Pink potty ponderings

We have been thinking about potty training Lucia for a while now. We know we probably could have had her trained in the last month or so, but we haven’t made the leap just yet. Max was only 2 years 3 months when we trained him and once we got through the 23 pairs of wet pants on the first morning he caught on pretty quick!

No potty yet – why?

So what has held us back? A few silly ‘excuses’ first of all. She is our baby, so in my head potty training her makes her a big girl and I just haven’t felt ready to let my baby go if that makes sense. Then we had our holidays in France – so we thought it made sense to wait until we came home, as nappies would be easier when away.

Mostly however we have had no idea how we are supposed to potty train her when she has to wear compression tights. This has been playing on my mind now for a while and I have went over and over it in my head, and essentially it comes down to this – she cannot be potty trained wearing compression tights.

Options?

So what are we supposed to do? Get thigh highs? Try knee highs? I don’t like either of these ideas. Thigh highs just feel wrong to me right now – maybe further down the line when she is a wee bit older but not now. Plus starting her into a new ‘type’ of compression would be enough for her to get used to without learning how to use the toilet as well. One thing at a time.

Knee highs are also a no go. We did get a pair made for her that we had considered for the summer in the heat, but in the end we didn’t try them. Because we don’t know where Lucia’s lymphatic problem is, there is a chance that the knee highs could push fluid further into her thighs or groin and cause more swelling, so we just didn’t want to take that chance.

Garments off? Taping?

We have felt at a bit of a loss with this and haven’t had anyone with any experience to advise. We think that the only real option is to keep her compression off for 2-3 days until we are over the worst of it – though the thought of this scares me. Now that her feet and legs are used to being in compression everyday I am worried that a few days out of her garments could cause the swelling to build. And if this does happen will it be difficult to get her feet and legs back to how they are now?

Alternatively, the only other idea we had recently was to use a type of kinesio tape. We used to use this on her right foot before we began compression and it definitely helped a little, so perhaps taping up her legs and feet for a few days would be an option and also put my mind at ease a little. We still have to run this past our Physio to see if it is an option and if so how to do it!

Accidents

In an ideal world we are hoping that Lucia will pick it all up quickly and within 2 to 3 days we can get her back into her compression and hopefully only have a few accidents after that (per day!). The next issue though is when she tells us she needs to go (and toddlers can’t wait) will we be able to get her compression pulled down quick enough to make the potty? Compression tights do not come down or up easily so we risk accidents happening ‘by accident’ because we may not get her tights down in time.

Therefore, in the inevitability that we will of course have some accidents we really need to have more back up pairs of garments. At the moment we only have two and are also in the process of getting some new garments made with a new company. Hopefully these will arrive soon and between new ones and old ones we can make do and get through this next phase of toddler-dum as smoothly as we can. More trial and error!

Just do it!

Ultimately though we don’t want to hold her back anymore when we know she is more than ready so I think we just have to do it, hope she catches on quick and deal with any consequences it may bring. You never know, all my over-thinking might have been a waste of time and things will be fine – after all, this is Lucia we are talking about and she is nothing short of amazing. Wish us luck!