Potty Training Bootcamp

Carl and I are both off this week so we decided now would be the best time to start full on potty training.  We started introducing Justin to the potty shortly after we moved in September, but with no real consistency until last month when we started putting J on the potty 3 times a day; first thing in the morning, first thing when we get home from school and then right before bed.

To get ready for this week I bought training pants and plastic covers, more so for our benefit to reduce the amount of clean up, but with the hope that J would not like the feeling of wet/cold underwear and be more inclined to let us know when he had to go.  Our game plan was to put J on the potty every 30 minutes for about 5-10 minute intervals.  J sits on the potty with no problem; he sees it as a toy and will watch TV while sitting or use it as a riding toy and scoot around the room.  But he holds his pee until just after we put on his big boy underwear so after the first day we started leaving his underwear on but wet underwear doesn't phase J at all.

We can tell when he has to use the bathroom; he squirms, grabs his penis and then asks for his underwear.  So today we changed our game plan and started leaving him on the potty until he peed in the potty.  After 2 hours, much prodding and encouragement he finally peed in the potty and to reward him we gave him cookies and a sticker.  We also made a big deal out of him pouring his pee in the big toilet and flushing it on his own.  But 5 minutes later he peed in his underwear.

Right now I'm emotionally drained and defeated.  I had such high hopes for this week.  I didn't expect J to be completely potty trained by the end of the week but I thought we'd see more results.  But a friend  made me realize that potty training is a process with many stages and although I'm not where I hoped we'd be we are making progress and J will eventually catch on.  So we're not giving up; we'll continue with the repetition, make sure school and daycare has a set schedule for him to follow and reassess at the end of January.