Gideon and the potty

I've been afraid of posting anything because I thought, by doing so, I'd jinx myself and Gideon. But we've had a couple of months of pretty consistent potty behavior and it's safe to say that Gid is "potty training". He is dry and clean about 6 out of 7 days of the week, he is dry after every single nap for weeks now, and he's dry just about every other morning when he wakes up. He's in underwear all the time at home and when he takes a nap. Since breaking my ankle, I've been having him wear a diaper when we go out to the park because I can't run him over to the bathroom if need be and I don't want to worry about it right now.

So both my boys have potty trained pretty early. It's probably 90% due to their personalities and only 10% (or less) due to my approach to potty training. But it's worked really well for both of them and they are pretty different little boys. I'm sure I'll eat my words someday.... I thought I'd share how I go about it on my blog in case anyone is interested and so I can go back and read it when I need to be reminded down the road.

My approach to potty training with both boys has been to 1. follow their lead and 2. nothing but praise, praise, and more praise (until they are four and they pee their pants when you are on a field trip to the UW geology department, right? ;) I really believe that staying hyper positive about it, even when you are about to pull your hair out, makes the biggest difference. I use the word hyper because that is how I feel after my boys pee or poo in the toilet. It's like I'm throwing them a mini party with lots of "hoorays" and "hi-fives" in the bathroom. If they feel the slightest bit of discouragement coming from their mom or dad, whom they look to for the majority of validation at this point in their life, they will freeze up and refuse to continue with potty training in fear of disappointing you again. Pure and simple from my point of view. It's the same principle that parents use in all aspects of raising a child. Shame your child and they lose confidence in themselves. When it comes down to the nitty gritty and my boys have an accident I say "Oh dear, oh dear ( in a slightly worried voice)" because that is how I feel a the moment that pee is dribbling down their legs and onto the carpet, followed by, "It's okay. Don't worry. Let's clean up. You'll remember next time to go pee-pee on the potty!" and I encourage them by reminding them about all the successes and hard work they have put into going pee on the toilet.

As for following their lead- this is where you use your intuition as a parent. Every child is so different and understanding your child's personality to determine what cues they are giving you will help you make this decision. My boys both showed interest by wanting to sit on the potty. When they didn't want to sit on their potty, no problem. When they did, hooray! (even when nothing came out). My boys both were very, very excited about wearing underpants, so that was helpful. Both times, we introduced underwear even before they were fully potty trained. It has worked as positive incentive- you can put on some underwear after you try sitting on the potty!! They also both loved wearing underwear over their diapers. The more practice they get pulling those things off and back on and up and down, the better. Gideon will spend a good thirty minutes trying on multiple pairs of underwear. He's busy and happy which makes me happy. With both Jasper and Gid, we've tried to ride the initial spark of interest as long as possible. Honestly, I wasn't ready for Gideon to want to start potty training and I spent a couple of weeks trying to figure out if this was really happening already. He turned two in December and this potty training stuff started back in March. Rob has been the one keep reminding me we have to go with it. The other thing that has been great with our boys has been a potty chart where they get to put stickers on each time they sit on the potty. They lose interest after about a month of putting stickers on it but it sure if fun while it lasts.