I'm sure you were all dying to know the state of Sprout's bathroom habits. If not, please stop reading here. DISCLAIMER: There will be mention of poo.
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| Side-by-side setup...with appropriate reading material. Also a box of toy eggs. |
Okay, disclaimer out of the way. It's been two weeks now & Sprout's still nowhere near what I'd call trained. He's initiated going two or three times in two weeks. Every other time has been me suggesting, asking, cajoling or bribing him to sit down on the potty or toilet. The major achievement so far seems to be that he'll pee on command. But he still has trouble getting his pants & underwear down or up on his own. I've found the best outfit for him is baby leggings with underpants so there's only one thing to get off. We seem to have more accidents when he wears pants. He seems to have little idea when he's going to poo until it's too late. Often it just happens when I've sat him down already, so we've had only a few disasters. Or I see That Look on his face & rush him to the loo in time.
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| Goal! Yes, this is our living room. No, we don't have a TV for that remote. |
There's no way I could go out with him in regular underpants. & before you say just stay home, I tried that for most of a week & nearly went crazy. I need to get out & do stuff. I don't want to be That Mom whose kids just peed on the floor of a cafe or store, so I bought a pack of generic disposable training pants. I thought I'd only need the one pack: if I'm using one a day, I'd have a whole month to get it sorted out right? Well, we're halfway there & I think I'll need to get more. I'm not really into the idea of disposables though after two & a half years of cloth diapers. I may experiment with the somewhat absorbent but waterproof outside type of training pants when we go out. Anyone have any experience with those? Advice?
Sigh. I was hoping that he'd be ready & this would work a bit better than it is, but I am now afraid I have months ahead of me where I have to be sitting him on the potty every hour or every 15 minutes after having a drink. I want to ask everyone how long it took their kids to potty train, but I know it's all irrelevant because every kid is different. He'll take how long it takes. At least he's not too resistant to the whole idea. In fact, he thinks his potties (yes, we have three) are so fun that he regularly puts them on his head or stacks them like Lego or carts them around the house.
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The thing that worked for us with both girls was just ... doing it. All the time, underwear only (except overnight because we are not insane), accidents and all. BUT. We have GIRLS. Who toilet trained or learned or whatever at 25 months old. Oh and daycare. Full time daycare helped immensely. It's a win win because it's easier for daycare to have kids trained, and the kids are motivated by seeing other kids using the little toilets or potties. My oldest was in a pull up overnight until she was four, so it wasn't all perfect! Do you read the blog "the spohrs are multiplying?" they tried at two and a half with their daughter, it didn't take, they tried again a month or so before she turned three and it worked like a charm. Anyway there are lots of stories like this out there. Good luck figuring out what works best for you! And don't sweat it too much, as everyone says, 99.99% of kids won't be going off to kindergarten in diapers:)
ReplyDeleteYeah, I wonder how much impact seeing other kids doing it will have on him when he goes to daycare? I've also heard it's easier to train girls, who knows why?
DeleteI know he'll be trained eventually, I'm just dreading dealing with puddles, dressing & undressing him hourly for months or years on end. :P
We have had some success, but lately he has been more resistant. Like you, we have to catch him before he goes. Do you have any books you can recommend on the subject?
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any books, mostly I just talked to a lot of people & tried to think what would work for us. I do find he's less resistant if I stay really positive (kinda 'selling' it, you know?) about him going to the toilet/potty, rather than it being forced or a chore. However, this is really hard to maintain all day & when I'm in a hurry or really tired... :P
DeleteI know people who have used the Bummis whisper pants over top of underwear when they take their kids out. It contains the liquid..somewhat if there is an accident. We have a handful of cloth training pants..kushies, bummies..etc. They don't really work. They didn't absorb enough if there was an accident, and I found were hard to wash. The smell doesn't wash out well-too many layers of flannel maybe? And they take forever and a day to dry. Unfortunately-the Pampers and Huggies ones have got the cloth pullups beat by miles. Although they are a crutch. We keep a few in the house as sometimes the girls go through stages of peeing their beds at night, so they go back into pullups at night until they are dry for 3 days.
ReplyDeleteYes, every child is different, and I know you don't want to hear it..but maybe he's not ready yet?
My girls are FINALLY getting the pull up their pants themselves idea. 7 months after they were trained. Next we teach the wiping....They've always been able to pull them down though. In fact, before we started potty training-they kept taking their pants and diapers off and running around naked!
Wow, I was hoping he'd learn how to get his pants up & down a bit sooner than this. I keep second-guessing myself as to whether he's ready, but I worry that it will be harder later if I give up & wait...
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