Potty Training

No one has good advice about potty training. I've read books, articles and had heart-to-heart conversations with the best and most experienced moms. They always leave out the important stuff.

SO - I have decided to put the MUST-KNOW stuff in my li'l blog here. I will try to keep it basic, because, let's face it, the full experience could be made into an 8-part miniseries on NBC.

The right timing: Resist the temptation to start too early. It's probably the worst thing you can do. The right time is when you KNOW your child is able to control their potty urges, but there's more to it than that. You should be able to see in your child a strong desire to be independent. Does he often ask to do things by himself? Does she become proud when she has done something without any help? If not, begin to encourage independence. Even if it's something as simple as coloring a picture. "Oh, Danny, look! You colored the teddy bear all by yourself! Very good job!" Your kid wants you to be proud of him, so he'll begin to look for ways to impress you with his independence if you are rewarding him with praise. Also, your child should be dry overnights on a consistent basis before you begin. This displays that their bladder is truly under their control.

It's up to you, Mom: The real trick to potty training is for MOM to make a firm decision about it. If you're not ready to make this the focal point of your life, don't start. If you start and then get lazy about it and decide it's easier just to put him in his training pants or diaper, you'll confuse the child and you'll be sorry. Now he thinks it's an option. Mommy wants him to go on the potty, but if he doesn't feel like it, he can just go in his Pull-Ups.

Getting started: Read a book or get a video on potty training from the library. There's one called "Go Potty Go" that is really good and goes over everything from making the kids excited about their "big kid underwear" to remembering to flush and wash their hands after going potty. As you read or watch, talk to your child and say, "Won't that be fun?" Stuff like that. Then wrap a PRESENT with a bow and everything. Get your monkey all excited about opening it and they'll find - BIG KID UNDERWEAR! Make a huge deal! "Oh boy, Sally! You have your very own BIG GIRL UNDERPANTS!" She will be so happy to trade in those diapers.

A Typical Day: As with EVERYTHING (right, moms?), you are really the one who will have to do all the work until Jr. gets it down. When baby wakes up - go straight to the potty. Then watch the clock. Every two hours, announce in your most excited voice, "Let's go try to use the big boy potty!" After a few days, you'll get an idea for how often you need to prompt a pee-pee trip. I suggest using some kind of an award. Some kids are good with stickers. For my son, it had to be candy. Absolutely zero pieces of candy in his life EXCEPT for right after a successful big boy potty escapade. Be sure to take a trip to the bathroom before car rides, trips to the park and naptimes and bedtimes.

As far as potty training for going twosies - you're on your own. I am not the one to ask.


Be prepared: Don't start without all the necessary tools; rewards, big kid pants, etc. And make sure you have babysitters that will stick to it while you're out. It's amazing how so much work with a child can be undone in 4 hours of lazy babysitting.

Good luck. You'll need it :)

A Negative Mixture

This seems weird, I know, but there's a specific babyfood mixture to avoid that you won't know about until you do it - unless you've read it here!

For some reason, a jarred dinner including sweet potatoes and bananas causes some kind of a reaction in some babies. I was feeding Christian and thought that bananas would be a good follow-up to the sweet potatoes. After I wiped up his mouth from the dinner, I noticed red splotches on his chin. Then above his lip. Then ALL around his mouth!

I got online and did a little research and found that other mothers had noticed a similar reaction when combining these two jarred babyfoods in a meal. I gave Christian the sweet potatoes and the bananas in separate feeding sessions and he was fine. There's just something about putting them together...? Bizarre, huh?

Pre-baby tip

If you're pregnant, or even if you have a newborn, get online and subscribe, subscribe, subscribe. Manufacturers are always excited to give samples out to new moms, because they can gain long-term customers that way. Think of all the things you'll need (i.e. diapers, formula, clothes, bottles, lotion, baby wash, etc.) and search the web for anywhere you can **freely** sign up to receive samples and coupons. Christian was over a year old by the time I paid full price for formula or diapers.

Don't know where to start? Get your hands on a baby magazine (some will even give free subscriptions, like BabyTalk, my personal favorite) and look at the adverstisements. The small print at the bottom is usually where they offer free samples if you call a number or visit a web address.

(Check out BabyTalk magazine at http://www.parenting.com/parenting/babytalk/channel)

Stinky Nursery?

It seems every baby's room I visit smells like a week-old diaper, UNLESS there is a Diaper Genie in use. They eliminate odors because you stuff the offending diaper into the Genie and then twist the thick plastic around each diaper individually. When it's full, pop open the bottom and get the things out of the house. The only complaint I personally have with the Diaper Genie is that it doesn't really hold a lot of diapers. I've found that keeping the Genie around for poopy diapers and a regular ol' wastebasket for the pee pee ones takes care of the pew factor and keeps you from having to dump it every 3 days.

Breastfeeding in public?

