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The Purpose of a Pottytunity: Why we offer the potty when it might not yield a catch!

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What are pottytunities and when can you use them in your EC or potty training journey? Hear about the practice EC parents rave about as “EC magic”, including four easy options to try today – and even what to do when a pottytunity doesn't “work.”

You will hear:

  • how pottytunities work in both EC and PT
  • what to do if baby doesn't “go” when offered the potty
  • the power of consistency
  • what to do when baby's signals are non-existent (or you're too busy to notice)
  • four easy catches and why they are pottytunity magic!

Links and other resources mentioned today:

Download the Transcript

If you can't listen to this episode right now (um, sleeping baby!?)...download and read the transcript here:

Transcript download: The Purpose of a Pottytunity: Why we offer the potty when it might not yield a catch!

Watch the Video Version (new!)

If you want to watch me record today’s podcast episode, you can do that on my youtube version right here:

Thanks for Listening!

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Which pottytunity are you going to try today?


Please leave a comment below with your thoughts

I look forward to discussing with you in the comments, below!

xx Andrea

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Andrea Olson

About Andrea Olson

I'm Andrea and I spend most of my time with my 6 children (all under 12 yo) and the rest of my time teaching other new parents how to do Elimination Communication with their 0-18 month babies. I love what I do and try to make a difference in one baby or parent's life every single day. (And I love, love, love, mango gelato.)

5 Comments

  1. Avatar Gloria on December 29, 2021 at 2:29 pm

    Thank you for a great video on Pottytunitis, Andrea! I have one question to ask. What about when we see blood when our child poops on the potty? I have read your book and watched the baby course and my baby girl has been doing potty since 3 weeks old : D. It has been very successful and a great thing to do for us. But starting when she was 4 months or around this time I started noticing streaks of blood, or little drops of blood here and there when she poops on the potty. I have become concerned and I am hesitant now to ask her to do potty because I worry that maybe she is trying too hard and she is trying to push poop for us and hurting herself. Do you think the cause of the blood could be that she is trying too hard? Have you ever seen this problem before? I love EC but it makes me so sad to see the blood that I don’t want to offer anymore. Or I offer very quickly so she does not have time to push hard. Sometimes I also see a few drops of blood in the diaper if we miss a poop but it does not seem as common or as much as when she does it on the potty. I would appreciate any thoughts on this. Thank you!

    • Avatar Ifeoma on January 17, 2022 at 10:05 pm

      Hi Gloria, have you talked to your pediatrician yet? This seems like a medical issue and not a potty issue to me. If you haven’t yet, I recommend talking to your baby’s doctor about the blood in her stool. Goodluck with everything.

    • Andrea Olson Andrea Olson on January 31, 2022 at 3:28 am

      Hi Gloria,

      Fresh red color blood would be most likely associated with any type of straining. Though it should not happen regularly like you are seeing it. Even with all that said, EC should not cause bleeding, and since you are also seeing that in the diaper, I would just get it checked by the pediatrician, the benefit to EC is that it will be easy to do a catch for the doctor.

      You can also make sure that you aren’t spreading the legs too much when you are doing the EC hold.

  2. Avatar Elizabeth White on October 6, 2023 at 12:25 pm

    Hello!
    How long should pottytunities last? How long should I be keeping my baby on the potty waiting to go? I have been on there for fifteen minutes with a calm 14-week old and he ends up peeing, but also been there fifteen minutes and he ends up upset. I feel like I am pushing it. How long?!

    • Andrea Olson Andrea Olson on October 7, 2023 at 11:51 pm

      There isn’t a set schedule that works for all littles. It’s often best to just go based on how your little one is doing, typically little littles will begin to kick out their legs, and squirm or fuss a bit when they are done, before they get to the super fussy or crying stage. Usually that’s a good indicator that they are done with the potty at that time, but again every baby is different and it’s best to trust your gut with it, instead of going based off of a timer. You got this momma!

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