Since this is the second day I haven't been to work because of hurricane Irene, and I have no interesting stories to report I figured I'd share some of my personal secrets for dealing with difficult toddler boys or toddlers mostly potty training. I've faced many an uphill battle with AC whether it be potty training which is still a work in progress, cutting the TV addiction, or trying to stop him from storing food in his cheeks much like a chipmunk. These tips and tricks are what really helped me, and no I didn't read them in some fancy book, website, or old wives tales I used my own common sense and brain. This time I'll mainly focus on potty training.
1. Potty training- This is still a work in progress but its been a long time since AC has had any type of BM* in his diaper. First it should be clear that the child is ready, they understand that their going potty in their diaper and they have the verbal cues to be able to vocalize when they need to go. If they can't tell you, how can they learn? Anyways what I started with was leaving the door open when I would use the bathroom, which seems strange yes butttt it invited him in and let him know that the bathroom was a "cool" place and even I used it. Children that typically are not invited in or don't see someone using the bathroom won't know what it is, and maybe they only see the bathroom as a fun place to take a bath etc. Next when I would be able to tell that AC was having a BM I'd put him diaper, pants and all on the toilet so he started to understand and make the connection that he should be in the bathroom and on the toilet when he needed to go. At first he hated being on the toilet when he was having a BM so occasionally I'd let him just stand in the bathroom so he still understood that he needed to be in there but I didn't want to make it a traumatic place for him. Many mistakes that I've seen parents and others make is getting mad or frustrated when their child doesn't understand or isn't doing what they ask, but pushing a child to go especially in a bathroom when their not ready could potentially cause that child to dislike the bathroom, which could cause additional difficulties that might not have been present before like a new hate for the bathroom as a whole making bath time especially frustrating for child and parent. Eventually AC started making the connection and would just walk into the bathroom when he was having a BM or urinating, that's when I started using the toilet insert instead of the mini potty. Mini pottys are fantastic don't get me wrong but I just wanted to skip that whole step of transiting AC from mini potty to big boy potty so toilet insert was excellent, and using a mini step stool so AC could feel like he was doing everything on his own including setting himself on the potty. I place AC on the potty in the morning as soon as he woke up, before and after breakfast/lunch/dinner, and before and after nap time, basically 3-4 times an hour for 5-10 minute increments. When he did go I would freak out clapping and continuously saying good job and we had a rewards system that for every time he went he would get 1-2 M&M's depending on what he did. Even when he wasn't going I would still congradulate him saying great job and high-fiving him. Then when he would be all done I would make him say all done, or ready diaper change. Then we had a routine he would get himself off the potty, flush the toilet, we'd walk into the room where he would get a diaper change, lastly we'd walk back into the bathroom and wash our hands while singing a song (We always washed our hands no matter what), something like soap soap soap, lather lather lather rinse rinse rinse dry dry dry JUMP and I'd help him jump off the step stool. The next step was moving onto pull ups which he is still in, pull ups let the child be proud of themselves we called them "big boy undies" being able to pull them up and down, and feel very independent. AC still has accidents but he is basically fully potty trained, he goes without any reward and hates having a wet or dirty pull up.
I hope this was helpful and if you have any questions, comments please feel free to comment! Good luck and happy potty training.
XoXo Nicole
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