Melissa Joan Hart shares more details about potty training blog

As she hinted at in an earlier MySpace post, actress Melissa Joan Hart will soon be blogging for Pull-Ups training pants, chronicling her potty-training efforts with son Mason Walter, 2.  In a press release announcing the partnership, Melissa said that when Mason first started showing signs that he was ready to go diaper-free she and husband Mark Wilkerson "were really excited and — more than anything — proud."  She added,

Potty training is one of the first times I’ll be able to act as a teacher to my son, and that adds a little pressure.

For their part, Pull-Ups said that they’re thrilled to add Melissa’s blog entries to their website so that non-celeb moms will see that the highs and lows of potty training their toddler are universally experienced.  Melissa, 32, echoed the sentiment,

I’ve teamed up with the Pull-Ups brand to share my experience and learn from their expertise and resources, which I hope will inspire other parents and let them know they aren’t alone if they have questions.

More from Melissa below.

To prepare for the potty, Melissa has been reading, watching DVDs, and meeting with experts, but realizes the process "is different for every single kid."

You have to take what works for you and leave the rest behind.

And what works for Mason? Positive reinforcement — and small rewards.

Normally if you do a high five with a kid, that should be enough of’hey, you went on the potty! High five!’ but Mason likes lots ofcelebration, it has to be all about him, so that’s his thing. What works as a reward? Sticker, stamps, candy … We use HotWheels cars, but Hot Wheels only worked for a week and then we had togo back to candy and now we’re at stickers.

Melissa and Mark are also parents to Braydon ‘Brady’ Hart, 11-weeks. Melissa shared that Mason is completely enamored with his little brother.

Mason has been great — every time he sees the baby he’s always like,’Baby’s so cute,’ and has all these sweet things to say. He alwayswants to hold him and feed him.

Source:  Austin Business Journal; People; Photo by Startraks

Comments

I love her….so down to earth!!! Anyone know how to get info on that dress she is wearing? I LOVE it….it’s so cute.

- Lisa on May 29th, 2008

Melissa told us she actually got it at Forever 21! She said she finds a lot of their looser styles are great transitional clothes.

- Sarah on May 29th, 2008

The dress is adorable, it’s from forever21.

- Tami on May 29th, 2008

Maybe its just me, but I think this is somewhat inappropriate — how embarrassing for this child to have his toilet training experiences broadcasted on the internet for all time. I just toilet trained my 3 year old son this past weekend and the only people we’ve discussed it with in any detail are his grandparents and caregivers. I mean, give the kid some dignity. Oh well, I guess they are paying her a lot of money for it.

- Rachel on May 29th, 2008

Although I’m of the right age group I was never a Sabrina the Teenage Witch fan. Nonetheless, I know that MJH wasn’t really “big” for any other reason. In reality she’s actually pretty much “D list” nowadays. Which leaves me baffled as to why she’s ALWAYS, always being quoted. Who cares what MJH says, thinks, feels? I know, maybe I just dislike her because of the way she goes on and on in every interview about her REAL hero is her sister because she’s such a great stay-at-home. MJH is not making many friends with the women who “have” to go to work. Believe me MJH, being a stay-at-home Mom is NOT harder than having to leave your child every day to go to work!!! BELIEVE ME!!!! Anyway, my opinion is that MJH is very “yesterday,” very insensitive, and rather self-cenetered. She’s by no means an “it” celebrity. Her children are beautiful, I don’t take that away from her, but give me a break! I’ve been biting my tongue at all this stuff she’s always saying but after seeing her on your site yete again for her Pull-Ups thing, I decided today was the day. I’m expressing my “dislike” of MJH.

- Lupe Lupita on May 29th, 2008

I agree Rachel, it’s kind of a private thing. I’m the anti Pull-up mom. I think they are so confusing to children because they are so much like a diaper. When I potty trained our son when he was 2 yrs. 8 months old I took diapers away all together and he was PT’d in 1 week. His friends who use Pull-ups are taking months to potty train.

- Kim on May 29th, 2008

Of course pull ups are confusing. They are only to keep parents buying their product longer!!

- RB on May 29th, 2008

Pullups are a waste of money. The child doesn’t realize the difference from a diaper and will be more likely to pee in it. Once you are ready to potty train, go straight to underwear. Within a couple a weeks your child will be completely potty trained (with some accidents of course!)

- Top on May 29th, 2008

I wonder what she will do when it turns out the pull ups are not working for Mason? Than she will have to lie to the world because of her contract…

- Sarita on May 29th, 2008

Interesting comment about this being the first time she’s a teacher to her son…so she hadn’t taught him anything before age two? Developmental psych student here, parents need to know they are teachers to their children from day one! Not just when learning things like potty learning and riding a bike but with everything!
Also, pull ups are the worst! Kids don’t even feel wet so how would they know to be uncomfortable. Huge waste of money!!

