My stressful, but successful, potty-traning experience
My 2 1/2- year old daughter, Sara, was supposed to have started Nursery School a couple of weeks ago. I say ’supposed to’ because we showed up the first day of school and realized that she had to be fully potty-trained – I had totally missed this important detail and Sara was not quite potty-trained (I showed up with a bag full of training diapers). So, Sara stayed at school that one day and we went back home to start the ‘boot camp’ of potty-training. I was convinced that she had it in her to be potty-trained in a few days and I was even more decided when she had a great day at school and wanted to go back the next day.
The method that worked for me was just going ‘cold turkey’. We got home that day from school and I talked to Sara and told her that there would be no more diapers (except for bedtime). That night, my husband and I put together a chart for Sara where she would get a sticker for every time she would go to the potty. We also got her a special present (yes, a Dora toy) that we put on top of our kitchen pantry for her to see and hopefully realize that she would be working towards that. Finally, we got her a little potty so that she could feel she could go to the bathroom in her own terms with a toilet her size.
The first few days of this exercise were extremely frustrating. It seemed to me that Sara had no clue what I was trying to teach her. Every single time she had to go to the bathroom, she went in her pants…with no diapers of course. It was an exhausting few days, both physically (from cleaning her accidents and asking her every hour if she needed to use the potty) and mentally (I was feeling guilty and defeated). But every day she had less accidents until one day she asked a few times when she had to go. Suddenly the successes were more numerous than the accidents. We are now in day 16 (yes, it took a little while!) and we haven’t had an accident in a few days. She is asking every time she has to go to the bathroom, be it at home or out of the house.
So, tomorrow we will try her first day of school again. I have all the confidence in the world that she will be fine. I also know that she will likely have accidents, especially since she will be so occupied in the first few days at a new school. But she is so proud of herself to have gotten here that I know she will do great.
Maria
PerryWinkles Kids – fine girls’ smocked dresses
