P is for....

Now that Samuel is potty trained his pride gets the best of him. He now torments Jocelyn by saying, "You're a baby" , "You poop in your diaper" all.....day.....long. I blame it on this Little Critter book.

I am certainly no expert but I did learn several things about potty training. These are the "P's of potty training." I learned them mostly from one long, grueling year that it took to train Samuel, who was 4 1/2 years old when he finally got it!!! Here you go:

The "P's" of Potty Training:

Patience--You need LOTS of this. You cannot lose it or it will take the self-esteem away. Keep your self-control.

Perseverance--You may be one of the lucky ones and your child will train in one day. Or better yet, tell you they need to go potty and proceed to sit on the toilet and do it themselves. But if you are not one of those lucky ones, you need to trade kids with those parents and make them train your kids! No kidding. It can be a lengthy process but don't give up! Hang in there and persevere through it! It will happen before they go to high school. I honestly did not believe it when people told me this but the dream did come true!

Poopy and Peepy---Feed them lots of liquids, salty foods (so they'll be thirsty) and have them go every 5-15 minutes on the designated day you decided to start training. Ideally have them run around bottomless so they don't have to practice pulling anything off in a hurry. Make sure they are getting enough fiber to make their poops soft so it doesn't hurt. Use Miralax if their stool is too hard. Miracle medicine! Costco sells it for the cheapest price. Samuel's pediatrician prescribes it the most, second to Ammoxicilin (the pink stuff used for ear infections, etc). Read this book if you want to try it one day.

Prayer--Ask for help. Often. Period. (but don't pray for patience :) )

Priesthood--Ask for a Father's blessing if you need to. I think it helped Samuel, eventually.

Pull-ups--I went back and forth on these. Samuel uses them at night. But a diaper holds more. He still wakes up wet. But pull-ups are nice bcse they have fun characters on them and they can pull them up pretty well on their own. But I don't think they're a must. My neighbor, however, had her little girl wear them, instead of underwear, until she was fully trained. And she went pretty fast....so either way. It's your choice.

Praise--Make sure you give constant positive reinforcement. They love to complimented. There is never too much of this, especially in this arena. Praise, praise, praise. Tell them what they are doing well. Give them high-fives and smiles and hugs.

Play--let them read books or play with toys while sitting and waiting for it to come out. Let them watch a movie on the laptop (if on the big potty). Make it fun!

Porta-potty--use a small potty chair, especially for smaller children. (Jocelyn's hips were too wide so we tried on the big one right away...no, she's not trained yet). Or use one of those doughnuts so they don't fall in the big potty.

Panties--for girls and underwear for boys. Let them pick it out. Or buy some you know they'll love because it has spiderman or princesses on them.

Prizes--Use bribery. Why not? At first I did it wrong. I gave Samuel a piece of candy for going number 1 and 2 pieces for number 2. Then I gave him stickers too. And once he filled out the sticker chart we went to the toy store and picked out any toy he wanted (within reason). He was looking for something specific (which is why we started training in the first place..bcse he wanted this toy). The problem with this is that he peed all the time to fill up the chart.
So my pediatrician suggested using a scale. Start with small prizes. Like stickers, treats, etc. Once they achieve this move onto a medium prize like play outside, watch a special movie, a small toy, etc. Once they have achieved this (this is in days, not all in one day) and they are fully trained give them the ultimate. Like going out to the zoo, a party, buying the big toy, something new and different to make it worth the endeavor. It seemed to work with Samuel!

Positive Attitude!--Always keep this up. Smile and cheer as much as possible. Don't let your guard down. This is one of the areas I failed at. I let anger control the situation instead of looking at it positively. Samuel understood what he needed to do from day 1!!! But it became a battle. Don't let it become a battle.

Period (of time)--pick the right time and season. Summer is best bcse they can roam a little more free and it's warm enough. Also, look for their signs, not yours. Start when they are ready, not YOU! let it be about THEM! If you see you are getting too frustrated then step back, pause, and take a break. Then come back to it a few weeks or even months later.

Party!--Celebrate that evening, at the end of the week or when they've filled their sticker chart up. Make it big with special food, decorations, music, games, friends, whatever works. Make them feel absolutely special and proud of themselves for accomplishing such a great thing! Here are some photos from ours. I made some cheap-o hats and he had a free personal pizza voucher from pre-school so he got his very own pizza. He loved it!

He looks happy doesn't he? It's because we all had strep and didn't know it yet :)