On Potty Training

I would like to blame this post on Ellen, but the truth is that I was already planning it. I will begin with What Not to Do. Please do not do what I did with my firstborn, which is to say be half-hearted about this. The children just get confused when you do this.

Now, I know that sometimes being half-hearted just happens. It happened to me because I ended up on bed rest for a difficult pregnancy, and so my son was only practicing using the toilet when someone other than his mother was around to help him. There was also some other drama surrounding his training, but I think the fact remains that he was getting mixed messages and that if I could have done what I did with my girls it would have gone better for him.

So, without beating ourselves up for things we can’t control, it is still okay to have an Ideal in mind.

My ideal is the proverbial Cold Turkey, thanks to my friend, the delightful Mrs. Owens, who so wise, she should have her own blog, but doesn’t. Mrs. Owens took what I did with my older daughter and put it into high gear for me to use with Q., and the result is that we survived today relatively unscathed.

Here is how it went: {Please note that I spent weeks telling her that this day was coming.} We rose at the Usual Time, and I took Q. to the potty chair and sat her on it. She didn’t go, but it was a good chance to take off the diaper and exchange it for Big Girl Panties and talk about how the day was going to go. I handed Q. her last diaper, and she ceremoniously threw it in the trash, while being photographed by the family historian, otherwise known as Granmama.

All we did all day was try to use the toilet, plus get Q. to drink as much as possible {which is hard, for this girl isn’t a very thirsty person} so that she’d have as many chances as possible to practice. The day was filled with successes, as I mentioned in my other post, but I must confess that experience with my other children tells me that failures on Day One in no way indicate failures on Day Two, so if your first day is filled with puddles, do not despair!

Ahem.

As I was saying, Mrs. Owens ramped up the process for me. She encouraged me to get rid of diapers altogether, from the first day, even while sleeping.

We did.

During nap time on Day One, she wet the bed. Overnight on Day One, she wet the bed. (Twice, actually.) But, during nap time on Day Two, she stayed dry, even getting up once to use the toilet and then returning to finish her nap. Overnight on Day Two she wet again, though not as bad as the first day, and the jury is still out for the current nap. Mrs. Owens swears this works, and I trust her, so I’m giving this a try.

If, in two weeks, she is consistently wetting the bed, I might consider nighttime diapering, but for now we’ll see what happens. My older daughter was able to stay dry while sleeping by Day Four, and we aren’t there yet.

Let’s see…what else is there to say? Oh, yes. Bribes. Every good Boot Camp needs a bribe. I used chocolate-covered almonds. For each success on Day One, she got one little almond. Day Two went much the same. Today is Day Three, and I changed it to only being rewarded for staying dry during nap time, because she has pretty much mastered daytime training.

We have had one accident today. I am experimenting with how far from the toilet she can get before it is Too Far. She asked to go outside and play with the other children, so I allowed it as a test. Once, she remembered to come inside, but about an hour later she had an accident. So, we cleaned her up and I think she learned her lesson.

One question remains for me, and that is if girls are easier to train than boys. I mean, how much of this is technique, and how much of this is gender differences? I really don’t know, and I don’t think I’ll have an opinion either way until a year or so from now when I’m training Baby O. Girls definitely seem more “advanced” to me overall. I know for sure that I will approach training O. with the idea that I will need to be more patient with him than I was with Q., and possibly expect it to take twice as long for daytime training {four days instead of two, for instance}. We shall see.

For now, I say: Take the plunge! If you are going to train, I think my friend Mrs. Owens is on to something: wait until they show signs they are ready, and then ditch the diapers for good.

Update: She made it through the nap this afternoon completely dry!