It’s official, my household has transitioned into the potty training stage.  My little guy is now 13 months and we are starting early.  Growing up in the Philippines, my mom told me that my brother and I were potty trained by age one.  Back in the day, disposable diapers were not in fashion where we grew up, so babies learned to potty train early.  After doing some extensive research (talking to a bunch of moms and reading a lot of books), we decided to give potty training a try…

Some things we’re doing:

• Staying on schedule – after drinking milk, we set a timer for 15-20 minutes and then, we take a trip bathroom.  When I’m at work, my husband helps a bunch to make sure that the little one goes potty on a regular basis.
• We’re keeping a positive attitude – Since we’re so excited about the potty chair, the little guy is super excited too and he just loves hanging out in his potty chair.  We give loud cheers when he uses the potty  and keep things kind of low key when he doesn’t potty – just get him dressed and out playing again.
• During the day, our bathroom door stays closed, so to the little guy, going to the bathroom is a special treat.
• We say the same phrase over and over again.  He has now associated “Going to the potty chair” with our bathroom area.   When we say, “It’s time to go on the potty chair”, he heads straight to the bathroom door and waits for us to open it.
• We have a special bathroom bin – in the bin we have 3-4 of his favorite books and a few toys – he loves going through his bin (which keeps him on the potty chair longer).
• We’re also flexible, if he sits on the potty chair for a few minutes then want to get up, we let him and he’s off and playing again.

I realize that potty training is a process and will take some time (and a lot of patience), but we wanted to give it a whirl – We’ve had 4 successful potties so far this week…  Wooo Hooo!