Abuela had done a nice job with teaching him not to poop in his diaper- he ALWAYS tells us when he has to poop and can hold it for quite some time, if, for example, we are in the car and still 15 or 20 minutes away from the next pooping destination. But pee, now that has been a different story. The good news about the latest in diaper technology is that diapers are extremely absorbent and pull the moisture away from the surface, greatly lessening the child's discomfort. The bad news is that it is super easy and convenient to pee in one's pants and causes little to no discomfort- so really, why bother wasting time going to the bathroom just for a simple pee? When he first moved in, we would force him to sit on the potty and "try." He would throw a fit- so of course I felt the need to take a picture of his pouty little face.
Lately I started to notice that Tino would occasionally tell me when he had to pee also, not just poop. But still he would resist mightily whenever MOMMY would suggest we go to the bathroom. So on Friday, I launched my Five-Day Potty Training Program. (FDTP for short.) Actually, it really wasn't a planned program, but rather a haphazard jumble of trying different ideas I had heard from other people. But if it continues to work, I plan to market this program to pay for his college education.
So... FDTP Day One.
On Friday, I told Tino that every time he would pee in the potty, he would receive a reward of a piece of chocolate. (Got this idea from Joanne, who potty trained her daughter in a miraculously short period of time... must give credit where credit is due, you know.) Now we have not given the children any candy, chocolate, or junk food at all since they have been here. We want to establish that candy is only for special treats, like at a birthday party. In fact, they think that granola bars are candy. This really amuses me. So back to the potty training... Friday was kind of a miserable day because all of a sudden, going to the bathroom was now a delightful experience and he wanted to go every ten minutes. So I also had to ground him in the No Pee= No Chocolate rule, which resulted in a lot of crying. By the end of the day though, it cracked me up because I would say, "Tino, do you want to go to the bathroom?" and he would immediately deliver the default response to EVERY question, which is of course, a resounding "NO." But then he would remember the chocolate and his whole expression would change and his little face would light up as he nodded yes. He peed in his pull-up diaper at least three times.
FDTP Day Two- The chocolate rewards continued all day Saturday. When we were out and about, he peed in a public restroom and wanted chocolate, which I had forgotten to bring with me. I told him that I would "owe" him some chocolate and he reminded me repeatedly until we got home, when I gave him his delayed reward. He peed in his pull-up only two times.
FDTP Day Three- We purchased some "training pants" at Target, of course. (I should be getting paid by Target for all the advertising I do on my blog. Must look into this later.) Tino wore the training pants all day and had three accidents. One was my fault, because he told me that he needed to go and I was going to take him, but got distracted and forgot. I also observed that he forgot to ask for the chocolate about 30% of the time.
FDTP Day Four- Wore the training pants all day and had only two accidents, both at times when we forgot to pay attention to his drinking habits and remind him to go. Only asked for chocolate reward about half the time.
FDTP Day Five- TODAY he wore his training pants all day, after resisting them mightily in the morning... and he had NO ACCIDENTS! Also, he declined my request to go to the bathroom about half the time, as opposed to Days One and Two, when he would agree to go just to get the chocolate. Of the ten or twelve trips to the bathroom today, I think I only handed out three pieces of chocolate. (BTW, lest you think I am getting my child hooked on chocolate, these pieces I am giving him are one sixth of an adult-size chocolate. I cut them up when he is not looking. About the size of one M&M.)
Got the idea of jumping straight to training pants from one of Dave's friends- Ryan B? Learned to repeatedly ask if he needed to go from my work colleague Christine. So... I am feeling pretty pleased with myself (and Dave) for combining all these great ideas into the FDTP.
Keep your fingers crossed that the success continues... :)
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