Potty Training Attempt #2 Day 3

Joel III has had it. He's sick of being in the house for sure. This morning he woke up with a huge rash from an early morning diarrhea. The culprit: too much G2. I did see this coming... however I wasn't sure how else to get him to drink a lot. I was hoping the G2 would not give him diarrhea like juice does.. I was wrong. Somehow he must have known what caused it too bc after breakfast he refused to drink any G2. But really he wouldn't drink anything. I accepted that. I was kinda sick of potty training also. Oh I forgot to mention - we have been doing some "Potty Scotty" training as well. Each day we have played with "Potty Scotty" at least 3 times, giving him water, then having him sit on the potty, he pees, then we reward him. The 'we' being Joel III and I. He really enjoys this. However, the doll leaks quite a bit.. so we don't do it a ton. I do think though that this helped Joel figure out what was going on, especially day 1. We began the morning like the other mornings with nothing happening until around 11am. Then 3 hits then lunch. Then nap. Good Start.

After his nap Joel took him on a short trip with sweatpants on. He returned with the same sweatpants on... no accident! However, we knew that would be a good time to go based on his history. (pees in diaper during nap, doesn't pee again until around 5pm) The Joels came home around 4:15 and I promptly had Joel III sit on the potty. I decided that since he had been doing so well and had a huge butt rash that he could keep his sweatpants on. Also... poor kid has been pretty cold I think. We continued sitting on the potty every 20 mins or so until 545 when he had another hit. Another big accomplishment during this time: learning how to pull down and pull up his own pants. You are thinking: "He's 2 years old and he doesn't do that on his own yet?" yep. that's correct. no interest in dressing/undressing himself whatsoever. I have tried. he says "Mommy do it." So I do it. At the time it wasn't really a necessity. Now it is. So I made him do it. And he did.

Then dinner. (the past 2 dinners he has had accidents) Before we eat I remind him to tell me if he has to go potty. About halfway through a fabulous dinner (meatloaf + mashed potatoes and gravy + dried strawberries for Joel III) he looks at me and whines. This one of the first "warnings" that he has ever really given, I whisk him off to the potty and he sits for a few minutes but does not go. We return to dinner. He says loudly "Dizzy Dizzy, go way go way." (he wants the dizzy feeling he has to go away. I mean it should be clear.) Joel and I look at each other quite confused and I whisk him off again just in case. He sits for a few minutes but does not go, I say "ok it's time to go back to dinner" and he says, "Dizzy Dizzy" again... and sits back on the potty voluntarily. At this point I figure he is just trying to get out of sitting at the dinner table but.. Sure enough... this time he pees! I guess I shouldn't be surprised.. "Dizzy" is one of the few 'feelings inside' that he has articulated to us. and he knew he wasn't hungry or sleepy I guess. ha. We end the day with one more hit and then Joel cuts his hair and then bath time. .. An Accident free day! wow.



Totals From Day 3
Successes 6
Accidents 0

Now what? Honestly I didn't expect this much success. Fellom recommends another 3 months of pantless days around the house to 'make it stick.' Ok it is the dead of Winter. I felt bad enough making him do 2.5 days freezing his little privates off. Not to mention the difficulty of climbing into and out of seats .. (putting his unprotected privates into a scary position) However, I do think there is something about the comfort of close-fitting diaper/panties/pullups that will encourage peeing. I think we are going to stick with sweatpants and no underwear around the house and when out and about. I'll keep you updated on the results.

update 10-30-11: This update comes to you almost a full year later, woops! This second trial (done at exactly 24 months) pretty much 'worked' and we considered this the time that Joel was fully potty trained. We kept Joel in sweatpants with no undies for 3 months.  Babysitters and child care workers did find it a bit weird, however it was super easy and it worked.  We did, however, have to take Joel to the potty at his specific times in order for him to not have an accident.  If we forgot, he wouldn't say anything until after it happened.  We learned this pretty quickly and it wasn't hard to remember to take him at 11am, 5pm and 7pm.  Thankfully, though, when he had his accidents, they were usually very small as he would realize what was happening and then hold it and then say something.  We did have a few problems with other people watching him who forgot to take him at those specific times and he, like clockwork, would have an accident. We still put a diaper on him for naps and nighttime.  He still goes pee in the diaper.  He actually learned early on that we would do this and so he would hold his poops until nap time or nighttime.  Just so he could poop in the diaper.  This hasn't been too much of a problem, except of course when he poops at the beginning of the night.  We give Joel a special treat for going poop in the potty and he does occasionally.  We are not pushing that area too much.  Since about age 2 1/2 (30 months) Joel has gotten much better at telling us when he needs to go potty, which is helpful.