Potty Party

We waited until Addy was over 3 (like 3 years, 4 months) to hop on the potty train.  In some respects, it was too long but really we needed to wait until she was ready.

Signs your child is ready:

• They recognize that their diaper is dirty
• They know the difference between pee & poop
• They wake up dry from naps & nighttime
• They express interest

I think I should note that Addy really hadn't shown any of the signs but 3 is old enough to go anyway.  I couldn't take the thought of changing diapers on a 4-year-old.

We had to wait until after Reese was born to avoid any regression and also we waited until after our 9-day trip to avoid complications.  We got home on a Saturday and started training on Sunday.

We did some reading and decided to just do the naked plan.  We stripped her down and gave her juice and basically headed for the potty every 30 minutes.  We made a "Potty Prize Bowl" full of stupid stuff from the Dollar Store and every time she went successfully, she got a prize.  We didn't want to do solely candy as that didn't sound to healthy.

We tried putting her in underwear but something about having something on made her think she could go in them.  It didn't matter that it was underwear and not a diaper so we evenutally resorted to the naked plan.

The third day of training, we felt like leaving the house.  We'd been cooped up for two days and Addy was kind of starting to get it.  Being naked helped a lot.  So we waited til she went, set the timer for 1 hour and went for a walk.  Addy wore clothes on our walk but was commando.

While we were out, she had an accident and while that wasn't a big deal, she didn't seem to even react to it.  She wasn't worried about it, she just kind of tried to wipe it away with her hand and carry on playing.  That was probably our mistake, to let her play and get distracted.  So we went to the bathroom, changed her and then cleaned up the mess. 

It's important to note that every time she had an accident, we stretched out the changing and cleaning process so that she couldn't just go back to playing.  She needed to know that it was a big deal and unpleasant to deal with.

We spent the week following the same pattern.  Potty, 1 hour on the clock, errand.  Sometimes we ended up visiting potty at Target and sometimes she was just fine.  She only had one accident in the car.  At home, naked, she was great.  Something about being naked allowed her to feel the urge more than in clothing.

After one week, Addy went to daycare and honestly, that seemed to really help.  It probably had something to do with having other potty trained kids around.  The first day we sent her commando but our daycare provider didn't like that so we did panties the other days and she was just fine.

Addy has been "potty trained" for over 2 months now with mostly successes.  Her first week of preschool was a challenging one in that she had an accident almost every day.  She seems to have figured that out now and is having a great week so far.

However, poop is a different story altogether.  She has pooped in the potty exactly 3 times with much screaming and crying and becoming hysterical every time.  She does NOT like it.  She will wait until bedtime when she gets a diaper on most days instead of going.  No amount of promises/bribes of ice cream, toys, candy, etc. will get her to go.  We have let it go, assuming that she will eventually get over it.

And that is our potty training saga.  I wish you better success with yours!