Potty School - Day 2

Yesterday was the longest day of my life composed of all my pet peeves as a Mom: trapped in the house all day (in 97-degree weather), confined to a small area, limited toys to play with, continual snack fixing and cleanup, lots of pee-pee and poo poo cleanup. Oh, and Z hopped up on sugary drinks and treats, bored and, at times, frustrated. Wow. Rough Day.

After a few good potties in the toilet early on, I jumped right to the last stage of training, where you no longer prompt the child to go to the potty. You simply continue to check their pants to see if they are dry every 15 minutes. Except I again jumped the gun and went to inspections every 45 minutes to an hour (the very last last step). Yeah, I guess I should have read the book (again) a little more closely. So after the initial success in the morning, the rest of the day was nothing but accidents. And our very first accident was a soft, smeary poo poo. Oh man. What a day.

That evening, after John got home, I had to run out on a quick errand (that couldn't be delayed). The entire time I'm re-thinking the strategy, thinking through what I wanted to change for day two, bummed at the apparent lack of success. Then, when I got home, I got the news that Z had gone to the toilet by himself and even for a number two! Holy cow. I thought all along that poos were going to be the last thing Z would get. When we tried earlier in the day, he fought me to even sit on the toilet (he goes pee standing up). I felt like crying with the relief and joy of it. Thankfully, John took a picture:



We put Z to bed with a pull-up and I thought through how we would continue day 2 of Potty School. I decided to make some changes. So this morning we started with the question prompt: "Z, do you need to use the potty?" and I kept up with the dry pants inspection every 15 minutes. I also decided he would only get sugary treats when he went potty in the toilet. I would give him salty snacks and drinks at the dry pants inspection to encourage more potty-ing. I also pulled out the big gun:
George. Why didn't I think of that yesterday? I told Z this morning that he would get to watch George as a reward when he went potty in the toilet. Bing! The lightbulb went on inside little Z's head!

He went potty the first time this morning after a pants inspection when I was telling him what he would get if he went potty in the toilet (candy and George). I then moved to just the dry pants question rather than any prompting. He went potty the second time by himself when I was checking his pants and I reminded him what he would get when he went potty in the toilet (candy and George). Now, for the next potty, he is going to get just the candy. I'll probably stick to candy the rest of today, with dry pants inspections less and less frequently. Then, tomorrow, I'll switch to dry pants inspections at set times of day (get up, before snacks, before we leave the house, before nap, etc.). I'll keep the candy as a motivator for more challenging circumstances like being at the store or outside perhaps. Then, that will phase out too.

Holy cow! What a difference from yesterday afternoon. I know there will be more accidents, and we still have to work on all of the steps (like leaving his underwear at his ankles rather than stepping out of them because then he needs my help to get them back on). But I'm so HUGELY encouraged that we are making progress!