I'll start by saying I think I made a mistake months ago. I wanted to train Liam when he was about 20 months old and everyone said "Don't train him before the baby comes, he'll regress" or "He's too young" or "I tried training mine at that age too then I gave up and trained them 6 months later with ease." This is one of those instances when I believe I should have kindly accepted the advice but ultimately gone with my gut. I believe he was more prepared months ago but I guess i'll never really know so that's ironically comforting.
Last week Liam went #2 6 times in one day and I was just about DONE so I started pulling out my potty training references and we were about to commit to training when the last straw was drawn, Liam pooped in the bath tub. He never does that. It was a sign. Either a sign to start training or a bad omen, saying "beware, this is just the beginning of your fecal cleaning days".... If its an omen, it's too late, we're doing this.
Day one:
Liam woke up very early and we put those brand new Mater underwear on right away. He was very very excited and he lost his head when we showed him the bathroom. I covered it in training decorations, filled it with candy incentives, books games and a Party map! I explained that each time we sat on the potty, he would get a small bit sized candy and each time he went #2. he would get a "potty pop" ( a dumdum, his favorites). He was all over it! We sat and he went pee right away! We were both thrilled. about 2 minutes after getting off, he made a nice sized puddle on the carpet in my room. 1st lesson: no carpeted rooms while training. he helped me clean it up, we changed underwear and went to sit on the potty again. He pee'd, we cheered and 5 minutes after we got off the potty...another puddle....and another, and another. 4 accidents before we hit 8 AM. I can easily say that by the 8th accident at noon, i was a little discouraged. I knew this was going to be tough but its hard when there's no end in sight. I did a mini load of laundry (i ran out of underwear for him) and when he woke up, we were ready to keep trying! He went #2 twice in the potty, and we VERY motivated by the suckers he received! Starting voice and guitar lessons up again this week could have been rethought but I just went for it and I'm super proud of myself for making it work and even more proud of Liam for trying so hard even when he didn't have my undivided attention. 7-9 accidents later (one of them being a little browner than the rest) day one was over.
Day 2:
We woke up early again and he was STILL excited to get potty trained. We told Liam on the 1st day that once he was all the way potty trained ...no accidents for a least 3 days, we would take him for a pizza Party (Chuckie Cheese or something). So as soon as I went in to get him out of his crib he said "Is it time for a pizza party, I wanna go potty?!" That fueled him for a while. by 11am he had had two very tiny little accidents (just wet undies, no puddles). I had to leave him with Shayna for an hour while i went to a chiropractor appointment but Shayna did great and no leaks happened. By nap time we had gone #2 3 times on the potty and even agreed to go to bed without a sippy cup! (Huge). I'm trying to get him used to having less fluids before bed and luckily he's not defiant about it. No accidents until about 8:00 when he made a very large puddle in his play area. I was humbled and spent about 30 minutes sanitizing toys. By the end of the day, 3 accidents, only 2 sets of underwear, and poop, get this....6 TIMES! but the biggest victory was when Liam came up to Chad after dinner and ASKED to go to the bathroom. That's HUGE in my eyes and i hope he keeps it up!
Day 3:
Liam woke up with dry underwear! and a very excited, happy mama! We went potty a few times that morning and got ready to leave the house (gulp). We had a play date with cousins and cousins kids (8 kiddos in my parents pool, fun fun fun). We went potty before we left, said a little prayer and were on our way! He did great in the pool, no pee or poop ( That i know of) and when we got out, he went on the big boy potty. I forgot to bring his kids potty topper so he had to sit on the big seat and he was a little scared so he said, "When something's new, holding my hand can help me? Right mama!" We held hands till he earned his M&M. We switched from candies to mini m&ms and this time he only got one with each trip to the bathroom, it's my attempt at slowing taking away sugary incentives. Liam was definitely less interested in going potty when there were a ton of fun friends to play with. He got a little to sidetracked and had a small accident. We caught it early so no puddles but we definitely will need to practice with more distractions before heading to the store or the library. The rest of the day ran like clock work, no accidents and lots of potty time. It's sad to see the potty become less exciting though. I had to get more creative with how to get him to come sit with me. today I only really had to take him every 30-45 minutes but it was a battle to get him to come sit. However, I'm grateful he's already telling me when he has to go. He's really getting the hang of it! I think the 3 day quarentine was well worth it!
