This past Monday was No D- Day. No Diaper Day for Max. We started the full-on potty training for Max who will be three in March. It has been fun and interesting. Lauren is the drill sergeant for this training exercise. I have to say I am so impressed with her resolve and her tactics in making sure Maxfield knows how to go on the potty. We have dabbled in the training in the past. Read here and here for exercises and methods.
We are using a small plastic training potty for the initial first week of basic training for a couple of reasons. It is portable. It fits Max’s hiney. And it is also the same color as Thomas the train. Although one would think Max peeing on Thomas might not be a good thing, it is actually working because Thomas is a steam engine and he needs water for his boiler to work. I think Max understands this concept.
The other day I came home from work, for lunch, to see Max sitting on the plastic potty, in front of the television. He was wearing only his t-shirt and he had his juice cup firmly grasped in his hands. His hands were covered in Cheetos orange cheese (he receives one Cheetos cheese curl for every half hour or so he stays dry) as he watched Jack’s Big Music Show on the Noggin Channel.
Usually when I walk in the front door Max jumps up from whatever he is doing and greets me with a flurry of conversation and antics. This time he simply waved at me with orange powdered hands from his blue throne and said, “Hi Bill.”
I thought to myself, “Man, what a life. I wish I could watch the Super Bowl this way.”
(Super…. Bowl….No pun intended. Okay totally intended.)
As I left to go back to work a thought hit me. The boy is almost three. For the first 2 and 11/12 of his life he has worn a diaper. Here we are trying to get him to stop wearing a diaper. A diaper is all he knows. Think about it, for 99 percent of his life he has worn a diaper and now, we the parents are telling him he can’t wear one anymore. That has got to be difficult.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
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17 comments:
Great idea to have a seperate potty that he can sit at the TV and watch whilst 'working'.
Must do that for my boy. I think 3/4 of the hassle with trying to get him to go is that he has to be away from the rest of the family if he's in the toilet!
...well not IN the toilet....
You know what I mean!
Right there with you! My daughter turned 2 on Dec 3 & we're all out potty training this week too. We started on Saturday. Stickers, goldfish & crackers are her rewards & the portable potty is awesome. I think Alli's peed in every room in the house (no kitchen or dining room, though!). She was dry all day yesterday until her Dad came home. Even got a poop in the potty yesterday! Hopefully the success continues! Good luck to Max!
Good luck...I am all for bribery and shouting cheers as needed.
This is NOT FUN. NOT FUN, I say.
Good luck. Oh, and if you guys are germphobes, like uh, someone I won't mention, until he learns to pee standing up (which, btw, YOU have to show him), put a porta-potty in the back of your car. :)
Oh, and Nik was 4.5 before he was pooping in the can. AND, he still has to wear a GoodNight at night. It never ends. NEVER!!!!
I read the earlier comment about using rewards. Rewards worked gret for our son. When I was researching potty training a common theme seemed to be praise and positive reinforcement. I came across a website called www.pottytrainingrewards.com. We hung it in the kitchen and named the little boy on the front of the package, Bobby. My son could not wait to go to the potty so he could push the button, hear the praising message, and get his chocolate reward from, Bobby. It really got my son excited about using the potty himself and it was fun for him. Because he became so involved, potty training was easy. So give it a try. Good Luck!
I love your idea of making the Thomas analogy, but I have to warn you that it may have adverse effects. When hes 12, he will see Thomas sheets in Walmart and piss his pants or something, just because of the relation with Thomas and peeing. Ive seen it happen to kids who are taught to sing a song on the potty, or whatever.
But it works, and the most important thing right now is to get him trained...
Trained..hmm...
Anyhoo, what are you going to do about poo? Which one of the trains is a coal train? Ha ha ha...good luck man, its tough.
Poor kid. Nathan loves to sit on the potty. Sits down all the time. Just never does anything.
I always liked the song Potty Train by the Gap Band.
Why can't you watch the superbowl like that?
Hee. I can just see the "Hi Bill" moment. Classic.
I love that he called you Bill.
That totally cracked me up. I read it 3 times and laughed each time.
Good luck potty training. My son wouldn't use the plastic potty. Ever.
We went straight for the big potty.
Good luck!
"It has been fun and interesting"? Really, William? REALLY?! HAS IT?!
And "Hi, Bill"? *snerk*
Oh, and we used Smarties to bribe our children into toilet training. The American ones, not the European ones, pun not intended... okay, totally intended. Hoo! Thank you very much.
Poo-poo Smarties! Worked like a charm.
Maybe they sell full-sized plastic potties for the daddies?
Don't forget our potty cheer! Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz, oh, what a relief it is! and Dad's favorite. " Push 'em out, shove 'em out, Yeh! Team!
Our son stopped wearing diapers at 15months old because we practiced "natural infant hygiene."
Your final paragraph is an excellent observation, too. Really, it's not "potty training" but "potty learning" b/c you're working w/ your child so s/he can "learn" bodily signals and associate the appropriate receptacle with those sensations.
Good luck!
http://www.bornpottytrained.com/
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