I really feel this! My first child was like this with the wrestling. It was so goddamn awful. When it felt like diaper changes were ruining our relationship, I knew something had to change, so I started potty training. He was about 16 months then and ended up fully poop trained by about 18 months and fully using the potty by 2 (this is not the case with my second child, who is almost 2 and still fully in diapers, but who doesn’t wrestle when getting changed, at least). I know you weren’t asking for advice but hope it’s ok to share solidarity and what worked for me ❤️
thank you so so much for sharing!! i actually am asking for advice in this area because i feel like he deserves better, he hates the changes so much i want to relieve (lol) him of them. was there a particular method you used with your first? also thank you for the context with your second that’s always so helpful to remember every child is different 💞
I had also dabbled in EC, so I didn't have the idea that potty training had to be all or nothing and done all at once like so many of the programs/methods tell you. I was ok with it being exploratory at first. I had the Go Diaper Free book from Andrea Olson (she was a big EC influencer of sorts a few years ago, not sure what her deal is now) and used a bit of that, too, as she has different approaches for different ages.
I know there's a lot of talk about "readiness" but I strongly knew he could understand what to do and learn how to do it. Basically, I just started by taking him to the bathroom with me and talking about what I was doing. I got some little Baby Bjorn potties and put them in a few places in the house. Most importantly, we did diaper-free bottom-half naked time almost 100% of the time at home (it was the early months of the pandemic, so very easy to do this). I set alarms on my phone and would happily yell "Potty alarm!" and make it a fun game so he would get excited to go to the potty frequently. He would also sit on the potty during downtime while watching like Daniel Tiger and whatever—he definitely understood what to do and I think his body also just gradually learned to release there when he was relaxed.
It definitely took some consistency on my part and was not instantaneous, but it was SO much better than both of us sweating and frustrated during poop changes. I also was grateful he was pretty acclimated to potty stuff on the earlier end, as I watched friends struggle more when their kids were closer to 3. If you want the PDF of the Go Diaper Free book, lmk and I'm happy to email it to you. Hoping for a less stressful potty/diaper life for you and your son soon!
I really feel this! My first child was like this with the wrestling. It was so goddamn awful. When it felt like diaper changes were ruining our relationship, I knew something had to change, so I started potty training. He was about 16 months then and ended up fully poop trained by about 18 months and fully using the potty by 2 (this is not the case with my second child, who is almost 2 and still fully in diapers, but who doesn’t wrestle when getting changed, at least). I know you weren’t asking for advice but hope it’s ok to share solidarity and what worked for me ❤️
thank you so so much for sharing!! i actually am asking for advice in this area because i feel like he deserves better, he hates the changes so much i want to relieve (lol) him of them. was there a particular method you used with your first? also thank you for the context with your second that’s always so helpful to remember every child is different 💞
I had also dabbled in EC, so I didn't have the idea that potty training had to be all or nothing and done all at once like so many of the programs/methods tell you. I was ok with it being exploratory at first. I had the Go Diaper Free book from Andrea Olson (she was a big EC influencer of sorts a few years ago, not sure what her deal is now) and used a bit of that, too, as she has different approaches for different ages.
I know there's a lot of talk about "readiness" but I strongly knew he could understand what to do and learn how to do it. Basically, I just started by taking him to the bathroom with me and talking about what I was doing. I got some little Baby Bjorn potties and put them in a few places in the house. Most importantly, we did diaper-free bottom-half naked time almost 100% of the time at home (it was the early months of the pandemic, so very easy to do this). I set alarms on my phone and would happily yell "Potty alarm!" and make it a fun game so he would get excited to go to the potty frequently. He would also sit on the potty during downtime while watching like Daniel Tiger and whatever—he definitely understood what to do and I think his body also just gradually learned to release there when he was relaxed.
It definitely took some consistency on my part and was not instantaneous, but it was SO much better than both of us sweating and frustrated during poop changes. I also was grateful he was pretty acclimated to potty stuff on the earlier end, as I watched friends struggle more when their kids were closer to 3. If you want the PDF of the Go Diaper Free book, lmk and I'm happy to email it to you. Hoping for a less stressful potty/diaper life for you and your son soon!
Not the third Miami blowout cliffhanger!!!!
deadddd 🤣🤣🤣