I think it is pretty safe to say that Logan is day time potty trained! He has been a little rock star. Last weekend he had a little tummy bug that left him with diarrhea, but acting and eating fine. We did put him back in a diaper for that time, but he still told us whenever he had to go poop or pee and never had any accidents in his diapers.
In the week he was at my parents house while I was sick he had exactly ZERO accidents and now tells us whenever he has to go as compared to us asking him all the time if he has to go. It has been pretty great! He still goes in a pull up at naps, but the overwhelming majority of the time he is dry when he wakes up. He is in a diaper at bed time and that part of potty training will just come as he gets a little older and more mature. I will say however, that he is not quite as wet when he wakes up and quickly asks to go potty after waking up. So here are my final thoughts on potty training: (and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!)
1. You can't force potty training - just because YOU want your child to potty train doesn't mean you should start doing it. It isn't about YOU it is about your child/children.
2. Introduce the potty at times that make sense. For us it was before bath time when he was naked anyway. We would sit him on the big potty (he preferred that to the little potty on the floor) and if he went great - if not no biggie. We started doing this months ago.
3. Don't let you child sit on the potty for extended periods of time. I personally don't think that is healthy for their bottoms, but also the potty becomes a play time verses a time to do their business. Even when Logan had his bout with diarrhea we would only let him sit on the potty for 10-15 minutes max. Usually it was no more than 10 minutes. It is one thing to let your child become familiar with the potty - it is a whole different thing to just let them sit and play/read/etc etc.
4. Go for the underwear... yes they will have accidents, but eh - that is what washing machines are for. Make sure you have lots of extra clothes ready too. We opted to let Logan run around in underwear, socks and shirt and no pants. Made for easier access when he said he had to go.
5. Pull ups worked well for naps as Logan still felt like they were more like underwear as he could step into them and we called them "Buzz and Woody" underwear since those were the characters on them. We didn't use them during the day for potty training though - I felt they were too much like diapers to be effective.
6. Make sure you and your partner are on the same page. Nathan and I weren't quite on the same page as I didn't talk to him too much before saying, "hey, I think we should potty train Logan this weekend, what do you think?" I REALLY should have talked to him more as the first day was a bit of struggle between Nathan and I too. We could have avoided that totally if I had just communicated better with him. Communication with your care givers is very critical too. It worked well for us that the transition from us home with him to my mom home with him to daycare three days a week worked out really well.
7. Accidents happen... our response was, "That's okay, but next time let's put the pee pee in the potty and not in in our big boy underwear." Did not make it a big to do that they make a mess. It is just a little pee!
8. Using the stickers - or whatever your child is interested in - helped us out a lot. Logan doesn't ask for them anymore, but it worked well when we were starting out.
9. Asking Logan if he had to go every hour to 90 minutes when we first started as I think he would get so into something he was doing he wouldn't realize he had to go until he had already started going a little bit.
Again - these are just my thoughts, opinions and what worked for us. Good luck to all of you in your potty training efforts!! :)
1 comment:
Congrats on the potty training :0)
I got to do this as a teacher for a three-year old whose mother wouldn't at home ... it was a a tough home life where mom was never there, her siblings were with her most of the day with her grandmother who still let her wear diapers. Not a "big" deal, but not cool for a preschool classroom.
I totally did it. Despite the lack of consistency she had between my room and home, it finally happened. Sure, it took the entire school year to happen, but follow through and routine did the trick. We tried stickers but she wasn't interested in those (some kids are, some aren't), so the only reward I had to give her was positive praise and then ... the Happy Potty Dance was born. :0)
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