potty training - little successes

Mrs.Rachel

*this is an email I sent to a girlfriend about whats been going on this week with potty training Noah so far* - you might be interested.

My parents are on vacation this week, so I've kept Noah out of a diaper for a few hours each day (other than nap and when he goes outside, of course). *I bring him to my parent's home everyday while I work in their office*. He wants to stand like daddy to pee... but since he's not good with the stool and aiming yet, we just use a "pee pee cup" (a tall plastic cup that we have - with pictures on it).

When I let him go diaper-free... I usually give him a full glass of apple juice and water - so that I know he will have to empty his bladder soon. He asks for the cup when he feels like he needs to pee. He can hold his pee in pretty good... and when I place the cup, I count to 3 then make the "ssss" sound and he goes. Then he takes the cup to the toilet, flushes, washes hands, etc. no smarties or treats - he used to get smarties if he pee'd or poo'd while sitting on the toilet. Now he just likes the applause / attention

When he is in his high chair he will tell me too... and wait until I get him out of it, and we go through the routine. Its been working well for us so far - but this routine just started on the weekend (since my parents are gone and I get to spend more time with him). my parents don't like him without a diaper on in "their" house - which is where we are 75% of his waking hours. hopefully by the time they get back, he will be good at communicating when he needs to pee.

the longer I make him wait for the cup, the better, I think. This way he knows how to hold it to get clothes off, or to run to the bathroom. my plan is to start asking him to come with me to the bathroom to pee in the cup - right now he's just peeing in the room where he is. Then he'll associate HIM peeing with that room, and not just any room he wants (he knows everyone else goes there, but he hasn't had to). He'll also have to stop playing, leave the toys, and go to the bathroom... which is a good thing to learn. And soon enough, hopefully he'll be able to stand on his stool and go directly in the toilet.

oh, and he doesn't like it if I ask him if he has to go. I just remind him that if he has to go, he pees in his pee pee cup. I make sure he knows where his cup is (almost every 5 minutes)... so that its on his mind (of course, this is when he has a pretty full bladder).

fingers crossed. I'm also concerned how things will go when my parents get back from vacay - it might take longer than I want, but I'm happy how its going so far.

If anyone has any other tips that have worked for their child, it would be appreciated.

Yvonne0721

Wow Rachel! You are on this whole potty training thing! I never knew it took so much effort! Sounds like things are going very well.

Continued success on the pee front! 

CMB

Thanks for the details. I'm interested to know how it goes. That's a good tip--not asking him if he has to go, but reminding him of where to go when the time comes.

Leyla is getting back in the habit of using the potty again. Even today she wanted to wear underwear this morning so I went with it. She's more receptive again. She gets annoyed with all the asking too, so reminding should be better. She wet four pairs of underwear this morning and then was dry from 12 to 5, and then I put her in a pull-up to go to a party.

Life is too busy right now to do it all day, but I figure I will try hard for the next three or four weeks and see how it goes. I bought pull-ups for when we are out of the house and doing busy things--we had two birthday parties this weekend, for example.

 Did you do anything like throwing the diapers away? you wear cloth right? I was considering putting her in cloth at night once we get going since we have some. Does he wear underwear or just a bare bum? I prefer DD in the absorbent waffle kind of underwear to catch the pee and save my carpet. I did buy her some character underwear to see if she would be motivated to keep them clean. I haven't tried that yet. I put her in a short dress as a visual reminder that I had to get her on the potty a lot. I find that I'm forgetting sometimes too.

Mrs.Rachel

Hey Cara,

yeah, we use cloth diapers, so we're not doing any ceremonial throwing away thing... baby#2 will be in them before we know it. He does wear a disposible overnight bc I find he pee's so much, and I got tired of changing him through the night (or him soaking his PJs).

Right now he is just bare bum at this stage... with a longer t-shirt. I have to get some new underwear... I had the waffle ones when he was younger, but he's outgrown them.

I'll do another update soon (or just send you a personal update)... today he pulled out his potty, and pooped in it - huge success in my books! He's been asking for the cup to poop, but only farts in it... he can tell when something is moving around down there. And since we started, almost 2 weeks ago, there have been minimal accidents with his pee (a drop here and there from not shaking properly).

Thank-you for the encouragement!! its bc of your suggestion last month to take a few days devoted to potty training that we're having all this success.