Everyone's going to have an opinion about toilet training their own kid. Some will choose to train at one and a half years old, others will extend the milestone to two or three years old. I believe the right way is the method that fits each parent-child partnership the best. Toilet training takes a lot of patience and work from caregivers and children and no single technique is perfect for everybody.
I am training my seven and a half month old with my family's tried and true method, which I'll call the "Asian Shushing/Hissing System". I name it "Asian" after having plenty of poo-pee conversations with my other friends and find that nearly all my Asian friends were raised on a variation of this method and now use it successfully for their own spawn.
My mom toilet trained me and my four siblings by the time we were one year old. Sounds incredible, I know. But it's true! We were raised wearing cloth diapers and it's believed that babies don't want to sit in their own waste, especially when they can feel it. Modern disposable diapers are so good at wicking away moisture that babies don't seem to mind sitting in a soiled diaper. That is the case with Lulu. She's the kind of kid to poo her pants and keep on playing.
My sister Kiki sent me her spare Baby Bjorn Little Potty for Lulu. I wasn't quite sure where to start. I hadn't done any research on potty training yet, but I had an idea about how the "Asian Shushing/Hissing System" worked. Simply put, after a baby wakes up from a nap, we place her on the potty and make a soft SHHHHH-like (or HISSSSS-like) noise to "tickle" the bum. This noise helps the baby pee or poo. With time, the sound will produce a Pavlovian response, causing the baby to go to the bathroom upon hearing it.
Reading your baby's cues and signals when she has to go to the bathroom gets easier with time. Poo is pretty easy to predict, however, pee is much, much harder (at least for me). The "Asian Shushing/Hissing System" works by combining the "mandatory" wake-up bathroom visit with general elimination communication.
The first time I put Lulu on the potty, she was a little scared of it. It was completely new to her and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I sat with her and gave her a toy to play with. After about five minutes she got up and we had an empty bowl. I gave her some encouraging words and we got ready for the morning. The next day, I tried again. After Lulu stood up, I could see that she peed in her bowl! We celebrated with some real earnest hand clapping. For the remaining two naps of the day, Lulu also peed in her bowl. It was a great day!
The whole routine is still new enough in our family that it's not yet systematic, however, Lulu's gone to the bathroom in her potty more than 50% of the time. That's a pretty good start if you ask me! I have no idea how long it will take to toilet train Lulu. However, I'm pretty stoked with the progress we've both made so far. Although this system is demanding (you have to be pretty clued in on your kid), I'm very excited to stick with it.
Following are a few helpful links I found while reading up on toilet training:
Potty Training: How to Get the Job Done (Mayo Clinic)
Potty Training Basics (Baby Center)
Toilet Training (Ask Dr. Sears)
Lastly, here's a cute Japanese video on potty training:
To be continued...
