On the potty front...things have not been going well. At all. Okay, I don't want to completely make it seem like things have been a disaster as they haven't been, but I was assuming this potty learning thing would be quicker. Seriously, I can't believe it is taking so long! (7+ months!)
William is great when it comes to pee. He loves it. Loves to go to the bathroom. Loves to sit on the potty. (Boys learn sitting first, right? Don't want to have to teach standing AND sitting...need to master one first!) Loves to "watch it" come out. And really loves that he gets an M&M for going. I think that is his ultimate motivation - candy.
Here's where the problem lies: Poops never seem to make it to the potty. Never. He always tells me, "No pooping on Diego!" (Diego is the character on his Pull-ups.) But he always does poop on Diego. Every day, actually.
Yesterday I tried ditching the Pull-ups and putting on undies. (Brave, I know.) He loves Pull-ups, however, he can't pull them up (has no problem getting them down...but that's another story) and they're more like a diaper - he has no problem pooping in them. He's too comfortable in them. But I thought with undies he wouldn't poop in them because...well, who poops in undies, right?
WRONG.
Well, let me clarify...he didn't poop in them for I didn't give him ample time to do so. See, he sat on the potty to pee another drop out (for whatever reason he can't seem to "hold it"...has to pee Every. Drop. Out. All. The. Time.) but forgot to pull them down and...well, they got wet. Next thing I see is my bare bottom child running to the kitchen to admire his boyhood in the reflection of the oven.
So, long story short (or not!) back on with the diapers/pull-ups.
I would love to hear any and all tips, tricks, suggestions, hints, stories, encouragements, ideas, recommendations, testimonials...you get the idea...you might have on potty learning. (I ran across that phrase the other day. Apparently it's not called "potty training" anymore?)
So...whatcha got for me? I'm all ears!
4 comments:
WELL, FIRST OF ALL, HE'S YOUNG BY "BOY" STANDARDS AND HAS DONE WELL BY THOSE STANDARDS....I BELIEVE SOME OF THIS "NOT COOPERATING" HAS BEEN A BUTTON TO "PUSH" FOR ATTENTION GIVEN HE HAS A "BABY" IN THE HOUSE....=)
HE WILL GET TRAINED BUT MAYBE SOMETHING BESIDES M&M'S??? LIKE SOMETHING HE WANTS TO WATCH IN THE VIDEO COLLECTION AFTER HE "POOPS IN THE POTTY"????? HANG IN THERE...
GRANNY "A"
Each kid is so different, but I'll quickly share what we did with Johnny. I wasn't even considering potty training (learning, whatever! :) until he was at least 2.5, but at 21 months, he got a horrible case of diarrhea (sorry if that's TMI) and I did NOT want to change one more diaper of that stuff, so I made him sit on the potty (he was deathly afraid, but when you have to 'go' that badly, you can't really hold it back...). Anyway, after he got over his sickness, I ran with that momentum, bought training pants (the cloth ones that are thicker in the middle) and never did the disposable pull-ups (except for nap/night time and occasional long outings) and went cold turkey. It worked very well initially...then he started regressing at about 24-26 months...kept dribbling or completely peeing in his training pants every day. I realized that part of potty learning for us was that I had to 'learn' to take him often instead of waiting for him to tell me. It's been a lot easier ever since, but we've definitely had some regression every now & then (which is very normal, especially for boys starting as young as William & Johnny).
For rewards, we decided to make a 'potty chart' where he got 1 sticker for pee and 2 for poo. Every 5-10 stickers, he got a small reward like a can of playdoh, small toy, carousel ride at the mall (I posted pics of each reward so he knew what he was working towards). This way, he had 'instant' gratification for going each time (with a sicker - which oftentimes he also wanted to wear one on his shirt) and then had a longer-term goal of a bigger reward. It worked very well to get him over the 24-26 month regression stage. After a few weeks of that, he really didn't need any more reinforcement.
I must say, I agree with Carole, too, in that he's done VERY well to be this far along at this age...most of Johnny's peers didn't master even peeing until at least 2 1/2 and one of his cousins was 3 1/2 for both pee/poo!!
For your specific problem with poo...does he have a regular time that he likes to go? Can you possibly beat him to it and 'suggest' that he goes poo? This might sound crazy, but for a few months, every morning, I would say to Johnny (who normally goes right after breakfast) 'ok Johnny, time to start thinking about going poo poo'...and within 5 minutes, he had to go. It's like I needed to verbally remind him (close to the event) that he needed to go and be AWARE of needing to go...so he could make it to the potty in time. Now granted, I didn't have a 6 month old to take care of at the same time, so I could devote a lot more energy to the matter...but it really worked well for us. He almost NEVER had a poo accident once we started with the training pants.
Hope that helps a little...Hang in there...you're doing GREAT!! :)
I wish I could help you...but your already way ahead of me in this department!!!
Hang in there mama! He's doing really well for being almost 29 months. Hope you get some good advice (sounds like you already got some experts on your side). Let us know what works! I'll learn from you! We're nowhere even close to thinking about this yet. You're doing well!
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