Potty Training off I go again…
When finding my way through this particular minefield I have struggled to even find the entry to the maze let alone actually be able to locate the centre!
We originally tried this when our eldest was 28 months and it went great for a month or so, but then all fell apart. I exaggerate not it was an unmitigated disaster! See my other posts for the full story…
We started again this week and are on day 5. He is now 35 months and it is a vastly different experience. Today he had no accidents and in fact even by day two he was already going off to the potty happily and having only a few accidents. This is totally to do with him and not me. Last time was so hideous that I was verging on terrified when starting this time and I put it off until an imminent place at a local nursery began to loom.
This time I took a different approach and encouraged him to lead the process. He chose the pants, he chose where the potty should go and the treats he should have when successful – yes I did resort to bribery. This seems to have worked and he wasn’t even that keen on the idea . At one point he told me that he would just stay in nappies forever and Daddy would still clean him up; daddy was not convinced on this one so I thought I had best start the training.
On day one we kept the potty downstairs and I reminded him around every 20mins – 30 mins and if he refused once I then insisted the next time. By day two we were able to take the potty back to the bathroom and he even told us he needed a wee once or twice. By day three he was taking himself off (when reminded) and was super proud of himself. Days 4 and 5 have been much of the same with me just trying to encourage him to tell me when he needs to go and not waiting for a reminder. We are still working on that bit, but I am bursting with pride that he has done so well this week and am so chuffed it wasn’t the hideous, messy experience that potty training was last time.
Now all we have to do is work on poos. According to himself he doesn’t like poos so there have been a number if those in the pants rather than the potty, but that’s only once a day so I’m taking a relaxed approach to that one and I’ll keep you posted… For now I just keep my fingers crossed and say yippee!
