A few months ago, we attempted potty training with Claire (you can read about it here), but it was interrupted by a stomach bug that left Claire and my floor in an unfortunate mess. I've been meaning to pick up the potty training ever since, but something always comes up. We were going out of town, then I got sick, then Claire was in a rebellious phase, then I had a miscarriage, then we went out of town again, then Claire started preschool. There was always a reason to wait. After preschool started, I decided I wanted to get serious about potty training again.
To get (re)started, I read "Stress Free Potty Training" by Sara Au, which helps you determine your child's personality type and offers potty training solutions that target each personality. It was great. I determined that Claire's personality is impulsive with a side of goal-oriented, which basically meant that she would be excited about potty training, but would be easily distracted after the first few days of training. Hmmm... I wonder where that personality came from? Who else dedicated herself to potty training for a few days, then got distracted and took months to pick it back up? Oh yeah, me.
So, since it had been so long since our last try, I decided to start fresh at step one. Two weeks ago I started giving Claire "naked time" every day so that she could see the mechanics of how pee and poop come out. We only did it a few hours a day, so we weren't on house arrest the whole time, which was nice. I brought a small potty into the living room because impulsive kids tend to have a hard time holding it all the way to the bathroom at first. Plus, seeing the potty helped remind her (and me) that she needed to use it regularly. And, it really hasn't been a big deal to clean it. Within a few days, she was using the potty consistently during naked time with no accidents, but she still used her diaper when she wasn't naked.
When the weekend came, we gave her two full days of naked time and she used the potty like a pro. So we decided to try big girl panties. Claire was so excited to put them on! Unfortunately, she treated them like diapers. When she was naked, there were no accidents. When she wore panties, I had to clean the floor constantly. I was getting frustrated, but then it occurred to me that I never actually explained to her that even though panties feel a little like diapers, they don't work the same. I told her to use the potty and to try to keep her panties clean, but I didn't really explain why. So, the next morning, I explained how panties worked and told her they wouldn't hold her pee and poop the way her diapers did. That was all she needed to know and she immediately started making an effort to use the potty instead of her panties.
She still needed reminders to sit on the potty and "try", but she was doing pretty well on her own, only one or two accidents a day. She wore her panties to preschool and to Kid's Night at the gym. She was accident-free every time we picked her up. At home, though, she was still having an accident at least once a day. That's when I realized that her impulsive mom (that's me) wasn't doing my part. I had been slacking on the potty reminders after meals. So I re-dedicated myself to potty reminders and.... we have been accident free for two days!!!! Yay!!!!!
I know we're not potty professionals yet, but this is a huge milestone and I am so proud of our little Claire Bear.
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