Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Update...

Day 3 = NO accidents!  And I'm not talking, "Mommy makes me go every 30 minutes so I don't have an opportunity for an accident."  I'm talking, for the past 2 days (day 2 and day 3) Asa has had ZERO accidents and all his pottying has been SELF initiated.

I am now a BIG fan of waiting until you think your child is really ready (so he's 3 when some kids start at 2, no big deal) and this whole "3 day plan" I read about.

He's even out of diapers for naps and night and very much taking ownership of going potty (like I said, I remind him to let me know when he feels like he needs to go, but HE initiates it every time)

I KNOW this is a blessing given the craziness of moving and trying to find a house to rent and all the stress we have simmering just below the surface.  And so for this "my child took ONE day to potty train" blessing and mercy I am truly SO VERY thankful.
Posted by Becca at 10:00 PM

3 comments:

Our Volunteer Family said...

We aren't pushing Jack either and he is 2.5 - did you use a specific method? We might try over Christmas break since we will be home for awhile and he will almost be 3.

August 30, 2012 at 7:29 AM
Becca said...

Alissa, he has shown signs of interest and readiness since a little before AR was born (so, almost 2), but you always hear boys take longer and are often older before they're trained, and I worried a new baby would cause regression. Then AR was a fussy enough baby it took awhile to feel like I could be at Asa's beck & call. Enter long road trips and we just postponed and postponed figuring waiting would NOT hurt and hopefully only make it easier once we found a good time to try. Thankfully, we were right!

I read a "Potty Training in 3 Days" ebook I'll be happy to send you. :) The most important things in it are consistency (duh) and the author emphasizes the child needing to initiate and learn what it feels like to "need to go," so no setting a timer and taking them to "try" every x minutes. She also encouraged small rewards which I appreciated. Some philosophies I've seen have said you should not reward a child for potty training b/c it's just a reasonable expectation of an older child, not something special they are doing. But I think it IS a big transition and takes a lot of self control and liked that this author agreed it is reward-worthy. :) Asa gets a mini marshmallow or chocolate chip (1) every time he goes. And for all the self-initiated times (as opposed to me making try before nap time and bed time) where he stays dry til we make it to the toilet (a dribble of wetness is fine by me, b/c that means he caught & stopped himself) he gets to put a sticker on a chart (his is Busy Town themed b/c he looooves Busy Town right now). Filling the chart (which should happen today) = a BIG reward that Asa is very excited about. :) And as you saw with the pic I posted, the first day he stayed dry all day we took him to pick a treat at the bakery. Lastly, my mom also found a little Lightning McQueen themed "computer" and gave it to me to aid potty training. He gets to play with it for 5 minutes after every time he goes.

I know every child is different and a different child or different age for Asa might not have gone this smoothly. But I am amazed and relieved and very very very thankful. :) It was WAY more mentally exhausting than I anticipated the first day. My brain was fuzzy by nap time from watching him like a hawk. But day 2 he just took off with a bang and never looked back! :)

August 30, 2012 at 8:28 AM
Our Volunteer Family said...

Thanks for the tips - Jack has shown some interest as well. But - some days he wants nothing to do with the potty and other days he is all about it. I will definitely look into that book as we prepare to start this process!

August 31, 2012 at 8:32 PM

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