I just found out about these little covers from Bebe Au Lait. I wish I had known about these when I was breastfeeding Christian. I know that a mother's right to breastfeed in public is protected in every state, but I was never comfortable out in the open, unless I literally had no other option. These wraps are cute, non-restrictive and get the privacy issue squared away. See www.bebeaulait.com.

The Leak-Proof Sippy Cup

So it turns out that there is no such monster. I thought there was and posted a bunch of hogwash here about Playtex and Nuby's, but if you shake the Playtex hard enough - kablooey. And if the munchkin tries out his new teeth on the Nuby mouth piece - drippy drippy.

BUT - just buy up a bunch of these babies and you'll be alright most of the time.

"Twin Beginnings, LLC" makes a radical "belt" for your sippy cup called a "NoThrow". You can zip around in the stroller without the kid leaving his apple juice somewhere in the shoe department. Although it would be nice if the straps were just a little longer, or at least adjustable. See www.nothrow.com.

Crib-erinos

Extra bedding is a time saver - especially in the beginning. The last thing you want is to have one bed sheet that you’re laundering every other day. Get a few extra and do the laundry when it’s convenient for you. This goes for baby’s comforter and mattress cover as well.

In fact, I read in a mommy magazine that a good tip is to put a mattress cover and sheet under your mattress cover and sheet! Wonderful idea for overnight accidents. You might even want to do that for your own bed! If you have overnight accidents, that is. I'm not here to judge.

Bib-erinos

When your little critters are just taking bottles and boobs, the soft fabric bibs are best. You'll need their absorbency for feeding aftermath. But when you start putting carrots and bananas into the mix, it’s best to get some of the plastic wipe-off bibs. After a few days, you can just toss them into the top rack of the dishwasher and they’re good as new. This will keep you from laundering bibs every other day.

Another super idea are Pampers Pocket Bibsters. They are disposable, making them ideal for diaper bag stock. They're also not a bad idea to have around for those times you are a day late on your laundry.

Formula for finicky fellas

If and when you decide to do the formula bit, your pediatrician will probably have a recommendation for which one to use. Enfamil Lipil seems to be what everyone uses these days, but Christian had a reaction to it. Plus it smells like a rusty nail, since these companies add so much iron to their formulas. Similac smells pretty iron-ish, too. I chose Good Start Supreme DHA & ARA because it had a less-offensive smell and taste (yeah, I tasted the nasty stuff) and seems to be on the cutting edge as far as nutrition. Enfamil, however, has a lot more stages of formulas and varieties for finicky babies. Plus it seems like they are on sale more often and you can find coupons more often for them as well. It’s close to $30 for the big cans (usually takes about 7-10 days to go through a big can) so sales and coupons are rockin’.

Always add water to the bottle before adding formula to ensure proper preparation. Adding formula first will take up so much room in the bottle, you’ll end up with 4 ½ ounces of water instead of 6.

Baby food suggestions

At about 4 months, your pediatrician will probably let you start your baby on jarred baby foods. Gerber is #1 for a reason, and you can tell by the smell. Some of them smell so good, you want to sneak a bite. Whenever I feed Christian the “Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce with Beef” I always get in the mood to make pasta. Beechnut is a little cheaper and they smell kinda icky, but the babies seem to like them just as well. They also have different meal choices than Gerber. Beechnut got busted in the late 80’s for putting weird stuff in the baby food, so now, to redeem themselves, they don’t add a dang thing - which is nice because you look at the ingredients and see “green beans and water”, whereas Gerber adds pharfengarferific enzymes for flavor and color (Dude, I totally made up that word). Earth’s Best is good, too. It’s all organic stuff. Gerber has an organic line called “Tender Harvest“. But it’s all up to your baby what is yummy and yucky.

Diaper Opinion

Diapers are a good coffee-talk subject for moms. In my opinion, Pampers are the best. They generally cost the same as Huggies (these are the top two brands). For the first stages, Pampers makes “Swaddlers”. They are so soft and you know the baby is comfortable. Luvs are less than effective in my experience. They have recently changed their stretch tabs to fit a little better, but tend to leak more often than other diapers. Once your little monkey is mobile, I personally recommend Pampers Cruisers. Although if they are on sale for a great deal, Huggies are almost as good. I recently tried Huggies latest update, the new fit with "Hugflex". I didn't notice these diapers being amazing or anything. About the same as regular Huggies. But the designs on them are so cute, I'll give them that!

For bedtime diapers, I've tried Pampers Baby Dry and they, too, have recently changed to stretch tabs for a better fit, but you still may have to change during the night to avoid a wet crib sheet. I use Huggies Overnights. They are a bit thick, but that's the point, I suppose. Haven't had any problems with them at all.

