Potty training continued into week four with great success. Sometimes our son would announce that he had to go pee or poop and sometimes he would just go by himself (very exciting). He continued to request gum for his rewards which I soon realized was a little too much since it is not entirely consumable. He would end up with a mouthful of gum that would become an obstacle to eating meals. Either way using the potty was not our son’s problem at this point. Our newest potty training development had to do with his clothes. He started telling us … Continue reading →

After our grocery store adventures and visiting grandma and grandpa diaper free, we successfully reached another milestone of potty training. Our son continued to use the potty with relative ease for the rest of the week (he still required assistance wiping after a poop). He only had two accidents during the course of the whole week and woke up most mornings with a dry diaper (another hurdle to be conquered in the near future). We seemed to be well on our way to long term potty training success. Week three of potty train started out quite well. He was using … Continue reading →

I am sure that all the neighbors heard him yell that he needed to pee but I was happy that he was telling me without hesitation and in plenty of time to get to the bathroom. Up until this particular moment, he had only used his little potty to go to the bathroom. This was a tiny turning point; instead of using his training potty he had to use the big potty at grandma and grandpa’s. He used the big potty with relative ease. Then I realized that I did not have any chocolate rewards for him, but grandma had … Continue reading →

My mid morning and late evening premonitions were haunted by visions of our son peeing in his pants in the middle of the industrial linoleum floors of our local grocery store. I did not even want to imagine how I would deal with such an event. So to save myself from what was ensured to be a mortifying experience, I continued to put our son in diapers when we went out of the house. Needless to say our son had his very own thoughts on the matter of wearing diapers in public. By the second week of potty training he … Continue reading →

We had a very successful first week in which I did not change one poopy diaper or clean up more than three accidents! I was very pleased with our son’s potty training success. However, I was not one hundred percent sure that using the potty was an established habit for our son. As week two of potty training began I had my fingers crossed that we would not take any steps backwards in our potty training progress. Our son still seemed really into using the potty and he found his chocolate rewards very motivating. Sometimes he would go potty and … Continue reading →

He was surprisingly upset that he peed in his underwear. I reassured him that it was okay and that sometimes accidents happen when we do not stop what we are doing, or watching in my son’s case, to use the potty. I got him into some dry underwear but he was still a little sad. We shared some milk and cookies and some hugs. He continued to use the bathroom for the rest of the day. The following day, we continued potty training. As soon as he awoke, he used the potty and we put him in underwear. It was … Continue reading →

Our first day of hard core potty training was a success. I switched him into a diaper for the night. As we went to sleep that night all I could think about was whether or not our potty training success was a fluke or for real. The next morning he awoke with a wet diaper but it was not soaked like it normally was. I put him in underwear right away after he emptied his bladder. Once again I employed the pantless strategy to help him be more aware of when he had to go potty and it was also … Continue reading →

We tried to encourage him by telling him that he would be such a big boy if he were to go poop on the potty. We told him that he would get two chocolates if he went poop on the potty. Despite our motivating words, he was very much against the reality of pooping on his “new” big boy potty. Once it became clear that he was not going to use the potty to go poop, we switched from using words, to physically picking him up and putting him on the potty. He continued to whine but my husband sat … Continue reading →

I was determined that our son be potty trained sooner rather than later. During the course of our potty training efforts he had in fact used the potty to pee every so often and we even got him to poop on the toilet once, but our efforts were met with inconsistency. I knew that our son was perfectly aware of when he had to go to the bathroom. He did have some interest in using the toilet on and off for the past six months. During that time I offered him a reward, a piece of organic chocolate (I tried … Continue reading →

We continued putting our son in diapers for several more weeks. During this time he also found the potty book and started asking us to read it to him again. After reading the potty book to him for what seemed like the millionth time, I started to ask him again when he thought he would like to go pee and poop in the potty like Joshua. We tried again and spent the next few days at home so that our son would have easy access to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the only results that came of our latest attempts potty training … Continue reading →