How I Potty Trained My 6-Months-Old

Nope. Never thought I’d be thaaaat mom. You know, the one who makes her newborn take a sh*t over the toilet. Hell, I would’ve bet money against it! But lo and behold we found ourselves with a six-month-old who happily takes dumps on the toilet like an adult–in more ways than one!

Why, you ask..? How did I become that mom? Well, it started when we began giving her solid foods, where clearly the ratio was off or something because she started to strain on really really hard solid logs–and I mean logs! It started with veggie wedgies when we were doing mostly purées at 4 months, but then they got really really hard when we transitioned to more foods and chunks with the baby-led weaning. Next thing you know, she’s struggling hard-core to get this monstrous thing out of her, and we could visually see her suffering more than anybody should ever have to struggle to release a bowel movement.

So… knowing that the M shape that you get when you sit on the toilet and raise your legs helps the body move things along naturally (think squatty potty), I figured why not let’s give it a try for her. Turns out it works for babies too! It wasn’t about training her at this point, it was about helping her, but we’ve kept up with it, and it’s been so much easier for her ever since. All we’ve got to do is wait for that tell-tale sign of a face, strip down her bottom half put her over the toilet, and everybody’s happy. We also try to make it part of the wake-up and bedtime routines to start teaching those cues early on. It’s somewhat become a dependable timing situation, which makes it a breeze for all involved.

There are also plenty of other things you can do, like teach baby hand signals, and go full potty train early on. Some families even go diaper-free! If you want to do a little more research, the ‘official’ term is “Elimination Communication“.

Don’t knock it til you try it!