Being Mamma Bear

Page 1 | Our first attempt and why I didn’t try again for another 2 years.
Page 2 - YOU ARE HERE - Daytime Pee Training Success
Page 3 | Daytime Poop Training Success
Page 4 | Tips, FAQs, and Links to Potty Seats

Daytime Pee Training Success

November 2019

By this time (at 3 years and 2 months) Laddoo was already in school for close to 5 months and communicating really well. She started telling me when she was peeing in her diaper – literally while she was doing it, and sometimes even when she was about to poop. During her bath time, she likes to sit in the bucket in the leftover water after she’s done with her bath. I noticed that she started coming out of the bucket on her own whenever she needed to pee.

This made me realise 3 things:

1. She knew about these two bodily functions, and could identify and differentiate between them.
2. She was able to control her pee until she got out of the bucket, which means she was able to exercise some amount of control.
3. She might actually be ready for potty training.

---

WHAT WE DID

Step 1: Conversations

We acknowledged her bodily functions. “Oh, are you doing susu?” or “Did you go susu already?” or “Do you want to do potty?” Even yes or no answers were acceptable from her.

Step 2: Accessories + more conversations.

We then bought new underwear for her, and that got her a little excited. We told her that she was growing bigger and that she could now wear underwear just like us. We associated growing up with something exciting (new underwear and being able to wear something like grown-ups) as opposed to saying that growing up equalled not being a baby anymore or the loss of diapers – something she was comfortable with.

We also added that if she did susu or potty in her underwear it would make the underwear as well as her clothes wet or dirty. So when she wore them, she had to tell us if she wanted to do susu or potty, and then, like us, she could do it in the bathroom (one of the perks of nuclear parenting that forces you to sometimes use the facilities with the door open so you can keep an eye on your child, and so they know how grown ups use the bathroom, LOL!). That got her more excited.

Step 3: Diaper free at home for Pee-Training

Once her naps stopped, I took the diaper off and put an underwear on as soon as she was back home. The first few days I kept asking her every hour or so if she needed to pee. When she said yes, we immediately rushed to the bathroom. Sometimes we went even if she said ‘no’, just to see what would happen. This was mostly when we were about to step out to go to the park and I knew it had been a couple of hours at least since her last wee. I told her it would be ‘magic susu’ and she was thrilled when she could pee even without feeling the need to go.

She wasn’t comfortable with sitting on the toilet seat so peeing on the bathroom floor was an acceptable alternative. I made sure I clapped for her and told her what a fantastic job she was doing. I turned washing up into a fun water-activity too. I also made sure to remind her every once in a while that while it was okay to pee on the floor, doing potty was not okay.

Over the next few days, we had only one or two accidents and even those were because she forgot that she wasn’t wearing a diaper. Luckily, these accidents happened at home when she was standing on the floor so it was super easy to clean up. Other than that, we had a pretty smooth sailing.

When these accidents did happen, I was super careful to not let Laddoo feel ashamed or embarrassed. There was no shaming, no scolding, no getting upset. But she herself didn’t like it, so it she didn’t let it happen. Within a week, she was using the bathroom to pee, sometimes going in on her own.

But as far as pooping was concerned, she still preferred the diaper.