Potty Training

James is just starting to figure out the whole potty concept. There were a couple times in early March, when he’d ask to sit on the potty while I was going (yes, mom can’t even go to the bathroom by herself!) , but didn’t seem to have the slightest clue what to do on the potty, except to fart. I suppose that’s a good start, though! Then a couple times later in March, where we’d be changing his diaper at an opportune time, realize what he was doing, and sit him on the toilet just in time. Big rewards ensued after those times. However, James then stopped asking to go potty when I was going. I started asking him if he’d sit on it before his bath or randomly, and he seemed to start being afraid of the potty. He would either only sit there for a few seconds and want to be done, or cry when I even asked him if he wanted to go.

The past week or so, we started having more success with getting him to at least try, so we’re trying to be more happy/excited about it when we ask. We’re also trying to make it more of a routine to go potty after meals and before naptime/bedtime. We’re having some more success of him being able to go when we take him. And if we catch him after a meal, sometimes he’ll go both! We’re rewarding him with a couple skittles each time he actually goes on the potty, and he really enjoys the “tanny” (candy)!

Somewhere between 7 and 9 AM, is when James usually poops, and sometimes after supper a little bit as well. So we’re making more of an effort to have him go potty right after breakfast and supper. One morning, I told him, let’s go potty. He started whimpering a little bit about not wanting to go. So I waited a few seconds, and then mentioned it again a couple times trying to make it sound fun/happy. Then he finally said, “Potty?”, as if it was his idea and he was happy about it and eager to go. So funny! I’m not sure if he thinks he doesn’t have to go but then after he thinks about it for a second he realizes he does have to go, or what, but at any rate, that seems to be our new routine with getting him to! He usually will go pee at those times, and sometimes will do #2 as well, which we’re really happy about – less clean-up!

He’s not to the point of asking us to go, so we’ll probably wait until that comes before we break into pull-ups instead of a diaper, and having them start taking him potty at daycare. Plus, he’s so busy at daycare, I don’t think he even notices when some of the children further along in their potty-training ask the teacher to go potty, so I’m not ready to push it there.