Swimpants are a rockin' invention. My favorite are Huggies "Little Swimmers". Pampers "Splashers" got the droopy-drawers look and eventually started to slide off of Christian as he'd splash around in the pool. No matter which brand you choose, you must keep in mind that they are SWIMPANTS, not diapers. If you put your rugrat in those things before you put them in the carseat to head to the beach, you may have a soggy bottom boy by the time you get there.

Baby Proofing

This is something that should be kicked into gear while you are still pregnant. It’s not all outlet plugs and cabinet latches. Everything that the baby can reach needs to be assessed. Can he hurt himself with it? Can he do damage to it? And most importantly - Can he eat it? Even something like a DVD case, which he really can’t do much damage to and certainly can’t hurt him, will fit nicely into his mouth and he’ll gnaw on it until the plastic comes off and shows up again in his diaper.

Car Seat

Obviously you should have your infant car seat purchased and installed before you even head to the hospital, but for those early weeks, you should also get an infant headrest. They are so dang tiny at first that their little heads roll all over the place when you turn corners. It’s just a little extra something to keep them comfortable. “Snuzzli” makes a great one that’s washable. **CORRECTION**Duh, it's called a "Snuzzler" and it's by Kiddopotamus. You can check them out at Kiddopotamus.com - the Snuzzler.

Personally, if I had it to do over again (which I suppose I will in the future), I would just get a convertible car seat which can go from infant seat to toddler seat to child seat. It’s a good idea to have a spare car seat as well.

Washing nipples and bottles

Drying rack - They only cost a few bucks and you may even need two. You can dry out caps and nipples on them as well as bottles.

Also, you’ll probably want to get a nipple holder for your top dishwasher rack. They’re also super cheap and you can toss nipples, nipple rings, sippy cup filters, everything into them so they don’t bounce around during the wash cycle.

Teething

Usually around 4 or 5 months, teething begins, even though they probably won’t crack their first tooth until 6 to 8 months old. Orajel is ok, but only lasts for a moment and not all babies like the taste. Infant Tylenol or Motrin is good before bedtime to keep the pain away until morning. But the best thing I found is Hyland’s Teething Tablets. They aren’t medicinal, so you can give them as many as they need, as often as they need it. And they work almost instantly.

Obviously you should have tons of teething rings to chew on as well. The freezer ones especially (even though Christian never particularly liked them, everyone else swears by them). My little fella opted for cloth, like my sweatshirt or a washcloth. Even better if the washcloth was soaked in tapwater. Another good teether is the mesh fruit strainers. Stuff a few grapes or apple chunks in there and the kid can gnaw away for hours, saving your remote and cell phone for a while.

Baby's rumbley in the tumbley

You never really realize how much gas newborn babies have until you have one. When they cry, sometimes they’re hungry, sometimes they’re tired and sometimes, it’s the dang gas bubbles. They’ve never used their digestive systems before, so they have a lot to get used to. Get infant’s simethicone drops. Gerber makes some, Mylicon makes some, or you can get generic brand that seem to work just as well.

If you’re breastfeeding, nix the caffeine and tomatoes. If your little one has a gassy tummy, put a warm hand on their belly, skin-to-skin, to help break it up and rub a bit to get things moving. Or hold the baby up on your shoulder really high, so that his tummy is pressing against the hard part of your shoulder. Also, laying baby on the floor on his tummy is good, too. We used to have to do that after every feeding with Christian. Thank God the gas phase is over!

Bottle selection

Get the kind that filter out the air and bubbles (like Dr. Brown's or Ventair). It keeps the baby from swallowing the air which will reduce spitting up, gas and keeps the nipple from collapsing (so the baby won’t have to stop and start again throughout his feeding).
I think the Ventair are probably the best because they have a disposable liner bag (if I'm thinking of the right ones). That way you can just wash the nipples and you’re ready to go again, without having to constantly wash bottles. Trust me, it’s a pain. I got the Dr. Brown’s, which work great for filtering out the air, but are a pain in the rump to clean.
**Even if you are breastfeeding, you should still be sure to have some formula and clean bottles ready to go. You never know what the day might bring.

Breastfeeding tips

Breastfeeding hurts like a butch at first. Some women experience more pain than others, obviously, but it’s never a um…snuggly experience in that first week or so. You may need a nipple guard, but they really just delay the inevitable. You might as well suffer through it in the first week and then you’ll be set. If you use nipple guards, it will just take your nipples longer to get used to it and your week of suffering will turn into two. But if you must have a little temporary relief, go for it. You can buy nipple balm to soothe them between feedings and most of them are harmless to baby. There are also these nipple pads that have a gel coating to soothe between feedings as well. I loved them. But they are like ten bucks per pair and I can't remember who makes them.

Lasinoh also makes a darn good nursing pad. I didn’t particularly care for the Johnson & Johnson pads. Lasinoh pads gel up like a diaper to pull the milk into the pad and away from your skin so you don’t have wet boobies from the leaks.