Friday, April 1, 2011

Potty Training - Yeah Right, Mommy!

Maddox is now 2 years and 4 months old. I bought a potty and pull ups when he was 18 months and wanted to start potty training then. Everyone told me he was too young, not ready, and I needed to wait until he was older. Well, my question is, how much older?

A few days ago he was in the tub for only a few minutes before he stood up and started to pee. So Ben and I whipped him out of the tub and tried to sit him on the potty. He started screaming for a diaper and would not continue to pee until his diaper on.

This is when we decided that it was time to start. He obviously knew he needed to pee and had the ability to hold it when he wanted to, plus he was starting to show a dependency on diapers.

So the next day, Maddox and I went out to the PX by ourselves to get some potty training essentials. We bought something called a potty caddy that is a little box with special toilet paper, toddler magazines, a book, and a sticker chart specially made to entice the tiny tot to go on the potty. In addition to this I bought M&M's to reward him when he goes and he picked out a dinasour book that came with little dino toys as a "prize" for when he consistantly goes. The idea was to keep this visible, but only give it to him once he had mastered going on the potty for a whole week. Yeah right!

As soon as we got home he started throwing a fit because he wanted the M&M's AND the dinosaur book. He could have cared less about the toddler magazines or potty book, but was interested in the stickers. I held firm on the candy, but broke down and let him play with the dinosaur book ONLY when he was sitting on the potty. He must have sat on that thing an hour the first time! And we had success! Twice! But he also peed all over the house the rest of the day. Here is break down of our potty training experience:

Day 1: First time in the potty! Woo-hoo! I hope those dinosaurs stay interesting. 30 minutes later, he peed in his room. Ate lunch and sat him on the potty again - no go, even though he sat there for a half hour. Another accident in the living room. Ate dinner - sat on the potty infront of the tv pretending to be playing to Wii for 45 minutes - Success! We put up the sticker, gave him the M&M's and thought, this might work....and another accident. Time to get ready for bed and put a diaper on.

Day 2: Sat on the potty first thing, but pinched his little booty in the seat. No more potty sitting for that boy! No way, Mom. Cried for a diaper all day, finally gave in and put one on. I don't think it's happening today, let's go to the park.

Day 3: Bribed him to sit on the potty by giving him an M&M for just sitting on it. Had to put it in front of the TV and give him the dinosaurs to play with. He sat on it several times, but with no success. Tried letting him wear his "big boy, Mickey Mouse undies" he picked out instead of the padded training underwear. Told him not to get Mickey wet and tell me when he needed to pee. Didn't work. I might need to buy more paper towels and put a heavy duty shower curtain over the couch.

Day 4: Let him pick out which underwear he wanted to wear. Set a timer for every 30 minutes and pumped him full of juice. When the timer ran we sang "It's potty time" song. He would jump around singing, but had no desire to use the potty. Later on, he sat on it for a long and talked to Grandma (Maw) on Skype in Japan. Did he go potty? Nope. Let him off the potty. 20 minutes later I ask "Do you need to go potty?" "NO PEE PEE!" is the answer I recieve. Not 5 minutes later, you guessed it! Time to clean up again....and again...and again.

Day 5: I'm done. We'll try again later. OH - and he's been holding his #2 this whole time...great....

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