I'm a full-time mummy

Whenever I posted about our kiddos' potty training status, I often get asked by my blog followers on how to start potty training their kiddos or what tips I can share with them as their kiddos are having difficulty going forward in the potty training stage (example: still pooping in diaper).

I have recently also posted on my accidental potty training on our almost 8 mths old girl, well, calm down, there is no need to be horrified as I personally feel it is too early too. For me, I would personally prefer to start potty training when our kiddos can understand the difference between pee and poo and know when the urge to do either comes. However, during that particular moment, since I can easily observe the signs that our baby wants to poo, I just make it easier for her to poo into the potty instead of the diaper. If I can see the signs, I can do the potty thing. That is simply a mother's decision to help save a diaper. Just feel I should clarify this again since some parents seem to get riled up and assumed I am potty training our 8 months old girl!

Now, back to today's topic... I just want to share that the success of potty training our 2.5 years old girl in 1 month time, they are mainly due to:

• Her big brother (now 5 years old) paving the way and showing good example for her to follow in her potty training journey.

• Her readiness and ability to understand instructions.

• The magic sentence of 'Do you know that princesses do not wear diapers?!'

Do note that the above personal tips I shared is applicable to second or more child. And I actually started her at almost 1.5 years old but was not disciplined enough to continue on due to being busy with our 3rd baby then so I only managed to resume potty training her seriously in April 2014 (almost 2.5 years old then).

With our first kiddo, I tried starting him on potty training when he was 2.5 years old (I was 8 months preggy with 2nd child then) and only managed to get him to be comfortable around a potty. I did the sticker reward chart, the snacks and candies and treats, the target practise (putting a sticker in the toilet seat for him to aim at), lots and lots of patience and praises. Everything. I even came up with my personal BE AWESOME potty training tricks for him.

I stopped potty training him when our 2nd kiddo came along and resumed potty training when our first kiddo turns 3 years old. It is so much easier by then with our 1st kiddo maturing a bit and able to understand cause and effect and instructions properly. He was successfully potty training before he turned 4 years old.

So having our 1st kiddo fully potty trained by the time we started our 2nd kiddo helps very much! Big brother exudes confidence and shows to baby sister it is a simple petty task makes our potty training job so much easier 2nd time around. Also with our 2nd kiddo getting more verbal nowadays also contributes to the success as well.

The magic sentence of 'Do you know that princesses do not wear diapers?!' is a coincidence and I dared to say an awesome idea that just pops at the right time. Our 2nd kiddo is very into princessy stuff so I just take advantage of the situation and gained something out of it.

Some additional tips of mine that I can share:

• Preferably start potty training only when your kiddos can understand instructions so that you can then gently explained and teach them the differences between pee and poo, how to know when the urge to have one comes.

• Research as much as you can on what to expect when potty training your kiddos. Do remind yourself every child is different, some takes on to it easily, some takes a longer time to adjust and practice.
  

• For peeing part, take small steps in potty training, let them get used to being around a potty or toilet seat, then let them sit on it (with pants on) so that they can be assured that it is like sitting on a chair, to be brave when sitting on one, then slowly get them to pee in potty or if using toilet seat, you can put a sticker for them to aim when pee (for boys), then slowly move on to getting them to hold a wee bit longer (helps when you go out next time and they can hold their pee a wee bit while you quickly look for a restroom!), then move on to diaper-less during daytime, then in public outing.

• For pooing part, a lot of parents shared that their kiddos refused to poo without their diaper on. For our 1st kiddo, it is timing that I managed to get him to poo the first time without diaper. He was playing in his water pool at our balcony when he needed to poo. He frantically asked me to put a diaper on for him so that he can poo and I told him not enough time to wear diaper, go to potty NOW and he went. Once done, I praised him for the breakthrough and repeatedly told him how good is he to help mummy and daddy save money for not using diaper to poo in. The moment will come, you just gotta wait patiently and seize the opportunity.

• Once you have tackled the peeing and pooping part, I think the last stage of potty training is going diaper-less at bedtime. What we did with our 1st kiddo was we made sure he pees before bedtime, then we wake him up at 3am to pee again, after a while, he got used to the routine and sometimes wakes up himself to go pee after that. As for our 2nd child, so far she has dry diapers at bedtime for 2 weeks already but I still put on a diaper for her just in case.
  

I hope my article helps!

