Thursday, March 6, 2014

Big Boy Jack: A Potty Training Saga

One thing I didn't mention yesterday is that Jack is now potty trained!

I am going to blog about it.  You may find this interesting if you are starting to look into potty training.  I am mostly blogging because I want to look back on this information for future kids.

First of all, I got a potty for Jack last summer.  I tried to get him to use it some this summer, but he had no interest.

I read several articles about the different methods of potty training.  Lots of people advocated the whole two day method--just dive into 100% for a couple of days.

We attempted that this fall.  The first day was good.  But by the second day, Jack screamed if I tried to get him to sit on the potty.  And I felt like he really didn't know when he needed to go.  Again, we put the potty away and decided to wait a little bit.

The daycare we use is really into potty training, so I knew that they would be a big help in whatever we did.  Every time they changed Jack's diaper, they tried to get him to just try using the potty.  The first week, he refused every.single.time.  But by the second and third week, he would usually try (unsuccessfully) for them).

I decided that the weekend after his third week would be a great time to try again.  We were supposed to be home all of Saturday, so I knew I had the time.

Saturday morning, I turned up the heat and put Jack in just a t shirt.  We played and watched movies downstairs all day.  I had several little treats (I had been stockpiling for a while) ready for successes.  Actually, the first treat was a pair of spiderman undies that my dad bought him when we were home over Christmas.  So after the first success, he wore underwear for the rest of the day.

I gave him lots of liquids and made him stay right in the living room near his little potty.  He did great.   He only had two accidents and he seemed to really be getting it.

The next day was good, too.  He wore a diaper to church and to a friends party that night.  But we did underwear in between.

The next day, I brought tons of underwear and spare pants to the daycare.  And he had accidents all day.  Seriously, not one success.  I was so discouraged!  But I washed everything, brought it the next day, and asked if they were willing to try it all again.  They said they were happy to. 

I am so glad that neither I or his daycare teachers gave up after that first disastrous day.  He had one accident the second day at daycare!  The rest of the week was really good too.

By the second week, he had going #1 down pat, but was still struggling with #2 (which I think is pretty common).  We started in on the hard core bribing...chocolate ice cream!  He finally accomplished that for us at home Tuesday night.  

Then Wednesday, he walked into the bathroom at school by himself and just started doing his business!  When we picked him up, we oohed and aahed over him and took him to Barnes & Noble to get a treat, a new Where's Waldo book and Spencer the train.

Since then, he has been amazing.  I think he has had 4 total accidents in the past 10 or 11 days?  We have stopped giving him treats.  Sometimes he will still ask for ice cream for #2, and if he's eaten dinner already (and its night time), we will usually give him a little.

One of the best things for him was the praise.  Every time he was successful, we praised him so much.  In fact, he know tells me "Good job, Mommy!" when I leave the bathroom.  Um, thanks?

He liked getting treats, but he really didn't get many after the first two days because he was at daycare during the day.  I think those helped us getting started.

The best thing for us, though, was just diving him.  He wore a pull up to church that second Sunday, but the past two Sundays we have worn underwear.  We wear underwear to the store, in the car, etc.  I am always quick to ask him if he needs to potty as soon as we arrive at church, but we have yet to have a public accident.

We haven't even started nap or night training, and I know that will be a whole new ballgame! 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please share! 

2 comments:

Callie said...

How great that your daycare workers were willing to help during the day! Yay for Jack!

Sarah Denley said...

I'm SO glad you're back to blogging again =)

And GO, JACK! Ugh, I feel like we'll never get there. I asked Graves yesterday if he was going to go to college wearing a diaper and he said "No, Ma'am". I asked him if he was going to learn to drive a car in a diaper and he said "Ye, Ma'am". LOL, might make for some awkward first dates ;)