So here we are at a MAJOR milestone in a young childs life....the infamous..sometimes dreaded and feared POTTY TRAINING! Kal-el has been showing signs lately that he is ready to start. WE as in Chris and I thought we would begin and end this process when he turned two. He just wasn't ready and I'm a firm believer in not pushing the issue if you know it's just not going to click with your child. I find that it leads to MORE accidents all over the place and just frustrates the parent and child.Still we wanted to see if he was one of the few who would take to it right away. Our pediatrician informed us at Super's two year appointment to not be surprised if it didn't go as planned. He said it just takes longer with boys and most boys aren't ready to begin the process until about 2.5 years of age. Some parents start extremely early and consider their child "trained" even before the age of two. Unlike many of those parents I don't consider a child potty trained if they are still wearing pull ups, having several accidents throughout the day, and still bed wetting frequently during the night or nap time, or if the child is only able to effectively make #1 in the potty :) I also feel like if your taking your child to the potty every 20 mins then YOU are potty trained NOT the child. My definition is probably a little more rigid and therefore I'm more reserved in labeling my child or any child "potty trained". Kal-el has been using the potty for months now. He has never had an issue going when we sit him there. His issue dealt more with consistency and understanding his urges and mainly communicating to US when he needed to go. I decided last week to make a sticker chart for him in hopes to add a little motivation and incentive for going potty. This worked well at first until my independent child tried to take over the system and hand out stickers to his father and I when we went LOL. He also tried demanding a sticker FIRST! That system wasn't the most effective for him. Bribery tends to make Kal-el a little angry! He also likes to feel like he's in control and only wants to go if he thinks of it NOT if we suggest it. Which means if he's playing or watching cartoons or preoccupied in anyway he uses his diaper and asks me to immediately change him. I knew at that point he was ready to take the next step. I finally got to the point where I wanted to be completely rid of diapers. I had a couple of friends online suggest the 3 day potty training boot camp. I thought it couldn't hurt to give it a try because up until this point we hadn't been using any specific method. I wasn't so much concerned with getting it completely accomplished in 3 days because having a psychology background I understand that conditioning can often vary especially where children are concerned. I did realise, however, that this would be a great way to hold me accountable and give it our best effort for 3 days!
After digesting all the knowledge in the book I agreed with MUCH of the program right away. I hate pull ups and have always considered them a crutch, as a matter of fact up until we started this Kal-el has been in regular diapers. I think really they confuse children..especially older ones. I was certainly on board with throwing all diapers away. It only makes since if you don't want to encourage regression in times of desperation. I also agreed with the constant reminders and the way they are phrased to your child. Instead of asking "Do you have to use the bathroom/go potty?" in question form you approach the child with a statement like "Don't forget to tell Mommy and Daddy when you have to go potty". Small verbal tweaks like this help children feel more accomplished and in control. Super = control freak= like Mommy :) There is LOTS of positive reinforcement with this program which is usually quite effective. I'll be honest in regards to my child though..I really have to not overdo it because I find that he gets bored of it VERY fast, looks at me like I've lost my mind, and opts for a more extreme reaction out of me.. at times even if it takes negative behavior. He's just naturally curious and a tad mischievous. I have to try extra hard to find that middle ground with him.
Chris had a couple of days off and since the system required constant supervision of our child to be effective we took advantage and started right away. The idea is too watch for his "cues" that he's about to relieve himself and then transfer him while in the act to the potty. Simple enough. Condition using the bathroom with going on the potty using repeated exposure type behavioral therapy basically. Still the child has to be able to make the connection so you want to do the transfer as quickly as possible. I consider the last 3 days to be a real success and Chris and I are extremely proud of Kal-el.
Day 1 : He only had 3 accidents. Chris ended up having to take over the evening of the first day..not because I was gave up but because the first accident of the day had me so over eager to get to him that I literally FELL..on his pee no less, and was unable to break my entire fall and hit my head on the hard wood floor. FAIL. Of these accidents I'm proud to report that two of them he caught himself mid pee and said "go potty" so he definitely caught on from day 1. He even managed to make #2 the first day( I know you will NOT like this post when your older..but we all poo son ). Day 1 was spent in white undies that he received as a stocking stuffer this year. We thought it would be even better to introduce some character underwear. Other parents rave on and on about what a big difference this makes. I called my mom and had her bring some over since you basically not allowed to leave the house for 3 days on the system.
Day 2: Kal-el woke up dry! Hooray! We decided to introduce his new big boy underwear. He LOVED them. Umm perhaps a little too much. He acted like a diva and had the audacity to ask me the following " I pee on dis, then get to put these ones on now" How in the world did he put that plan together so fast?!? I had to finally make him pick one pair out and informed him to keep them dry while I hid the rest. His success continued for day 2! Only two accidents...one was pretty rough but he managed to finish in the potty. He's never completely emptied himself anywhere but the potty since we've started. I'm thrilled with the fact that he catches himself in the act and understands he needs to get to the bathroom.
Day 3 : Once again Super woke up dry! This thrills me almost more than anything..no pee on sheets...major plus! He did not have one single accident all day long!!! He has also very effective communicated to us when he needs to go potty. Day 3 was obviously a major break through and things have really clicked now!
Overall I really like this system and would certainly recommend it. I will say that I don't expect complete no turning back success in a matter of 3 days. On the face it does seem to work in "3 days" After all Kal-el went from 3 accidents to 0 on day 3 HOWEVER the system only allows for variables inside the home and fails to take into account outside stimulus. This stimulus may or may not affect all children just as using different pottys may or may not play a role in their training. I'm anxious to see how Kal-el does once we are out and about and actually wearing pants over our big boy underwear and going on trips and car rides etc. Either way I love being his support system and I could not be more happy and proud for him. He has done amazingly well in a matter of 72 hours. Three short days ago our home was full of size 6 diapers. I'm not going to lie I made a little frown face when I typed that. My baby is growing up but maybe not too fast ...at least he still has cartoons on his underpants :) Congratulations Kal-el Borquez!
And of course Pluto made ever trip!
Our little sticker chart that ended up being more for fun :)
We started off in plain big boy underpants...
But he was so much more thrilled with these....
Maybe a little TOO thrilled ;)
He loves this...of course :)
