My last post was April....What? No way. Since I'm clearly behind, I'll try and post several posts back to back. Good Lord.
SO, Lets bring this up to the present. My daughter is now TWO, nearly two and a half. And in these past two years I like to think we have gained some parenting knowledge. My husband and I were rather unconventional (Yet, incredibly successful.) with our parenting style, so we'd like to share some of our strange tips. Here's to hoping you're not offended!!!
DON'T WARM THE BOTTLE.
Now, don't be ridiculous. Ice cold water with formula is NOT OKAY. However, Luke warm is just fine for little bellies. You don't have to worry about burning their little mouth with overly hot liquid, and you will THANK ME when your driving down the road, passing the bottle to your infant, and you have no microwave. Also, it allows you to carry a water bottle in the diaper bag to mix formula on the go. No need to heat it up or cool it down.
DON'T GIVE A PACIFIER
Are we crazy yet? Our daughter spat it out in the hospital, so we just never gave it back. No panic at the mall when the pacifier drops, no need to carry around a "Pacifier Pocket" or sanitizing wipes. She learned to self soothe and never required any sort of object to calm her down, other than a good old hug. We'll never have to "Break" her of the habit. Which is what we all want in the end right?
DON'T USE A NIGHT LIGHT.
We even use darkening shades in her bedroom. From the day she came home from the hospital she has slept in pitch black darkness.No one here has, or ever will, be scared of the dark!!!
DON'T POTTY TRAIN ON A FLOOR POTTY
Starting at about 16 months, we got potty seats for the big potty for every toilet in our house. They're all the same: Dora, hot pink, flowers. Consistency is key. Every night before her bath, we would sit her on the potty for a few seconds. She never actually went, we were just establishing that it was HERS, and it was SPECIAL, and for BIG GIRLS. As she got closer to two, we would let her throw in a square of toilet paper at the end, and we would let her flush. Again, she wasn't actually using it. But she was getting used to sitting on it, being up so high, and having NO FEAR of it.
Right now she is 27 months. She started displaying interest last week in the potty, I'll spare you the details. So we went out and let her choose her own big girl panties, and we took her to the bathroom every 20 minutes. (Quite a workout for mama & dada.) We went cold turkey on diapers, and immediately kept her in cotton undies.
She was potty trained in 3 days,
We allow her Pull-ups for bedtime and naps, because she's still new at this, and being asleep for 12 hours, we expect accidents.
But she has surprised us, and wakes up dry every time.
So why no floor potty? Let me list the reasons:
- Do you want to dump out a plastic bucket, wash, sanitize, and dry it after EACH potty episode?
- Do you want to carry it everywhere you go?
-Once they have it mastered, you then have to confuse them, and make them climb up a step stool, onto a new, high potty, with real water, and a loud flusher, and expect them to continue as if it isn't a big change?
Isn't the big potty the goal here? Give it a shot.
*Note: Tons of kids are successful with the "floor potty then big potty" method. I mean, have you seen the market for floor potty's? Insane. But we just found our daughter could do it in one step, thereby avoiding the aforementioned issues.
MY LAST and final point, is one of personal decision. We don't have child locks on our cabinets. We felt it gave us a false sense of security. We feared we would RELY or COUNT ON the locks to keep our child away from danger. BUT NOTHING REPLACES INVOLVED, ACTIVE PARENTING. We taught her to stay away from the cabinets, and she obeys. It's not that we're so oblivious that she may one day break that rule. But that's where active parenting comes in.... We simply don't leave her alone near dangerous chemicals or cleaning supplies. Besides, have you seen my previous posts? We clean with dawn soap and vinegar anyway! Airing on the side of caution is always best. So lock up your chemicals if that's you're style. And believe us, if she one day takes a liking to the insides of our cabinets, you better believe we'll lock them up. But by then she'll be old enough to figure out the locks anyway..so, as always, active parenting.
We do, for the record, use baby gates, to prevent falls down the stairs. We have a very active child, so that one was a necessity.
If you've done these things, or plan on doing them, DON'T WORRY, we WONT judge you. We are just here to let you know that you do not have to subscribe to what every other parent does. Your child will be fine as long as you are committed to your decision, and are HIGHLY CONSISTENT.And whatever you decide, do what works for YOU and YOUR FAMILY. Don't let other people sway you (Including me! haha).
