Annika Joy

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Christmas is a good time for potty training

Perfect time to do potty training is right now!

Why? I will tell you 😊 For potty-training you need a calm and supportive atmosphere. It is important to schedule extra time for that. It is perfect when you can take 1-2 weeks off, or at least a long weekend. Now Christmas are coming and we have COVID-19 special situation. That means external events are supporting you to take time for the family, for your child and potty training. Use it wisely 😊

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Diapers and the environment

Disposable diapers make our life much easier. Cleaning after your baby is nothing like it was 100 years ago. Nowadays it is much easier to change diapers and clean after your baby. Unfortunately, often we don’t think how our habits influence the environment. Disposable diapers are like plastic. Diapers stay in the environment for 500 years, but unlike plastic they are not recyclable. If you use 5 diapers per day (an average according to UK Environmental Agency report) it makes 1825 diapers per year per child. Now think how many how many babies there are…. It is a lot of diapers. Does this problem need to be solved?

I believe that our children deserve a clean environment. By making conscious consumer decisions everyone can help. I sincerely recommend not to start too late with potty training. The best and easiest age for potty training is actually between 20 to 30 months. When you start at this time (or even before that with elimination communication) you can save lot of diapers. This means you help to keep our planet cleaner for your children and grandchildren. Our children deserve a cleaner planet.

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Choosing a potty

There are many different solutions available on the market. Which one to choose? I recommend to buy a simple toddler potty chair. They are designed for small children and perfect for the size of toddlers. Physiotherapists say that the best pose for pooping is when the legs are close to chest (think how you do it 😊). A little potty chair enables your child to take this pose naturally.   My favorite potty chairs are the ones with removable inner part because they are so easy and comfortable to use.

Other option is to use toddler toilet training seat which you can put on the normal toilet. In this case toddler needs a special step stool to climb up on the toilet and the parent has to keep an eye out for accidental loss of balance. It might happen that the child falls down from the big toilet. The other downside is that the body position with legs hanging down does not support pooping.

There are also many different travel potty chairs. Some of them you can even put in your purse. During active training period it is good to have a potty chair always with you. Trust me, you will need it 😊 It’s possible to carry around (in car or under the stroller) a normal potty chair or you can buy a special travel potty chair. It is your choice.

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Constipation

Constipation is often a big problem in potty training. Constipation can make pooping painful for your toddler. This may even create a fear of pooping for your child. What can you do in this case?  How can you help your child?

The first thing that helps is water. Nowadays children (and also adults) often just don’t drink enough. More than half of a human’s body is water – infants body consists 70% of water, adults 60% and seniors 50-55%. Water is just essential for our life and it is very important to drink enough.

My daughter had this problem – she didn’t like to drink very much and pooping was very hard for her. I could see that from her face. Pooping was also painful for her. Water helps to make excrement softer.  Softer feces make pooping easier for child. Water is the best. Soft drinks and juices do not help against thirst so well. I don’t recommend to use them. Be sure that your child drinks enough WATER.

If your child doesn’t like to drink water it’s your job to make it interesting for him/her. One idea is to use a special bottle what makes drinking more interesting for the child. My daughter likes to drink with  a straw. 😊 Be just creative and make drinking fun. Water really helps against constipation.  

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Summer is perfect for potty training

This week we had Mid-Summer day. It has been a beautiful time with family and close friends (big events are not allowed due to COVID-19). Anyway, actually I wanted to write about summer and potty training. In my opinion summer is the best time for potty training. It is warm. There are not many clothes and it’s easy to change if your toddler wets his/her pants. Also it is easy to carry an extra pair of clothes with you. In summer you can even leave your child without pants during active training 😄

Of course in some areas there is no big difference in summer or winter whether. If it is always warm the season doesn’t matter for potty training. But in areas with cold winter it is easier to do potty training in the summer. In wintertime you have to have a lot of clothes and you don’t want to have an accident with your toddler outside. Therefore, when you have a toddler who should be potty trained then it is perfect to start when it is warm.

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Commitment in everything

Being committed and consistent. These are the most important things in potty training. It takes time. Often parents ask from me for the best and fastest way. Unfortunately, there is no good answer that fits everybody. There isn’t any magic trick or method that works for all. We have to remember that all children are different, unique. You can’t find two persons that are identical.

Let’s go back to two most important things in potty training – commitment and consistency. It seems to me that nowadays it is harder for parents to be really committed and consistent. Especially, when compared to parents who raised their children   50 years ago. I believe that it is related to technological developments. Now we have smartphones and internet everywhere. The brain science has shown that our brains love new information. This is the reason why our brain loves social media so much. It is so easy to get new information from there with just one small thumb movement. Is it good and useful information is another question? 😊  Scientist have shown that nowadays it harder for people to concentrate and to be really committed and consistent. We are living in fast and stressful world which is overloaded with information. There is too much information everywhere and it makes harder to concentrate. People have often also feeling that they miss out on something (oftentimes they can’t even pinpoint what it is they are missing out on 😊) Every moment there are just happening everywhere so many different things. Therefore, it is harder for people to be really committed and consistent.

I recommend you to look the potty training as a process where you can train consciously your skills in commitment and consistency. It is not possible to teach the child how to use the toilet with a moment. It takes time and patience. All big and great things in life need time and patience. Rome wasn’t built in a day. 😊 Potty training gives you amazing opportunity to train commitment and consistency. These skills will give you an advantage in every field of life. 😊

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Welcome!

I created this blog to share my knowledge on potty training. I will share here different topics related to potty training – personal stories, results of scientific research and all kind of other related topics. Please let me know if you have some specific topic that you would like to know more about. You can do it here under comments. My goal is to support you in all possible ways during your potty-training journey. I see it as a journey, because you both – you and your toddler – will grow during this process. One will learn a new skill – how to use potty and the other how to support someone to learn this skill.  Likely you will encounter some difficulties or resistance on the way but in the end you will be happy and content. You will have a potty-trained child. It is like a hero’s journey. I’m pleased that I can support you during this journey 😊

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