Tag Archives: potty training

Weirdest Place Your Kid Has Gone Potty

I promise; this will be my last potty-themed blog (for a while anyway). In my previous post I shared my young daughter’s fear of going potty in public restrooms that feature automatic-flushing toilets. What I neglected to reveal in that blog is the myriad of non-traditional places that she’s gone number one, on the occasions when she absolutely wouldn’t relieve herself on “strange” potties. Let’s see… she’s gone in the tall grass that borders a rural highway in Wisconsin, in an opening between rocks at a secluded beach in Hawaii, in a dirt hole I dug in the far corner … Continue reading →

Dry at Night: Ditching the Training Pants

Yes, I know that some of you have been doing this for years. Your kids, I mean. I’m talking about the night time potty dance. However, my daughter is a rather late bloomer in the area of dry night times, and since she’s been an epic bedwetter I had no qualms about keeping her in training pants in perpetuity. No qualms except environmental ones, of course, since night time was the only time we didn’t use cloth diapers. My kid can pee through anything, I tell you. However, for the last two or more weeks she has been dry at … Continue reading →

Types of Cloth Diapers: What is a Pocket Diaper?

I had a late introduction to the lovely world of cloth diaper terminology. Basically, we were just looking for something to put on our baby’s bum – preferably something not too expensive and relatively environmentally-friendly that wouldn’t cause terrible diaper rash. Oh, and it had to hold various sorts of bodily excretions, too. So when I first heard of pocket diapers, I thought: hmm, diapers that you can fit into your pocket? What a great idea! No, pocket diapers don’t tend to fit in your pocket, but they’re still a great idea. What is a pocket diaper? It’s a diaper … Continue reading →

How to Wash and Dry Cloth Diapers

Diaper pins, pre-soaking…who needs another pain in the rear end? Well, cloth diapers are not nearly as high-maintenance as their reputation might suggest. For those who are considering cloth diapering, here are a few ways to speed up diaper maintenance: Laundry, laundry. There is a lot of laundry when you have a baby, and there is more laundry when you are using cloth diapers. Think about how often you want to wash your diapers. This will partly depend on the size of your stash. We washed every two days, since we had a stash on the low end, about 24 … Continue reading →

Preventing Bathtub Injuries

A fall can be dangerous at any age — from toddler to senior and everything in between. A recent study found that more than 43,000 children are injured in the bathtub every year in the United States. The bathtub can be a dangerous place. Other studies have looked at the risk of burns from hot water and drowning and near-drowning incidents. Now researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy (part of the Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio) are taking a look at slips and falls. Researchers looked at eighteen years of bathtub slip and … Continue reading →

Adventures in Potty Training: Day 2

You know how they always say that you can lead a child to the potty but you can’t make him go? What do you do when you are convinced that your young potty trainee would rather hold it in instead of use the potty? The second day of potty training went relatively smoothly, with more things getting into the potty, less things getting on the floor and no things actually getting on me. I see this last fact as a reason to celebrate and a sign that the training will get easier. Once again we had another dry nap. However, … Continue reading →

Adventures in Potty Training: Day 1, Morning

Well, the day has finally arrived. It is time to potty train our youngest child. Here are my experiences and adventures, practically as they happen. I have been waiting for the weather to warm up past the 50 degree mark for a stretch of at least three days before I started potty training. This is because I have found that one of the quickest methods for training involves letting the child run around with a long shirt on and a bare bottom, something that just doesn’t work when it is cold. It so happens that we are in the middle … Continue reading →

How to Pick a Potty 2

When you are focused on potty training your child, one of the last concerns you might have is picking out a potty. But not all potty chairs are built the same way or are easy to use. Yesterday I shared some tips on choosing a potty, including safety and stability issues. Now let’s look at some other factors. Having a potty chair that is easy to clean will make a big difference, trust me. With your little one trying to chair out several times a day, the last thing you want to do is to spend all of that time … Continue reading →

Why I Hate Pull-Ups

When potty training, many parents transition from diapers straight to pull-ups (or easy-ups, no matter the brand of disposable training pants. I’m brand neutral.) believing that this is a natural way to start potty training. Well I hate the things. Here is why, in no particular order. 1. Pull-Ups are expensive Have you ever done the unit cost of a pull-up? Depending on the brand, you may be spending 50 or more per each piece. Ones with characters, wet feelings or magic pictures may cost even more. By the time that you are done potty training, you can spend a … Continue reading →

Search for a New Bathroom at Lowe’s

Yesterday, Sunday, my family and I spent hours in our local Lowe’s home improvement store searching for a new bathroom vanity for our downstairs powder room. In fact, we have to redo the whole bathroom. Right now, it contains a cheap blue carpet (ew carpet in the bathroom) that the previous owners used to hide the water damage to the sub floor beneath. The current sink itself is not bad, with the exception of years of hard water stains that bleach and a pumice stone have not completely eliminated. However, the sink is just attached to the wall, and the … Continue reading →