I always said that I would NEVER be THAT mom who posts all over facebook about how my child pooped in the potty and all about our potty training experience, but since this blog is for informational purposes and to hopefully help someone else along this journey I am going to share all the details. So please stop reading now if you don't want to know! :)
Today did not start off great. When Chase got up we started the 12 minutes on the potty, 3 minutes off routine right away. He was happy and while he was on the potty I offered him books, toys, anything to keep him occupied (except his iPad). When he would get off the potty we would put on his underwear and wait the 3 minutes. I let him just run around the house, but kept a close eye on him (as best I could with Miles demanding attention too). EVERY time I would get Chase off the potty and put on his underwear he would go in his pants! He did this 5 times this morning. I even offered him his pacifier as a reward if he went in the potty and still he had accidents! We didn't have a single success in the potty at home this morning. I was REALLY frustrated when I took him to Brown. But luckily I had gotten a babysitter for Miles and planned on spending the entire afternoon with him at Brown to see what we could do.
Once we got to Brown he was happy and transitioned well to their bathroom. His last accident was around 12:00-12:15 at home so by 2:30 when he STILL hadn't gone to the bathroom I knew he HAD to be close. We decided it was best to just keep the undies off all together when he was off the potty so that he wouldn't feel AS comfortable to go. And we also decided that it was best to keep him in the bathroom at all times, not having free range of the house, to minimize his chance of having an accident. If I did notice him starting to go, I was told I have 3-5 seconds to catch him, put him on the potty, and give him more opportunity to finish going, because he most likely didn't get it all out in that amount of time. So keeping him closer to the potty makes this easier.
Around 2:45 he was playing around off the toilet and we heard him start to go so we put him immediately on the potty and eventually he started going on there. We would offer him 3-5 sips of juice every so often before we would give him a toy. We didn't ask him to drink or give him the option, we simply put it up to his mouth and held the toy in the other hand and he realized that if he drank (whether he wanted to or not) he would get the toy. We never said "if you drink this, you can have this" we just did it. Same with snacks. We would give him an option of 2 salty snacks and then just hand them to him, and not ask if he was hungry. This way he would get thirsty and drink more. (Side note: if your child will drink out of a squeeze box or pouch you can squeeze a little more liquid in to their mouth with each drink to help get more liquids down).
He continued to pee in the potty while at Brown all afternoon and would get his iPad immediately after every success. He did have one accident in his pants on the way home, but once we were home he peed right away on the potty here...FINALLY! He had been really happy and cooperative all day, but once we got home he started getting really agitated and crying and kicking while on the potty. I could tell he really had to go and was holding it in so I gently pushed his knees apart (he was squeezing his knees together to hold in the pee) and he immediately started peeing a lot. He fought me and got more mad as I tried to push his knees open, but every time I did this he would pee with more force and a lot more than he had all day. It was apparent he had been holding back and only letting a little bit of pee out at a time just to make him somewhat comfortable at that moment. He did this twice in a row, peeing with a lot of force and crying, then was fine the rest of the night and only peed a little bit more each time after that.
I also knew that Chase had not gone poop all day, and for him this is a big deal because he is a very regular kid! He was having a lot of gas and I could tell he was really squeezing to hold it in. We had seen a little poop squeeze out while he was at Brown, without him consciously knowing, and again tonight at home. So by 7:30 we were exhausted, I knew he had to poop, and I was ready to put him to bed, so I put on a diaper and let him go at it. I wasn't in the mood to clean up poopy underwear and I knew he was exhausted and ready to go to bed. Once he pooped we went in to the bathroom, took the diaper off and I showed him, while dumping the diaper out in the toilet, that "this is where poo poo goes". Then I let him watch me flush it down the toilet. HE LOVED THIS!!! This is the first time I have let him watch me flush (because I knew he would think it was the greatest thing ever) so maybe this will be a motivator to get him to go!!!
I made a last minute decision this afternoon to send Miles to Jackson to stay with my parents for a couple of days so that I could really focus on potty training Chase and not have to worry about him. It was a hard decision, but I know it will be for the best. It will definitely help me focus on Chase and he is LOVING all the extra attnetion!
I know this whole process seems horrendous, and it is REALLY tough and draining, but I keep telling myself that it will pay off once he gets it. And I know the fact that he cannot communicate makes this THAT much more difficult, but he is a smart kid and he understands A LOT, so I know he is ready and completely continent and gets the concept...he just needs to "get" the feeling and the relief from going on the potty and not in his diaper! Going in his diaper is all he has known for the last 3.5 years so he is going to have to re-learn that going pee and poop now happens in a bathroom on a toilet.
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