- Rhi on May 29th, 2008

I found pull ups help since we are sloooowly potty training our son (he’s 2 1/2). Since he turned 2 we always put him on
the potty at certain key times during the day. He is a very shy boy and doesn’t like to ask to use the toilet, but if you ask him to go he will go.
We don’t think he’s ready (and honestly we aren’t ready to dedicate the time it needs) to go straight to underwear and pulling down a pullup is much easier than taking off a diaper.
I agree that it’s a waste of money though!!!

- cc on May 29th, 2008

I’ve found, through working at several daycares, that the Cool Alert pull-ups work INCREDIBLY well. Not only do they save you from having to change an entire outfit in the case of an accident, the kids cannot stand that cold feeling against their skin if they wet the pull up. I’ve had kids literally dancing around the room while I’ve been getting the changing station ready to change them in an effort to get away from the feeling.

I used to hate pull-ups before I started working in the toddler rooms and I still don’t like the regular ones because it’s true, the kids do treat it like a regular diaper. But the Cool Alerts really seem to work. At least, in my experience working with kids from the ages of 2 through 4 who are potty training, they have great results.

- Cait on May 29th, 2008

My hubby and I practice elimination communication. I read a couple of articles on the net and started when my daughter was 1 month old.

When she was about seven months, I finally read the book: Diaper Free Baby. I highly recommend it for other crunchy mamas. Babies DO know when they have to eliminate. We TRAIN them to ignore it and then TRAIN them to start paying attention to it when we get tired of diapers at age 1, 2, 3, or beyond. To be honest, I looked into EC (elimination communication) because I saw what a pain conventional potty training CAN be–it was for my older sister!

I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to flush my daughter’s breast milk poop instead of cleaning it off her bum. She won’t even go in a kid potty-only the “real” potty! We “catch” MANY pees too. (She’s now 10 months, so she has 9 months of practice!) We find it to be fun! Who else can say that about offering their child the potty!

(We usually use cloth, but we *sometimes* put her in only underwear!)

- DiaperFree on May 29th, 2008

DiaperFree, what is a “crunchy mama” that you refer to? I have never heard that term before. Not really sure what to think about elimination communication but to each their own I guess.

- Connor's Aunt on May 29th, 2008

My son trained himself before he was 2 so I know I got really lucky! That said, EC sounds like 2 years of potty training verses a few weeks? Always sounds interesting but like more of a guessing/get lucky game instead? Glad it works for some people though! Sorry Connor’s Aunt – can’t help you define Crunchy Mama either. My guess would be something environmentally friendly???

- brannon on May 29th, 2008

OK, I am starting to get a little disturbed by some of these B,C, and D listers using their children to get their names in the spotlight again. You don’t see Angelina, Katie Holmes, etc. giving out all kinds personal family info just to get their names out there. In fact, they try to shelter their families from the spotlight. Then we have these people trying to get famous again that are using their children! Don’t even get me started on Trista who is not even D list. I shudder to think of what “Papa Joe” is going to try to do to pimp out the first Simpson grandchild. It’s the same people who show up at all of the Hollywood baby “events” to get free stuff. It’s always Melissa Joan, Tori Spelling, Stephanie from Full House, etc. I mean, you don’t see Britney or Christina at every single baby event in Hollywood. What are they going to do for a career when their kids are grown? Just something to think about.

- chloe on May 30th, 2008

Crunchy is a phrase used for natural hippy type moms. Crunchy like granola

- Kira on May 30th, 2008

Thanks for the explanation Kira. Even at 33 years old, I still learn something new every day. =)

- Connor's Aunt on May 30th, 2008

she seems nice and down to earth

- brooke on May 30th, 2008

We did elimination communication (from birth) too, and my son was completely out of diapers all day long before he turned 19 months. It’s really not anything like potty training for 2 years. It’s teaching your child from the beginning that we potty in the toilet, so you never have to re-teach a very confused toddler to stop using a diaper and go in a potty instead.

It honestly was not the kind of hassle you’re imagining. If you pay attention to your child’s cues and timing (waking up from naps, after eating, etc.), it’s a snap.

And it’s not an all-or-nothing deal, either. You don’t have to be a hippie with an always-diaperless baby to do EC. You can have them in disposables full-time and just try out EC once in a while. Just think, for each #1 or #2 that goes in the potty, you save money on diapers.

At least some of the time, you definitely know when your baby is going in his or her diaper, right? Just hold your little one over the toilet instead. It’s MUCH easier than cleaning up poopy diaper bottoms, especially when they start eating solid foods!

- Julia on May 30th, 2008