Potty Training and Bottles..

Okay, first of all I just want to start out by saying that I am not the Mom that has to do things when "society" says I have to. Like potty training for instance. I know "most" parents start PT around 2 years old maybe even sooner. Not me! I do not start until my children show an interest in going to the potty. Ayla is 3.5 and she is just now potty trained but still not 100% . She wears panties all day and never has any accidents BUT she will not poopy in the potty. She does not want to, it scares her for some reason so I will not force her to do it. I do not want her crying, throwing a fit and even holding it if I make her sit on the potty when she does not want to. In my opinion, that would cause even more problems, (like constipation) for instance. Every time she has to do #2, she goes and gets me a diaper and then I put it on her and then she goes and does her thing..lol. I do not stress out over things like this, it really doesn't bother me at all. She will go when she is ready and like everyone has said, there has never been a child that is NOT potty trained by the time they start school. I just think there are more things to worry about and get stressed out over than this. Of course I would like to stop buying diapers one of these days, but we will get there. Okay on to Brennan. He is just now 2.5 and shows no interest in going to the potty at all. I have not "tried" to potty train him, I didn't start with Ayla until she turned three. Every once in a while I will ask Brennan if he wants to go to the potty and he screams 'NO" like the potty is evil so I will wait. I guess Ayla thinks that he needs to be potty trained NOW because this is what I saw the other day...









I asked Ayla what she was doing and she said that she was teaching Brennan how to go to the potty! Alright then, just go right ahead. Oh and Brennan went right along with her... I phone and all!!! I do want to add that he did NOTHING in the potty, he sat there and just played on the I phone. Good try though Ayla!! I have to admit this was very cute and it made me laugh a little. Ayla loves being a teacher to Brennan!

Okay now that we have covered the potty issue, let's move right along to taking a bottle. Okay, it is a known fact that most pediatricians suggest stopping the bottle at ONE years old. Ayla was sick and not feeling well around her first birthday so I did not take it away from her. Shortly after that she was diagnosed with JRA and she was crying ALL THE TIME, so if a bottle made things better than a bottle she got. Again, It was not a big deal and even if she wasn't sick, I would have continued giving her a bottle if she wanted. I would however NOT put her to bed with one, I believe that could form bad habbits not to mention it is really bad on the teeth. So Ayla happily took a bottle until she was three years old. She would get one before nap time and one before bed time, so only twice a day. At three years old she decided that she did not want one anymore so I have to admit that I was happy about that, I was beginning to wonder if she was ever going to give it up. In my mind, my cut off age was four. I had already decided that if she was still taking a bottle at four, that I would have to take it away from her. I did not want her taking a bottle at four years old, the same age that she would be starting pre school, I thought that was a little old. Brennan on the other hand was off of the bottle at 18 months old, one day he wanted it and the next day he wanted nothing to do with it. So he made it very easy! Each child is different, and I truly believe that they will do these things only when they want to and when they are ready to....but then I saw this picture yesterday of four year old Suri Cruise taking a bottle



I was a little flabbergasted and I have to admit that I was SO GLAD that it was not my child this time..hehe...like I said, in my mind four years old is too old for a bottle but of course it is really none of my business, so I am curious, what do you all think?