~ Further reading:

• 20 Best-Ever Potty Training Tips

• Toilet Training

• Elimination Communication: The Natural Alternative to Diapers
  

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

We are a big fan of Little Critter's apps and I think it is great to be able to review this app as I get to introduce ABCs to our 2.5 years old girl and reinforce this for our 5 years old boy who is already learning this in his preK.

* Title: Little Critter ABCs
* Price: $0.99
* Category: Books
* Released: May 14, 2014
* Version: 2.6
* Size: 94.8 MB
* Language: English
* Seller: Oceanhouse Media, Inc.
* Rated: 4+ Made for Ages 5 and Under
* Requirements: Requires iOS 6.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

Description from the product page:

"Learn your ABCs with Little Critter in this interactive board book app! Explore pictures, learn new vocabulary, and personalize the story with your own narration. From airplane to zebra and everything in between, kids will love the adorable illustrations that connect letters, words, and objects." 

* This app is engaging and interactive and I love that we can also touch the objects in each page on the screen and the words pop out to tell you what it is!

* There are options to go to other letters instead of going through one by one.

* I like that there is an option to use new narrator's voice (aka me!) as I get to add in new things like phonics which was not in this app. This app goes 'A (pronounced as eyyy) instead of pronouncing the phonics way.

* Overall an educational and fun app for the kiddos!

You can purchase the "Little Critter ABCs" app from the iTunes App Store.

I received no monetary compensation for this review, I was provided with the promo code to redeem the application for free from iTunes Store in order to facilitate my review. All opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. And if you'd like to read my previous iPad Apps reviews, you can do so by reading this post of mine called "My iPad App Reviews"

I often get asked by my blog followers when they should start solids on their kiddos. Now, the answer is not when, not at a specific age but whether the signs of readiness for starting solids are there. What signs to look out for you ask? Here is my typical checklist which I applied on our 3 kiddos so far:

1) Is your baby able to sit up straight and hold his/her head upright? As in his/her neck is strong enough to hold up their head?

Why the ability to hold their own neck upright is important? It is because baby will need to swallow their food. Imagine you feed them food and mid swallowing, their neck rolled to their sides because they are not strong yet to hold their own head. Dangerous...

2) Have you check your baby's tongue reflex?

Tongue reflex meant if you put some small food in her mouth, does she spit it back out? If yes, she is definitely NOT ready because the gag reflex is still strong meaning she cannot swallow bigger size food other than her current milk at the moment. How I conduct the test on this for our kiddos is when I eat my dinner (most of the time with rice), I will take one small grain of rice (softer ones of course!) and put it into our kiddo's mouth. And wait. See whether the rice comes back out or not. If the grain of rice came back out, it means they are not ready yet.

Excerpt from Dr. Sear's website on tongue-thrust reflex:

"In the first four months the tongue thrust reflex protects the infant against choking. When any unusual substance is placed on the tongue, it automatically protrudes outward rather than back. Between four and six months this reflex gradually diminishes, giving the glob of cereal a fighting chance of making it from the tongue to the tummy. Not only is the mouth-end of baby’s digestive tract not ready for early solids, neither is the lower end."

3) Is he/she has increased appetite?

I find this easy to monitor for all 3 of our fully breastfeeding kiddos. Reason being, I have been their main source of live tap (direct all the way) so I will definitely know when they are hungry still after I nursed them. You will also need to take note of growth spurts period. DO NOT confuse growth spurts with baby's having increased appetite! For our kiddos, their growth spurts were when they were 1, 2, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months old. They could nurse almost every hour, on and on and on. You will need to watch out for the other signs of readiness as well okay?

Apologies for not being able to comment on how it goes for formula feeding kiddos since we have no experience in that.

4) Is he/she particularly more interested when he/she sees people around eating food?

In general, whenever your little ones see you or family member eat, they are very interested and keep looking and wanting to have a part of what you are having.

Just because other kiddos you know starts early doesn't mean yours should follow suit. I personally feel 6 months onwards is better as kiddo's body organs are more matured by then and functions better, ready to handle the digestion process for new food texture.

There's no need to rush the solids stage. Our 2nd and 3rd kiddos only started solids at 7.5 mths old. Solids stage is meant to let kiddo experience new taste, new texture, NOT to fill them up. If others are telling you their kiddos started solids at 2, 3, 4 months old and have no problems at all, fine, by all means, good for them. But that is THEIR kiddo, NOT yours. You as the parent should know and watch out for your baby's signs of readiness for solids.

~ Further reading:

• Is my baby ready for solid foods?

• 6 Reasons To Delay Introducing Solid Food
  

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.