Q:

At our normal checkup for my baby, the nurses said to start my baby on solids.  The only thing is that they told me specifically was to start him on three vegetables. They told me not to start with fruit because then babies only prefer sweet things.  I don’t know about rice cereal. The nurses didn’t recommend it.
I also thought about separating the vegetables in case of allergy.

A:

1. One thing is that I would start him/her out on one food at a time.  I made Beth allergic to potatoes because I didn’t do that with her.  Look for little dots around his mouth after a food, and if he has that, switch to another food.
2. Bethany still has skin problems related to the eczema she had as a baby.  I didn’t take fish oil when I was pregnant, and I was very liberal about which foods I started her with, etc.
3. Possible Schedule (Only an idea):                                                                                                                                                                                                             1st week:  rice cereal  VERY diluted and mixed with formula or Mom’s milk.  (One of my babies had blood in her stool because I mixed it too thick).  You can very gradually get it thicker and thicker.  Mix it like it says on the box for the baby’s first feeding.

• 2nd few days:  squash or carrots.                                                                                                                                                                                 3rd few days:  green beans                                                                                                                                                                                           4th few days:  peas

• Don’t give your baby fruits or meats yet.  Especially don’t give honey, wheat, milk products, and egg!

• For low energy: I think you should start taking iron even before you’re tested for anemia.  Iron can be constipating though, so drink prune juice or something if that’s a problem.  And be sure the kids can’t get into it — that it has a child proof lid or is way up high.  It is the number one cause of poisoning in kids.  I like to take a natural, herbal iron.  It seems to me that it absorbs better, but I’m not sure about that.
• Do you have good prenatal vitamins? After Grace I was wiped out and needed a nap — no energy at all.  My friend gave me good quality iron and health food store vitamins, and I am a new person!
• Have you thought about if you are pregnant with twins?  I actually thought I had twins with Grace because I felt sick SO early.  But I wasn’t!  The kids were so disappointed!  (I wasn’t!)  Did you know twins are more likely for older moms?
• I would think that if you have pregnancies really close together it’s very likely that you are anemic.  It can take a while to get iron levels back up, and some irons don’t absorb well.
• Be sure to take fish oil, which is a good idea for all pregnant moms or even women who may become pregnant.  I noticed that as I had babies, they were born less and less healthy — mostly that they had eczema.  That is because your first babies use up your omega 3 fatty acids, and your body cannot replace them unless you eat fish or flax or something.  I should probably take a really good quality fish oil that is guaranteed to be mercury-free, but I don’t spend the money on it!  But anyway, Andrew and Grace don’t have any eczema — Praise the Lord!!
• Are your tummy muscles uncomfortable, like they’re having trouble holding the baby up?  I really had that problem with Andrew.  After he was born, I did lots of sit-ups.  And with Grace those muscles were totally fine!  Thank you, God.  :O)

If you are just beginning potty training, see the list at the bottom of the email.  You can do it!! I have used “she” many times in this post because some of the info came from an old email I wrote to a friend who was potty training a girl.  Please switch out the pronouns as needed!  :O) I had trouble training many of my kids in this area, and I feel like it may have been because I was too worried about the house being clean and too stressed out about the whole thing.  I still love a clean house, but I keep experiences in the bathroom positive.  Many thanks to my friend Lynn in Florida who helped me learn how to potty train without so much stress!!

1. Listen what he/she asks for during the day.  I realized my little boy asked for popcorn all the time!  I had promised him everything in the world for pottying, but the popcorn was what worked.
2. One of our friends gives prunes as a treat for successful pottying.   Isn’t that cute?!  Then any kid nearby can have one to celebrate! — If a family had a problem with constipation, this would work great! :O)
3. You may have noticed that when a child refuses to go potty many times it is because they have to go poo poo. I take refusing as a sign that they definitely need to go!
4. Have a sibling  read to them or something while they are on the potty.
5. Also it has been helpful to leave the child on there, tell her she can’t get down, then go to the next room and say, “tell me when you’re done.”  That way they often quit playing and get to business :O).
6. In the beginning sometimes it was hard for Grace to go if …  (Well, I guess it still is) if we are looking at her, making any noise, etc.  If she starts going, I just smile really big instead of praising right away, because talking can make her stop and lose her concentration.
7. You can role-play with her.  Have her pretend she is playing, then realizing she has to go poo poo.  “Excuse me.  I gotta go!”  Then she leaves what she’s doing, puts her own stool up next to the potty, pulls down her own pants, etc.  Grace is my first to practice like that and my first to have initiative and go by herself (At first it was just once in a while, and now it is a little more frequent for her to suggest that she goes.)
8. You could put the potty chair in front of a video with a bathmat underneath …
9. One thing that works for us is to put on disposable diapers with her standing up.  (they’re cheaper than pull-ups, so I didn’t buy pull-ups with Grace.  They can usually slide like pull-ups, too, although sometimes you have to undo one side for them to slide)  Diapers are also more handy than pull-ups for the following step…
10. What to do if she needs a diaper for naps and underwear for wake times: If it’s time for nap and she’s wearing panties, I sit on the rocking chair ottoman in her room, have her hold up her dress or shirt, pull down the pants and panties, and put the diaper on.
11. If she doesn’t hold up her shirt, you can put the diaper on outside of the shirt.   Then un-tuck the shirt.  Then I pull everything back up.  So during naps she wears a diaper, panties ontop, pants or shorts on top of that.  That has just been easier for us so we don’t have to take off pants and panties before and after every nap.
12. If your child makes their underwear “dirty” give them plain white underwear, until they go in the potty.  Then they get to pick out a new design from the drawer.
13. If you are reasonably sure your child goes poo poo when you are not around, sometime in the morning but usually before he even gets up, then you could be the one to greet him each morning.  Try ‘snuggling’ first then announce, “Okay, it’s time to go…” and take him to the potty chair and encourage him to go.  Perhaps tell him you are going to leave to do… and you will be right back (2-3 minutes) to see the poo poo in the potty. It could be that he plays a little while in bed and the moving around, quietness and just the comfort of his bed gives him the needed freedom to release his poo poo there, instead of the potty chair.
14. Try having your child eat his meals in the same place, about the same time each day and rarely give snacks in between, until he/she is potty-trained.  You can reserve the snacks for a poo poo success.  If he drinks all day by access to a sippy cup or other’s drinks left in reach he may need to urinate every 15-30 minutes depending on how active he is.  If his intake of food and beverage is regulated then his output is usually regulated and predictable.
15. Grace is 3, and what we have done all along is that she goes to the bathroom as soon as she wakes up, after breakfast, before morning nap, after morning nap, after lunch, before afternoon nap, after afternoon nap, and before bed.  This ends up being about every 1-2 hours!  But hey, it works :O).
16. Make sure when you send them in there they really do go potty!
17. If it is warm weather (It’s November now, so …  if you live in the tropics, ha!  :O) you can dress them in a long t-shirt only or a dress for a girl.  Some children don’t like the feeling of the you-know-what running down their leg and will train more quickly that way.

