The Adventures in Potty Training: Month 4

Feb 2011

I am happy to report that Brayden is about 75% potty trained.

The last 2 weeks has been really good for him. He has had very few wet accidents, has gone poop a few times and had a dry overnight. He is even starting to tell us in public that he needs to go. I now know where the restroom is at most of the places we go. He still will not go on his own, but now he just needs a little reminder and he goes. We are also using a timer that goes off every hour and a half to help remind me. This has really been working. He hears the beeping and knows its time to go. Hopefully soon he will just go without me reminding him.

He has decided to go without any potty seat. He prefers the toilet as is. He sits on it backwards, but I really don't care how he sits as long as he is going in it. This is also helpful when out in public.

I know a lot of my friends are also going though this tough process.  Here are a few things that worked with Brayden.

* Rewards. We used M&Ms and stickers at first, then we used Hot Wheels once he got better.

* A Chart. We used 2 different kinds. A count down to a reward and a sticker chart to show his progress.

* A Potty Seat. We bought him this fancy, singing potty and he never used it for its intended purpose. The music was very distracting to him. Once he figured out he could just flip it over and push a button to get the music to play, that feature was pointless. Luckily for us the potty seat also fit on the big potty. It worked a while but would keep coming off. We finally bought him baseball cushioned potty seat, he used it for about a week before just deciding to use the toilet.

* Structured reminders. When we first started I was doing every 30 minutes with a timer on my phone. It worked for a while but I would forget to re-set it and too much time would elapse and we would have an accident. I also became lazy about taking him to the restroom. Without the reminder I would forget. Things started to really go down hill and it was a fight to just get him into the restroom. I then started using the Itzbeen. We bought it when I was pregnant with Brayden and it has been the most helpful thing in the world since. We "restarted" at 30 mins, then moved to an hour and now we are at an hour and a half. This is really working.

* Use underwear. Brayden tended to have more accidents when he was in a diaper. It gave him a physical difference between being a baby or a big boy. We still use diapers overnight or when we are going out, but he is always in underwear at the house. Most of the time without pants so it is easier for him to go. This is also so much cheaper than pull-ups. We tried the pull-ups, but he just thought of them as a diaper and went in it. We also had him pick them out. We was more excited to use them that way. He of course picked Toy Story and Cars.

I am so proud of my little man.