Ella and the Potty

Ella and the Potty   (Text below)

When Ella was a little unicorn, her mommy and daddy fed her and tucked her into bed.

She needed them to change her diapers and give her baths.

Then Ella started to grow.  She learned to walk and talk. She loved to play peek and boo.

She loved to help her parents in the kitchen.

She loved to choose what she would eat.

When her diaper got wet or smelly, her mom or dad would change her.

When she could tell that a poop was about to come, Ella went to a quiet place.

Once, when her diaper was off while the bath water was running, she was surprised to see the pee come out her bottom.

As Ella grew older, her mommy suggested, “You could try to pee and poop in the potty like the big unicorns.”

Ella looked at Max, her little brother who couldn’t crawl yet. He wore diapers. Mommy and Daddy wore big unicorn panties and used the potty, so their bottoms never got sore or smelly.

Ella saw some of her friends at school using the potty, but this one looked bigger.

One time her mommy said, “Your diaper is dry. Maybe if you sit on the potty you can put your pee in it. Success!

The next day, mommy put the little potty chair in the kitchen. “We’ll play in the kitchen for a while. You can play without diapers and run to the potty if a pee or poop starts to come.”

After they ate some cookies and drank some milk, Ella’s stomach started to hurt and she said, “Maybe I am going to have a poop!”  She ran to the potty and the poop came out!

Mommy said, “Good job!  Let’s go put this in the big potty and wave bye-bye.

Later, when Ella was washing her hands, she started to pee. Mommy said, “Oh try to hold your pee and let’s see if you can put some in the potty!”

She sat there for a moment and then the pee went into the potty. Both of them thought that was pretty neat.

When he came home, Daddy kissed Ella and said, “I am so proud of you for peeing and pooping in the potty!”

He liked her new undies with the bright rainbow on them.

That night, mommy explained, “Little unicorns still wear diapers at night even when they wear undies during the day.”

The next day Ella asked, “Can I wear my diaper?”

“Yes, but your bottom would feel better with undies on. ”

After lunch Ella went poop in her diaper. “My bottom hurts,” she said.

The wipes stung Ella’s bottom. “Can I wear my undies?” Ella asked.

“Sure!”

The rest of that day Ella went potty sometimes when her bottom felt funny and sometimes when her mommy told her to try. She only had one accident!

Her mommy explained, “Every time you use the potty, we save a quarter on diapers. Let’s put some quarters in a special jar when you use the potty.”

When they had 4 quarters, Ella and her mommy went to the store and bought some stickers.

After a while Ella forgot about diapers. She just got up each morning and put on her undies.

Sometimes she would have an accident.

“Oh, accidents happen when we’re learning a new skill,” Mommy reassured her. “You’re doing a great job.”

Ella was very happy!

Notes for parents:

This story is to help you and your child understand the mechanics of potty training and how to use ‘potty practice time’ to reinforce that training. Children are observing us all the time and trying to figure out what we want them to do—even if they then decide not to do it.

They are also going through their own emotional and physical development. Our job as parents is to explain how things work and give our children an opportunity to learn. Exactly when they achieve different skills will depend on their own growth and development.

The use of salty snacks during ‘practice time’ makes your child thirsty so that they drink more and have more urine for practicing. Whereas adults can urinate a little bit even when their bladder is not full, children younger than three can only urinate when their bladder is full. This fact is why young children cannot always urinate before leaving home but will need to go to the bathroom shortly after starting the day’s errands. It is reasonable to expect your young toddler to try to pee before leaving the house, just don’t be mad if this program does not always work.

Sometimes children and parents get locked in a battle about potty training (as well as many other things in life). It is always helpful to remember that your job as a parent is to give your child the knowledge of how things work, the opportunity to practice and the reassurance that you know that they can succeed. It really is true that 99.9% of children master this skill before kindergarten. Sometimes as a parent it is helpful to think of toilet training like teaching a child to ride a bike. It takes patience and practice, but it is always exciting when they succeed.

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