Thanks for the Advice on Potty Training
Dear Susan,
Thank you so much for your wonderful advise on potty training!
I am shocked, amazed and so pleased to say that Grace is potty trained for daytime! We waited until Christmas break to try your method. I wanted to wait for a time when my husband would be home for several days to give me support. I was nervous about the process. I was skeptical because Grace is so strong willed (I'm sure like a lot of other children) but it really worked. Please feel free to share our experience with other parents.
The first day was excruciating. We had the family meeting in the morning after breakfast. Grace didn't have much to say during it. She was willing to put on the underpants. Two hours later she had to pee. She started asking for a diaper.
We told her no, the rules say there are no diapers for Grace during the daytime. She cried and begged. It was awful. She went upstairs and brought me a diaper and followed me around begging for it to be put on. She climbed up on the diaper changing table with the diaper, screaming for us to put it on. This crying and begging went on for over 40 minutes. It was awful - I was close to giving up. She finally peed next to me on the floor. I could tell that she was terrified. That time we didn't make her clean it up.
A few hours later, she had to go again. This time she begged me for 5-10 minutes. Then she cleaned it up. That day she had 4 accidents, and with each one the begging was less. She was very happy to see her diaper at bedtime.
The next morning she had one accident. After that on her own, she went into the bathroom and used the potty! And she has been doing it ever since! Now she just runs in whenever she needs to go and then proudly tells us. We even had her go to preschool in underpants and she did just fine!
The first time she needed to have a BM, she didn't want to go and again started crying for a diaper. She went to bed, and woke up after an hour with a full diaper. But then a day later she did the BM in the potty and has been ever since. I was relieved that didn't become an issue.
I think one of the great things about this method is we weren't pleading with her to use the potty. I'm sure she discovered that was a power play for her to use on us. Any time we've ever asked her if she wants to go potty the answer is always NO! With this method, we weren't asking her to use the potty - we simply took her diapers away and let her decide how to handle it.
