peeing for candy

kc192

We've been potty training for over a month now and it has gone surprisingly smoothly. No issues with peeing and pooping. In fact, tonight was his very first accident ever and it was more my fault because he told me he needed to potty (he has trouble pulling his pants down so I always help him) and i was in the middle of something so I made him wait when I should have just stopped doing what I was doing..

Anyways we reward him with a piece of candy for every pee or poop that he does. Toys, stickers, verbal praise, charts, etc do nothing for his motivation the way a jelly bean does! but now he has gotten smart enough to figure out that he just needs to pee every 10 minute and he gets A LOT of jelly beans! Someone suggested that I reward for a dry diaper instead of every trip to the bathroom. How do I go about transitioning to that? He will not be as excited about peeing or pooping if he doesn't get a reward right away! or does anyone have any other suggestions?

ashiscute

Agree.  This is why I'm not keen on rewards.  Honestly, if you've been doing it for over a month I'd ditch the candy.  I would maybe take him out for ice cream as a big celebration and then no more jelly beans.  Also, I'd ditch diapers except for bedtime.  When he's awake he should be in underwear.  

Your other option would be to give jelly beans only for poop since that's harder to do all day long.  I wouldn't do that though.  

cedenton

I won't knock rewards. They worked the first bootcamp weekend.  After that I just didn't give them to him if he didn't ask.  And he stopped asking within a few days.  Now every couple of days I just grab some candy or a toy (from the Dollar Store) and give it to him and say it's for doing so well on the potty.  He's now pretty much 100% trained for  day and it's been about three weeks.

kc192

ashiscute said:

Agree.  This is why I'm not keen on rewards.  Honestly, if you've been doing it for over a month I'd ditch the candy.  I would maybe take him out for ice cream as a big celebration and then no more jelly beans.  Also, I'd ditch diapers except for bedtime.  When he's awake he should be in underwear.  

Your other option would be to give jelly beans only for poop since that's harder to do all day long.  I wouldn't do that though.  

Oops, didn't mean to say he was in diapers. He's been in underwear except at night.

I do agree it's time to ditch the candy I just don't know the smoothest transition. He just gets SO EXCITED about peeing/pooping for candy that potty training has been like, the greatest thing ever in his mind. I hate to take his excitement away but also don't want his teeth to rot out when he's you know, 4 (amongst other issues of eating candy 7+ times a day). I think I need to just bite the bullet and let him face the disappointment that candy is not the norm every time. i've tried to stress that once you're a big boy you don't get candy every time but honestly, I think he'd rather not be a big boy!

ashiscute

kc192 said:

ashiscute said:

Agree.  This is why I'm not keen on rewards.  Honestly, if you've been doing it for over a month I'd ditch the candy.  I would maybe take him out for ice cream as a big celebration and then no more jelly beans.  Also, I'd ditch diapers except for bedtime.  When he's awake he should be in underwear.  

Your other option would be to give jelly beans only for poop since that's harder to do all day long.  I wouldn't do that though.  

Oops, didn't mean to say he was in diapers. He's been in underwear except at night.

I do agree it's time to ditch the candy I just don't know the smoothest transition. He just gets SO EXCITED about peeing/pooping for candy that potty training has been like, the greatest thing ever in his mind. I hate to take his excitement away but also don't want his teeth to rot out when he's you know, 4 (amongst other issues of eating candy 7+ times a day). I think I need to just bite the bullet and let him face the disappointment that candy is not the norm every time. i've tried to stress that once you're a big boy you don't get candy every time but honestly, I think he'd rather not be a big boy!

I wouldn't worry about the candy affecting his teeth so much as just that he should be able to use the potty without the incentive.  Some kids do not respond to the big boy/big girl comments so if he doesn't like that then just lay off.  I would try to do one big reward to celebrate his being officially trained (trip for ice cream, toy he's been wanting, etc) and then ditch the candy for good.  He may have a regression but it's unlikely he is only peeing for the candy.  Candy wouldn't be enough of an incentive if he weren't interested in being clean and using the potty at all.  Good luck.