Melanie Williamson - The Complete Guide to Potty Training Children: New Sure-Fire Strategies that Make it Easy for Them (and You)

The Complete Guide to

Potty Training Children

New Sure-Fire Strategies that Make it Easy for Them (and You)

By Melanie Williamson

A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication and Acknowledgments

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Natalie, Allison, and Katelyn. They are my constant inspiration.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the parents who helped me through potty training and contributed to this book either directly or indirectly.

Introduction

My oldest daughter, Natalie, was about 18 months old when she started acting as if she was ready to use the potty, but I kept thinking she was too young to be potty trained. In addition, she was about to become a big sister to twins, and I was not sure I had the energy to attempt potty training at the time. When she was 22 months old, I put her in the thick training underwear, and I showed her how to sit on the potty chair. I would set a timer for ten minutes and make her sit on the potty chair every ten minutes until she went potty on it. Once she went potty for the first time, we celebrated by jumping around and cheering, we called her daddy at work so she could tell him, and we had a treat. From that point on, I asked her every 15 to 20 minutes if she had to go, and she was using the potty. I was thrilled, and I could not believe how easy that was. What I was not prepared for was the regression and subsequent rebellion.

Natalie was in training pants with few accidents around the house for almost a month when her twin sisters began rolling around, sitting up, and doing other things that demanded more of my attention. Up until this point, the twins had pretty much stayed in their playpens in our living room either sleeping or examining their baby toys. Natalie did not appreciate my decreased attention, to say the least.

She started having accidents around the house more often, or she would say she needed to go potty but only if I went with her. Once we were in the bathroom, she would insist I read her books or play with her. If I refused to stay in the bathroom and play with her, she would refuse to use the potty. Then, we got to the point where I would take her into the bathroom, she would refuse to use the potty, and then, she would run into the hallway and pee on the floor in the hallway. After three days of her not actually using the potty once, I could not handle it anymore, and I put her back in a diaper.