What worked:
-decorating bathroom and making things exciting
-sitting on the toilet for at least 5 minutes every 15 minutes (I told you we spent a lot of time in there)
-no scolding. I treated accidents like accidents and never got mad (kudos to me...it wasn't easy)
-parrot-style repeating of the phrases "do you need to go potty" and "remember to tell me if you feel like you need to go" and "it's ok, lets clean it up and sit on the potty to get the rest out." I felt like a crazy person sometimes, like he didn't understand what I was asking him but after a few days of repetition, it somehow just clicked!
- We used a "picnic blanket", one of those blankets with a soft side and a plasticy tarp like side, to lay on the couch so Liam could still sit on the couch those three days we were stuck at home! SO useful! thanks for the idea mom! He LOVED that he got a special "potty training blanket" and wanted to play on it too! He never had an accident but when i had to set him up with a movie in our room (on the carpet) while i taught lessons, it was nice to know he had the blanket under him just in case.
-positive reinforcement !!!! By me, Chad, aunts, uncle, baby brother, strangers, moms music students...anyone i could recruit was cheering him on and congratulating him. He loved it and i really think it drove him to want to keep his underwear dry.
-3 day quarantine! It helped so much to be home 100% focus on little man. the first day was rough but i think my focus and attention those 1st 24 hours made the last 48-72 hours so much easier! I feel like he's totally potty trained and its only been 4 days! I think having him in the same environment, same potty same surroundings made learning the process so much easier for him. He never even skips a step, pants off, sit on the potty, 5-10 minutes, flush, wash hands, dry dance, reward and turn off lights! He's like a well oiled machine.
What didn't work/What I'll change next time:
-While the candy incentives worked, I think next time I'll switch things up. Start the first day with one candy, the next day change it to something else etc. I think Liam got tired of the first bowl I had and it wasn't enough of an incentive when he has to be in there as often as he does. Now, on day four I'm starting stickers and i think next time I'll start stickers from the beginning (ditch the sugar if I can) and change the characters on the stickers each day to keep it interesting. Thats what were doing now and he loves placing the stickers on his potty picture and when the sheets completely covered.. Pizza Party!the Long term goal keeps things interesting.
-Next time, I'll use more movies on day one! I planned crafts the first day to keep him busy (since we were stuck in the house) and i loved doing them but i think the first day I'll be doing movies and chilling in the front room so that he can be really aware of his body. When he crafting or playing with blocks, he gets too busy and pees without even knowing until there's a puddle but when he's watching a show or relaxing, he's a lot quicker to recognize the mistake and alert me. I think it would have been less frustrating for HIM too if the first day would have been spent thinking more about his body and less about painting or playing. Definitely more crafts and games on day 3-5 for distraction practice.
-Our bathroom! Ugh, I hate our bathroom, there was hardly any room and it made it really hard for me to help him and get to the potty when he was close to an accident. Chads making a step stool so I can get the bulky chair out of there. More room next time please!
-Fun drink options. I thought it was a neat idea to offer them lots of different drink options to encourage him to drink a lot and in turn, pee a lot. It's not that it didn't work but it wasn't as effective as I thought it would be. If the kids not thirsty he's not going to drink, regardless of what i give him (except maybe chocolate milk, he'd drink a gallon of that) I feel like its just more sugar that he doesn't need and it didn't really help with the process. Less sugar next time around, it worked but there are better ways.
Post Training :
Day 4 he had one small accident, woke up dry in the morning and from his nap. It's getting harder and harder to get him to come sit on the potty but on the bright side, he pretty much just goes on his own when he feels like he needs to go. Of course we're still constantly prompting him and going in with him but he likes to go when he can remember. I'm so happy with our experience and i feel like everyone in the house made it out unscathed by emotional and psychiatric scarring.
Go Liam, thanks for making me look good.
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