Potty Training

I haven't been updating my blog regularly lately, because I've been in the throes of potty training. I've been using some of the methods of Booty Camp, which a friend told me about. I'm not following everything in this method, just a few things. It's been working really well for Matthew. We've been potty training for about 9 days. He's had a couple days of being dry all day, and hasn't pooped his pants in quite awhile. This week we're working on staying dry at rest time, and next week we'll attempt to get out of the house some and use public potties, or potties at other people's houses. Here are some of the methods:

1. Matthew is in control. He decides when to sit on the potty. I don't force him to sit on it. I don't even ask him if he wants to our remind him too. He also puts on and takes off his own pants and underwear, and he takes off his pull-up in the morning and throws it away. I taught him how to dress himself before we started potty training, so that helped a lot.

2. Instead of asking and reminding and nagging, I simply keep reminding him about what he needs to do when he feels like he needs to pee or poop. I ask him "what do you do if you need to go pee-pee" and he says "sit on the potty." I ask him this repeatedly throughout the day, to keep him thinking about it.

3. Matthew has to clean up any accidents. This can be very messy, but boy is it working. It goes along with keeping him in control of his potty usage. If he decides not to sit on the potty, he has to deal with the consequences. (Of course, I have to clean up after he's cleaned up!)

4. Lots of candy. The first couple of days I gave Matthew a jelly bean every 15 minutes or so that he had dry underwear. That's not necessary anymore, but he does get a candy of his choice every time he successfully uses the potty. Eventually that will fade away as using the potty becomes more of a habit. Now, I normally give my kids candy very rarely, so this wasn't something I was thrilled about doing, but it really is giving him extra motivation. He even stayed dry in the night last night, and woke up talking about getting a lollipop!

With Matthew, the fact that he is in control is what's making this method work so well for us. I'd guess this would work for a lot of kids -- most 3-year-olds like to be in control! Plus, it makes him feel like a very big boy to be in charge of this. He's proud of himself.