Potty Training Day 4 and Beyond

Day 4 and beyond... (whenever I think this in my head, it is said in a Buzz Lightyear voice)

JJ was home last week on a vacation so we had a nice little Stay-cation which is why I was completely absent in posting. I will go more into our stay-cation this week. H did not do well with pooping in the potty while JJ was home. I am not sure if he was just so excited to have his dad around all the time or was just too distracted but he would poop his pants like it was no ones business. 

After having to clean up poop for a few days, I decided to go back to not  wearing any underwear. My thinking is that the underwear was still some protection and he felt that he could poop in it. I knew that if he wasn't wearing any underwear, he couldn't poop on the floor.  I also decided to give him a little matchbox car every time he pooped in the potty. Between the toy incentive and not wearing any underwear, he hasn't had 1 accident. He was very upset about not getting to wear his big boy underwear at first, so I told him that as soon as he pooped in the potty he could put his underwear on.  H has rocked pooping ever since. 

One thing that has happened since he started getting a toy, is that he poops on average 4 times a day. When he was wearing a diaper he only pooped once a day but now that he gets a toy, he is going 4 times a day. It is just absolutely crazy. After the first the poop we put underwear on and he is doing good not pooping his underwear after he gets it on. 

I am going to stop giving him a toy after a week of no accidents and then we are going to start night training. That I am not looking forward to.  H does now call of his toy cars his "poop cars". It cracks me up every time. He will be playing with one of the cars and will hold it up and yell "POOP CAR!"  He is so proud of them. I can't wait until he does this in public :)

The guidelines that I used to do the potty training are from Potty Training Boot Camp. The guidelines are as follows:

Before you start- Make sure you have 3 full days that you can be home without leaving the house at all (this was the hardest part for me). If you leave, there will be an accident which is not the message you want to send to her in the beginning.

Needs:

• Training pants (soft cotton gerber ones)- lots of them J They work better than underwear since they are thicker and allow for more pee
• Potty seat that you can take anywhere you play (inside or out)
• “night night undies” (What we called them). We used the training pants with the rubber on the outside over the reg. training pants. If the thought of this is horrible to you, then use pull ups but do not call them that and ONLY use them for sleep times- remember no more diapers!
• Potty ring for travel (starting day 4)
• All she will wear for the first three days is a tshirt and training pants so its easy to pull up and down.

Day 1- As soon as she wakes up tell her that starting today there are no more diapers! Let her help you “trash” the left overs you have and tell her what a big girl she is. She needs to sens e your confidence in this decision so you cannot wavier once you start. Otherwise, the attempt will fail miserably. Tell her that everytime she goes pee or poop in the potty she will get a treat (we used m&m’s). Every 15 minutes (I used a timer) put her on the potty. Make sure the potty is right next to wherever she is playing so she doesn’t feel like she has to interrupt play time to go. Have books and toys available for her. Never ask her  if she has to go, just say, time to potty and put her on. If she goes, celebrate big and let her help you flush it down the big potty. If she doesn’t say, ok we will try next time. If she has an accident, simply say “uh oh, next time we will go in the potty”, change her and let her help you clean it up if needed.  Don’t make a big deal. In 15 minutes, do it again. (I know it seems ridiculous, but trust me it’s magical). Oh- and give her lots to drink on these days. The more she has to go, the more chances of success and she will begin to realize what it feels like right before and during. Be prepared for tiny dribbles throughout the day in the potty that will deserve celebration.

Nap- change to night night undies and tell her she will have a treat for dry undies but don’t punish for wet. Change immediately upon waking into training pants and put her on potty.

Day 2- repeat day 1 but extend to every 30 minutes.

Day 3- extend to 45 min. to an hour.

Day 4- plan a small outing. (we did publix). Put her on potty before you go. Take her to public potty as soon as you arrive, then right before you leave, take her again> (drives you crazy but it works). Then again as soon as you get home.

Day 5 and beyond- continue to be very consisten tand extending the time in between. Never ask her if she has to go- tell her and physically put her on the potty. Pretty soon she will start telling you she has to go, it’s amazing how it works.

By day 3- she should be virtually day trained for pee. Nights can take a little longer, just be patient.  Cameron took a little longer to get all his poops in the potty, but it was only a matter of  a week or two before he was accident free in that area. CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY.

Whatever you do- DO NOT GO BACK TO DIAPERS or be prepared to start all over.

Here is hoping that this works as well with A once we start potty training her!

KK