— If you are using disposables, try switching to cloth diapers at least part-time. With cloth diapers and no plastic cover, you know immediately when your baby goes. You can thus start to learn and recognize elimination timing and patterns. At the same time, you can change your baby as soon as he goes and avoid teaching him to be comfortable with wetness.
— Consider using tiny training pants and then later move onto regular undies. You can sew your own little shorts and pants, using sweat pants with an elastic waist as a basic pattern. These are easy to pull up and down in a hurry. You can use any material you like, depending on climatic conditions, budget considerations and other relevant factors.
— When possible and convenient, let your baby be diaperless. Although it is not a requirement of IPT for babies to be bare-bottomed, it heightens their awareness of elimination and speeds up the learning process (sometimes dramatically!). They instantly experience cause and effect. The next-best thing to going diaperless is wearing training pants or even Chinese open-crotch clothing. The Chinese clothing has a slit in the back, enabling babies to squat-and-go without wetting or soiling themselves.
— Try different potty positions until you find one that is comfortable and convenient for both you and baby. For smaller babies, you can try some of the in-arms positions that are used to hold infants. For more independent and mobile babies, in-arms positioning might not work. Look for a small potty that fits your baby; otherwise, you can either use a toddler toilet seat on the big toilet or else sit on the toilet with your child.
— Study your baby's elimination timing and patterns in relation to meals and awaking from sleep. For example, most babies need to go immediately upon waking in the morning and after naps. Thereafter, they might need to pee every 30 minutes two or three more times; then the timing may increase to an hour before s/he needs to go again. On the other hand, some still pee at 15-20 minute intervals for a while.
— Study and learn your child's natural toileting body language. Each child has her own set of signals. Some are extremely subtle and hard to recognize, while others may be blatantly obvious.
— Introduce a sound or word that you and your baby associate with elimination. The "sssss" sound is popular in many cultures, or you may prefer to simply say "pee pee" as your baby goes or when you think s/he needs to go. You can use the same sound (or two different ones) for pee and poo.
