Wednesday, October 7, 2009

I have to go Pee Pee - Toilet Training Fun

I hear this statement yelled to me multiple times a day. DS is doing a very good job a toilet training but wow does it take a lot more focus, time and patience than I realized. I waited until DD was in her third week of 1st grade and our schedule slowed down to give it a try. DS had just turned three and got big boy underwear for his birthday so he was psyched up to wear them. The first day we went through 3 pairs of underwear by 10:30am and we went back to the pull-ups. Each day got increasingly better and after 3 weeks he has very few accidents and even manages to have a dry pull-up most mornings.

That said the things that drive me crazy about this whole toilet training business are:
• Constant little boy nudity – he has to have shoes, socks, pants off to go and then decides that he prefers not putting any of them back on
• Sitting on a wet toilet seat – yes I have boycotted using the same bathroom but DD gets caught sometimes
• Having to check out every public bathroom wherever we are
• Needing the diaper bag for every outing just in case

It’s interesting though that the methods used for my two children were vastly different. DD was in daycare and started toilet training at the age of 2. It was a big deal to get all the little kids to ‘try’ even if they were still wearing diapers. And frankly I wasn’t the one doing the training so I wasn’t sure if it was the best method.

With DS I never once got him to perform on the toilet. He would sit there, read books, sing, fill the toilet with paper and flush but nothing else. It basically took the cold turkey method to get him trained and it delivered much quicker results than the method used with DD. Also DS is staying dry at night – something which took DD another year to accomplish after being day trained.

Check out the book below Mommy I have to go Potty by for more information on tips and tools to toilet train your child.

2 comments:

  1. When our youngest son was 3 and newly potty trained a friend told him there were monsters in the potty. For a year he refused to go #2. Finally after trying just about everything I decided to circle a date on the calendar with him and work up to it. It worked like a charm. When the day came he looked at me like "Well we've been counting and counting I guess I have to do it now"

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  2. I've heard that boys sometimes have #2 issues. I'm glad that DS has seemed to train so easily - I think he just must have been ready and he hadn't had any bad experiences from being forced too early. Your calendar date idea sounds good too - gives them time to acclimate to the idea and a deadline.

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