Gus and I have started potty training Max. I just finished reading a book that suggests our society potty trains children way to late. We've had Max on the potty from the very beginning, but we decided to take on the task with a little more determination. The book recommends moving your child from diapers to underwear at age 1 and then making regular trips to the potty. It offers a number of solutions to help your child enjoy time spent on the potty, including reading books and playing while you are using it.
In our case, the advice may be working too well. Max loves the potty. He sits on it happily and hands you book after book out of his book bin. In most cases, he fails to actually let you read the book, unless it is the one where you make the chimpanzee noise. Roughly 2/3rds of the time he bestows a pee upon the potty and everyone rejoices. He is very interested in this event and stares intently between his legs into the depths of the potty to see if anything is there. Much to our distress, if he cannot see well enough, he will reach in to see if he can feel anything.
The potty training book claims that your child will need to pee every 2 or 3 hours. I don't know what 1-year olds she had, but ours goes roughly every 20 minutes. I've become convinced that he is just rationing his pee for more potty opportunities. Who knew potty training could work too well?
I still find it fascinating and stare down all the time. Don't worry about Max, I've been broken of the habit of reaching in for some time now.
ReplyDeleteThat's very comforting (if a little disturbing). Any pointers you want to give Max would be appreciated:)
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