A few weeks ago, my friend sent me a book which outlined a 3-day potty training method. I read the book several times over, bought all of the necessities (underwear, treats/rewards/etc.) and was prepared to start the process last Friday. The book boasts that in the majority of cases, if you start the process on Friday, your child will be potty trained by the end of the day Sunday. The author, who I believe has 5 children of her own, states that 22 months old is the ideal potty training time. Her process worked for my friend and I was so excited to start it myself and have a diaper free two-year old before the new baby arrived even though I know it is risky because kids had regress when there is a new arrival.
Anyhow, Friday went relatively smoothly. I learned that Trent has amazing bladder control because he only went pee three times, two of which soaked his underwear while the third made it into the potty safely. He even stayed dried throughout his nearly three hour nap. I did put a diaper on Trent at night (despite the author advising against this) because the kid didn't poop on Friday and he is a two times a day (at least) pooper.
Saturday morning came and although Trent did wet the diaper, there was no poop. He woke up and went on the potty! The next time he went that day, he also made it to the potty. I was thinking that we were on a roll! Well, I was mistaken! He then had several accidents in his underwear that day. Although he does enjoy announcing that he sees his "pecker" and "nuts" (I know Mark taught him that nice little word but he won't cop to it) every time I set him on the potty. Again, he didn't poop so I put a diaper on him at night again.
Sunday came and when Trent woke up, he had pooped in his diaper. He then had about 6 accidents in his underwear, put his hand in the toilet twice, threw a roll of toilet paper in the toilet, and stuck his foot in the water twice! I was beyond frustrated! I tried my best to not show him how frustrated I was but he was in an all around horrible mood and he was being a little you know what...he was throwing things at me, hitting me and he even spit his water out in my face. The book says not to punish your child during the potty training period because it is supposed to be a fun, happy few days but he got a spanking yesterday after he spit in my face. I told him not to do that and he did it about 4 more times. He was a MONSTER yesterday! Needless to say, he got passed on to Mark for a few hours because I had had it!
Mark took over the potty training duties from there and came up with a new method. He gave Trent a handful of Cheerios, let him throw them into the toilet, and then encouraged him to pee on them and it worked like a charm! Using that simple method with the reward of Oreos or fruit roll ups afterward, has resulted in Trent going on the potty 4 times in a row (over the course of 2 days) and no accidents since yesterday afternoon. Fingers crossed that it will continue that way.
The lesson I learned from this situation is not to read so many books and make things so complicated! The books I read were wonderful and gave me great tips but I also need to use books as guidelines and adjust methods so that they work for Trent because every child is different. Mark didn't read the books at all (no surprise there, I know). I kept telling him that Trent needed to tell us when he had to go to the potty and that we just needed to watch for the signs of his having to go. Mark rolled his eyes at me and just went back to the basics. He put Trent on the toilet every few hours instead of being his shadow like I had been doing and just told him to pee and Trent did! Today, Mark's simple method has been working for me. We even went out and ran errands for hours and when we came home, Trent was still dry. I put him on the toilet, told him to pee and he went. I am hoping this method will teach Trent to tell me when he has to go but I'll take what I can get right now!
Half of my friends told me that Trent was too young to potty train while the other half all said that two was the perfect age to do it. I am hopeful that this is going to work but I will keep you updated!
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