Potty Training Boot Camp - The Results

Several weeks ago I announced that I was going to do a potty training boot camp with Little Dude because I really wanted him to be done with diapers. If you missed those posts, check out Potty Training Boot Camp: Prelude and In the Thick of It. Being that the last mention of it was 3 weeks ago, I figured I owed everyone an update on the situation.

First things first, is he potty trained?

The answer is. . .

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drum roll. . .

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I'm making you scroll for it. . .

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Builds suspense that way. . .

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Even though there really isn't any need for it. . .

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and the answer is. . .

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. . . Kind of!


Not specific enough for you?

How about partially. . .

or somewhat. . .

I am in a rather wishy washy mood it seems.



Fine I'll be more specific.

Little Dude is 100% potty trained while he is at home. He is 10% potty trained outside of the house. This is due to a complete and utter lack of effort put forth on my part to get things going outside of the house. Boot camp at home was relatively easy. Little Dude ran around naked or with just his big boy underwear, and I asked him every 10 minutes (at least) if he needed to use the potty. After only a couple of days he stopped having accidents. Within a week I didn't have to ask him if he needed to pee pee or poopy anymore. Thank goodness for that because I started feeling like a broken record. I think he would have figured it out even sooner had we not been so busy. We did several half days of potty training boot camp because we were in and out of the house so often, but that didn't slow him down too much from the looks of it.

We had a setback about a week into it when Little Dude got a stomach virus. It was pretty mild in the sense that his tummy didn't seem to hurt and he didn't act sick at all, but it made him unable to have much control over his bowel movements. I went ahead and let him use diapers for several days at home again because I was not about to clean runny poop all over. It also made him anxious to go without his diapers because he knew he didn't want to have an accident, and he knew he didn't have as much control. It just made sense to cut us both that slack.

After his poops returned to normal, we resumed the potty business and he has done fabulously. . . at home.

The problem outside the house is two fold:

A. I am lazy and I really don't want to deal with cleaning accidents out in public or in a car seat.

B. Little Dude has a thing against going in regular toilets versus potties. He isn't scared of toilets, he rather enjoys flushing them, but he doesn't want to actually go in them.

The lazy part I can overcome (when I feel like it), but I think the toilet aversion is something we will have to work on for a few weeks. I am not bringing a portable potty around for him in case he needs it, so he will have to learn that he needs to use toilets.

I haven't had to do too much incentive based training; he has gotten a few Dora stickers on occasion, but he uses the potty well without them. I think I may have to bribe him to go in the toilet at home though to get used to it and then hopefully start using them outside of the house. I think some Matchbox cars will be in order for this.

The other factor that makes potty training outside of the house more difficult is the clothing factor. At home Little Dude loves running around either naked or in his underwear. Outside of the house - for example at the mall, or at Trader Joe's, or the Olive Garden - this isn't such an acceptable practice anymore. He is a little lazy about clothes (wonder where he gets that from?) and doesn't like having to undress in order to use the potty. That is easier to work on since I can add layers over time. At least we have plenty of time to figure this out while it is still warm. I have a feeling that the next month or two will include mostly elastic waist pants to make for easier drawer dropping experiences.

So there you have it. We are on our way to being fully potty trained, but I know there are several obstacles along that road still. At least in the meantime, we have decreased the number of diapers used in our household considerably.

A quick little tangent to this story, if you are looking for a good potty training book I highly recommend Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel. It is appealing to kids, and is very straight forward. It is one of Little Dude's favorites now that he is in the middle of it himself. There is a version for girls and a version for boys:

 

I think I'll end this post with an embarrassing cute scene from the last few weeks:

I kept a copy of the clover-less original to show his future girlfriend(s). . . or maybe even a senior poster -depends on how evil I am feeling in 16 years I guess.