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Judah is not the typical age to potty train but we are taking a slow pace to start on this crazy journey.  There are lots of books you can read, and tons of opinions and approaches.  I’ll be honest: I haven’t read any of them.  I am a teacher by profession so I’m doing this with Judah like most anything I would do with my kids at school.  Slow and step by step with patience.

We started by getting a potty chair.  Boy are there a lot of options now.  We opted for a cheap basic one without the bells and whistles.  The bowl can be removed and washed and other than that, well, it is a potty.  Since Judah is pretty obvious when he is having a bowel movement (he steps off to have some privacy, gets quiet, and makes grimacing faces) we decided we could go ahead and try to begin potty training now and see how he does.  The main goal now is to get him to poop in the potty.  I figure once we’ve achieved that with some routine pee-peeing in the potty will be a natural, obvious next step for him.

Since Judah is a child of routine, in all of his behaviors it seems, pottying is no exception.  Shortly after breakfast is safe to assume he is going to need to go more times than not.  So, in order to get him to sit on the potty we’ve provided a little treat: Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops.  Now, some would call this a reward or bribery, but I don’t think this quite fits the definition of either.  We call it potty time and Judah gets to sit on the potty to eat his sucker.  If poop happens, that is a bonus, but otherwise this is just the location where people eat candy. LOL.   The other nice bonus is since Judah enjoys the suckers but is really messy with them, the mess is contained to one area and I don’t have to worry about sticky mess all over my house.  We’ve just begun this method, so we’ll see how it goes.

Wondering about Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops, and how good they can be?  Well, let’s just say I was a skeptic at first too, I mean come on I have dubbed myself “Wholesome Mommy,” how wholesome can candy be?  Well, first, I’ll be the first to admit that I do believe there is a place for sweets and treats in a wholesome diet.  They should be limited but not banished in my opinion because I’ve seen children that don’t ever get to enjoy a sweet treat and they are ravenous when they visit family and friends who allow them. It is better to allow them at home where you can limit them and oversee what type of treats are “inhaled.”  But, come on, organic candy?

I had heard from more than one friend that these were quite tasty. But, I thought how can these be any different than regular lollipops?  I was pleasantly surprised when I read the ingredient label: organic evaporated cane juice, organic tapioca syrup, and/or organic rice syrup, citric acid (from beet sugar – NOT corn), natural flavors, may contain organic black carrots, organic black currants, organic apple, organic pumpkin, organic carrots.  They DO NOT contain high fructose corn syrup, they DO NOT contain artificial dyes, they ARE nut-free, gluten-free, soy free, wheat-free, GMO-free, and dairy-free.

AND, I am pleased to announce that mommy enjoys a “potty sucker” every now and then too.  My favorites are pomegranate, and mango-tango. These suckers are really quite good and only 22 calories per pop.  I bought our bag of lollipops from Amazon.com – the cheapest place I’ve found them.  According to the Yummy Earth website these pops are normally about $5 per pound in bulk (for a 25 lb. bag) but you can purchase a 5 lb. bag at Amazon for around $13 with subscribe and save occassionally.  That is just a little more than $2 per pound!  Just watch for them to go on sale, it happens often.

What about you?  Have you potty trained a little one yet?  What have you tried?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!