Oh Crap! Potty Training

understand where the toilet flushes to (dang logic). And then we ask
them to expose a very personal, vulnerable part of their anatomy to
this gaping chasm of God-knows-what. So yeah, it can be scary. Some
children will parlay that fear right over to the little potty, but most
kids get a real kick out of seeing just what and how much they
produced (which can be freakishly large) and dumping it in the
toilet. This is why I always recommend a little potty chair; I think
they are brilliant. The little pot keeps the poop at least semiclose. It’s
a literal way for them to see what came out of them. It can be scary to
give up what feels like a big part of yourself and not have it close by,
at least for a while.
The little potty chair is tremendously useful in getting the right
amount of squat to properly evacuate. If your child is having trouble
pooping on the big toilet insert, you should try the little potty chair
with books under his feet.
All in all, when you are potty training, you’re redirecting a
lifelong habit. It may be a short life thus far, but still, a lifelong habit.
As with so many habits that are instilled for any length of time, it’s
best to stop the habit cold turkey. Have you tried to get a kid to stop
sucking on a binky? What works is throwing the binky out and
dealing with the fallout, if there is one. Do you think it would
effective to let the child have the binky for an hour in the morning
but no other time? Probably not. Toddlers don’t think logically. They
don’t know time. Same thing with diapers. Many parents take the
fear or resistance as a sign that the child is not ready; this is not true.
In fact, the longer you keep your child in diapers, the longer this
habit gets entrenched, the more attached the child is to the habit,
the more normal the warm feeling of pee and poop against his skin