For Those Who are Just Beginning the Potty Adventure:  :O)

1. Before you begin to train, it is best to not allow the child in the bathroom at all unless really necessary.  Babies tend to get in trouble in there, playing with the toilet, etc.  If they’re always in trouble in there, they won’t think of it as a positive place, and they won’t have as much emotional energy to work hard during training.  Remember it is quite a bit of work to figure this out for them!  :O)
2. If your baby has gotten in trouble a lot in the bathroom, you might want to carry him in there a few times before starting to train.  Say happy things about the future when they’re big and can go there in order to put a positive spin on the place.
3. Pick a day that you can have your husband, older siblings, or a friend over to help keep things positive and fun.  It would be great if they can cook for you, too!  :O)  Now your child is allowed in the bathroom!  They are big.  “Hey, look, it’s fun in here!”  :O)
4. If you use this method, you are going to, as funny as it sounds, spend the day in the bathroom, showing your child how positive and fun it can be in there.  You certainly don’t have to use my method.  I’m sure there are many great ones!  This is the one that worked for me.  Bring:  a pillow or chair for you to sit on, cleaning rags, a stack of training pants, Sprite (clear, sweet won’t cause diarrhea like tons of undiluted juice can in some children), books, treats and thanksgiving are the needed items for success.
5. Pray out loud with your child.  Thank the Lord for the opportunity. Thank Him for everything.  Ask for His blessing on the event.  Start out cheerfully (exaggerate) teaching her the steps.  Can she pull down her own panties?  Skip the plastics till you go out of the bathroom.  In the bathroom it is all training time so you don’t want to discourage her from too much to do.  Make it simple.
6. With Grace, for the first time I did not use a potty chair or attachment. This was such a blessing!!  Grace doesn’t know any different, so she just uses our regular seat.  She is more flexible when traveling, I don’t have to empty or clean that little pot, and the bathroom is less crowded!  On her first day of training, she learned how to push a stool up to the potty by herself.  Now she doesn’t need it, so I’m not sure if it is necessary to use a stool or not.
7. Reward her with sips of Sprite every time she does anything cooperative in the training.  Give the other treat only when she goes in the potty (even if you quickly lift her to the pot- mid stream).  She will associate treat with the flow in the pot.
8. Much praise, much praise. After you have taught her how to pull her pants down, climb on the pot, wipe, get down, pull on pants and wash hands then the Sprite should ‘kick in’ and you should have flow every 15 minutes or so.  Don’t give her too much salty unless she is refusing to drink.  Keep thanking the Lord, out loud.
9. If you get frustrated (which is lessened by being in the bathroom because of easy clean up and you are not trying to do anything else) pray through it.  Picture people who have greater suffering and use it as a prayer target to pray for them.
10. With Grace we had the birthday box ready in the bathroom to throw a potty party when she succeeded.  I could tell she was getting uncomfortable and needing to go, so I put her on the seat.  When she finally succeeded, we blew up balloons, hung streamers,  played a cd of happy kids’ songs, and pulled out all the stops!  The kids thought it was pretty funny, and Grace thought we were all lunatics, but it worked!
11. Stay there until you feel either your job is done for the day or until you can’t take it anymore.  (I did the second one).  I’m sure you’re way better at this than me!  :O)  It helped me that my kids kept checking on us.  Grace and I read lots of books that day together, and I was so glad we got so much done the first day.  If God gives us another child, you may need to come cook for me give me hugs, and encourage my little tike on the pot!  Thanks in advance!  :O)