trained when he would wear his little
underwear and he'd have a couple
accidents he hated the feeling of having
wetness there or poopy in there and this
is all really positive and good and for
a good I think it's because our kids get
so old at some point I don't care how
absorbent this diaper is it just can't
contain these big eliminations so this
is all good in a natural part of the
process for your child notices others
going potty now this is the classic
thing right every time you get a moment
to yourself and you go to the bathroom
you feel your child knock it on the door
they come in and they want to see what's
going on now first I think it's more
about just being you know with you and
kind of companionship but eventually
they'll start getting curious like what
are you doing in here and can I see and
can I flush it and oh that's a big one
or wow that's a tinkle sound or and this
is all good in fact I would show Griffin
like here you know and this is how mommy
why isn't it done then have him flush
and because you want to start opening
this dialog and just showing him how
this process works
Griffin even started noticing our
family's pet going potty so we'd be
walking Hershey and he would notice oh
my gosh her she's going peepee her she's
going poopy then sometimes he would
imitate him he would literally squat on
the grass and be like I'm going peepee
like Hershey again he's noticing how
this whole process works which is great
now if you don't have pets you could
probably find a video on YouTube of
something or even go to the zoo and show
them you know how that all works and
these are great guide posts for your
child as they're learning this process 5
the child sometimes says they're going
potty this is kind of a fun development
but randomly sometimes Griffin we'd be
walking to the park or something and he
would just stop freeze frame and just
stand there like Griffin what's going on
he'd say I'm going peepee
or other times you'd be playing with
those toys and you just look up and say
mom I just want PP so this is just a
sign again that they're understanding
like hey I just released I'm learning
how my body is functioning and how this
whole process of going to the bathroom
works 6 it becomes obvious when they go
number 2 now earlier Griffin would
always keep me guessing I mean I would
just have changed his diaper we go
downstairs start playing with something
all of a sudden I would smell something
I'm like you've got to be kidding me I
just changed home you know and he would
just drop them here and there in the
midst of playing and I never knew when
it was going to calm or anything like
that what a certain point your child
starts to get into a little rhythm and
some children even go at certain times
of the day and it becomes really obvious
when they are going they have to stop
and they kind of grunt sometimes and
they might turn a little bit red and it
just becomes this experience and it's
very obvious that they're going number
two and in fact as this progresses you
might even notice that your child wants
to be alone when they do number two so
they might go into a corner behind a
couch Griffin even started going into
the bathroom and shutting the door
that's what I knew it was time to start
potty training and number seven child
will try out potty before we even
started the conversation of potty
training I bought a couple and I just
put these little potties around the
house and Griffin would play with it he
sometimes would sit on it and then I
just started experimenting and taking
off his diaper letting them sit on it
and he never really went on it but he
wasn't afraid of it he wasn't resistant
and he started to understand like oh
this is my potty so if your child is
showing strong resistance or just acts
afraid of it or anything like that I
would hold off and wait a month or two
and try again reintroduce that potty and
see how they feel around it so where do
you go from here well if your child is
showing many of these signs then you're
ready for my next video which is how to
potty train your child there'll be a
link in the video description below I'll
also put links to some of my favorite
potty training books these are little
stories you can read with your child to
kind of get them thinking about it and
get them prepared for this process I'll
also put some of my favorite potties and
little songs and just some helpful tools
that will help you during this process
you