Tales from the Potty

Warning, this is long and graphic and probably boring to anyone except us!!

On Saturday we started a "Potty Train Your Kid in 3 Days" program.  My friend Erin had sent me a guide and her own personal tips many months ago on this and then more recently Miss Ashley sent us a very similar guide to follow.

The premise is simple.  Just put your kid in underwear (no pants) and stick to him/her like glue for three days.  Rush them to the potty whenever they start to go until they get the hang of it.  Constantly remind them to "Tell Mommy/Daddy when you have to go to the potty."  Give them tons of fluids so they have to pee.  Be positive, consistent, have prizes/stickers/treats for positive reinforcement.  Have 20-30 pairs of underwear because of all of the accidents.

We were ready.  We had a potty seat upstairs, a potty seat downstairs, and a travel potty.  We rolled up the living room rug and moved it downstairs (in case of accidents).  We have 23 pairs of underwear - Cars, Thomas, Super Heroes (Batman, Spiderman), Disney Pixar (Wall-E, Buzz Lightyear, etc), and Julius (the monkey from Target).  We went to the Dollar Store and stocked up on junky toys for a Treasure Chest.  Keith researched high-fiber snacks that they could make together to encourage Colin's body to go poop (zucchini bread with whole wheat flour, pancakes with whole wheat flour and wheat germ, smoothies with vegetables "hidden" inside).  We printed off this Thomas potty training reward chart that Erin told me about.  He has to get pee or poop in the potty to earn a sticker (even just a dribble).  After three stickers he gets to choose a prize from the Treasure Chest. We have M&M's for immediate rewards (2 for pee, 4 for poop).

We had a plan in place where Keith would stick to Colin like glue and I would take care of the girls and make the meals.  And then it went amazingly easier than we ever thought.  We put him in underwear after breakfast the first morning like the guide said and he just started telling us when he had to go!  The first time he told us a little too late and his underwear was a little wet.  But after that first accident he earned 10 more stickers the first day for peeing in the potty with no accidents!  He was a little excited about it the first day...sometimes just going a little bit here and there.  The second day started out with two more pee accidents but then none the rest of they day.  The third day started out with a poop accident but no pee accidents all day.

And then today started out with a little poop accident and many attempts to go #2 on the potty and then he DID!  HOORAY!  I big solid poop in the toilet!  MARVELOUS!  At this point we felt he had the hang of it enough to leave the house and go out in public but we wanted him to feel comfortable using the big toilet which he had never done.  After bribing him with cookies, we got him to try just sitting on it.  He immediately conquered his fear of it and five minutes later went back in and peed in the big toilet!

We are so very proud of him.  He was obviously ready for this and we thought he probably was.  We would have done it earlier with him but some little event happened in our lives that made it a little hard!  He is still in a diaper at nap and bed time.  Not sure how we conquer that yet but it will come.  We aren't worried about that now.

Colin in his big boy underwear eating a high-fiber granola bar :)