Potty Training - Nathan

Oh, potty training. That special time in a toddler and parent's life that requires cooperation and patience. Lots of patience. I had been putting off potty training Nathan until he was three years old (36 months for the math challenged) despite the average age to train for boys being 31 months. Then, when he turned three I put it off even longer. He was showing all the signs of being ready. All but one, that is. You know the classic checklist: able to pull up his pants, not afraid of the potty, able to communicate, etc. We just had one problem, and a major one in my mind. He didn't care if his diaper was dirty. At all. Even with more than pee in it. Boys are gross. On the other hand, he would throw royal fits when it came time to change his diaper, but when asked if he wanted to wear big boy underwear he resisted. The teachers at his school were trying to work with him to no avail. I was getting fed up with this in a hurry. So, I finally decided this was him being stubborn and I resolved to have a discussion with our pediatrician at Olivia's one year well-check. My primary question: can you force a child to potty train given all the positive signs we had. In other words, just take away the diapers so there was no option for him.

I talked to Nathan and told him when Olivia turned one I was going to ask Dr. Haney if he could start wearing big boy underwear. I mentioned this any time he threw a fit about getting a diaper change. True to my word, I talked to the doctor on July 14th and she agreed that he was more than ready and it was mostly a mental game now. I came home from that visit (in the middle of Q2 of course) and told him in a very excited voice that Dr. Haney said he could start wearing underwear like a big boy! He had a positive reaction and I started to be hopeful.

I made a quick Amazon purchase of Mickey Mouse undies (I was quickly corrected by Jimmy that these are NOT panties). We decided to start on Saturday...in the middle of quarter. Because that makes sense, right? We made a big deal out of using big boy underware and going in the potty like mommy and daddy. He had been going in the big potty immediately after bath for several weeks, so he knew what was expected. Here's the breakdown:

Saturday, July 19th...it begins
Day 1 - 1 accident
Day 2 - 2 accidents
Day 3 - 1 accident at home in the morning (my fault) none at school or at home that evening.
Day 4 - no accidents all day, went poop in the pull-up.
Day 5 - pooped in underwear. It fell out on floor and of course he stepped in it (accidentally)

That's all I kept track of (you're welcome future Nathan). From then on he did great. I was afraid he might start only wanting to go poo-poo in his pull-up (because he did that for a few days) but on his own he started to tell us before going and the full transition to the potty was complete.

During this time Olivia was getting sick - virus, teething, vaccine reaction (measles) - and needing extra attention. So it really is a minor miracle that we started off as successfully as we did. We started by reminding him every 30 minutes, then 45 minutes, then an hour and now we are able to just look for "the signs" and he usually tells us when he needs to go either pee or poop. I'm attributing the fact that I waited so long to our quick success (because it makes me feel better). For about a week I always made sure he had a pull-up on in the car but that didn't last long. We still have one on during bed time but 95% of the time he wakes up dry. We also always make him try to pee before we leave the house and a few times I've taken a training potty with us to the playground or park.

There was some early resistance with going to the potty so frequently so it made sense to increase the time between trips when no additional accidents were forthcoming. It has been almost three months now and he's still doing great! He has even woken me up in the middle of the night so he could go and has gone by himself first thing in the morning. He's not great at cleaning up yet, but all in all I've been very pleased with the whole process. I've been even more pleased with the "raise" we got by only having one munchkin in diapers now.

Less than two years before we start this over again. Girls are supposed to be easier, but given how easy Nathan was I'm setting my expectations very low with my sweet fire cracker.