Potty Training Update

Over the past year of having a potty trained child, we have had ups and downs.  Overall once E was potty trained he stopped having pee and poop accidents relatively quickly. Then we got him pooping solely on the potty, transitioned to a toilet and now he is dry at night!

Issues After Successful Training

1. One big issue was that he started holding his poop until nap time when he was wearing a diaper.

Things we did right:
-didn't yell at him about pooping
-continued toileting him before nap and bedtime - read books to give lots of time to poop
-talked about everyone needing to poop and how it makes our belly happy
-talked about cleaning his bum to keep it from getting red and sore is easier if he pooped in the potty
-would change his diaper in his room

A reward system helped. To begin, 2 poops earned small toy (up to 4 toys), working up to needing 10-15 poops to earn a Family Movie Night. Could take a week or a month to earn the reward. We would just happily remind him of his choice to go poop on the potty and timed the movies with upcoming holidays to encourage him.

He was getting a big hit of power by holding his poop until nap, giving him the opportunity to come out of bed to change his diaper. Eventually I realized this and would just take a change mat, diaper and wipes in to his room so there wouldn't be a power struggle.

2. Another big transition was when we brought baby T home. We did see an uptick in (usually very minor) accidents over the following 3 months.

Things we did right:
-minimized the accident verbally ("Accidents happen")
-made it inconvenient to have accident to incentivize listening to his body (had to go to bathroom to try to pee, wash down with cloth, change underwear and pants), not done in a way to shame him

The Big Kid Transition

A huge win has happened over the last month. E is now dry through naps and at night!! Suddenly started being dry fairly regularly after naps and we would celebrate with high-fives and then the odd night over night. Once he had 2-3 nights in a row dry we told him we were running out of diapers and that was okay because he was able to stay dry. He found a lot of comfort in his "special sheet" being there to protect the bed too. Two days later we went diaper-free!

Things we did right:

-kept him in diapers, didn't use pull-ups

-made a big deal about his mattress protector

-minimized the couple accidents
-didn't wait too long before ditching diapers

For entire POTTY TRAINING SERIES click here!