Pee Whew!

I've been reading about potty-training and I stumbled upon this helpful article on the web.

In www.keepkidshealthy.com, Dr. Belinda Chou, M.D. enumerated four indications of child's readiness for it.

First, she said that a child should have the physiological or "bladder" readiness, indicated by a child's ability to hold larger amounts of urine between voids (defined as discharge of urine from the bladder at www.Answers.com). You may check your baby's diaper every so often to check the interval between voids. The longer the interval, the greater the possibility of readiness.

Second, the child should recognize that she is voiding. If she doesn't even know that she is peeing, it is impossible to teach her to pee on the potty.

Third is physical readiness. This pertains to the child's physical maturity. Can she stand up, walk towards the potty and pull her undies down?

Fourth and last on her list is psychological readiness or what she calls 'willingness'. I so agree on this one because I think, without it you will not have her cooperation and all your efforts would be futile!

In a Google e-book by Linda Sonna, she told of a story about a four-month old baby who is toilet-trained. The baby's mother claimed to have started toilet-training her baby from her fifteenth day. She said she would put the baby on the edge of the toilet, make a hissing sound, and within seconds, the baby would pee.

There are a lot of successful potty-training stories online but the one thing I liked most was Ms. Lea Salonga's story. Ms. Salonga, a renowned international Filipino singer, shared in www.Inquirer.net, how she trained her two-year old daughter Nicole Beverly, or Nic as she fondly calls her.

She said that, in the beginning, she followed advice from several people like putting her baby on the potty first thing in the morning and start her on her panties so that she'll get used to the feeling. Unfortunately, these didn't work for Nic so she looked up the web and did her own online research. She decided on trying one that stirred her curiosity...keeping Nic naked from waist down the whole day, wearing her diapers only during bedtime, and stationing potties all over the house. Nic needed a lot of convincing at first but eventually got more comfortable. Lea also gave her rewards to encourage her to keep going. She said that from day 3 onwards, things got easier and Nic even wakes up from her nap completely dry.

I think I want to try this one on Reesey starting tomorrow. I hope I also get the complete cooperation of Ate Ora even if I'm not at home to supervise...