Question re: PT

mysweetpeasWil&Wes wrote: Okay, so I'm doing the "take your kid to the potty every 20 minutes and asking him to try going". So far so good, he likes getting on the potty and wearing underwear...except for today. I think the "plan" is getting old for Wil. He is now refusing to go when we have hit the 20 minute mark. I ask him and he says "no way". I try to make it fun, I tell him he gets to see his "prize" (which is a set of toy horses that I have sitting on top of the toilet)...But I think the THRILL has worn off, already. I totally don't want to force him to go, but he has had SEVERAL accidents today because I have let the 20 minutes slide by. It's as if 20 minutes is too short for him, but any longer is too long. I took him outside to play today in our backyard and watched my clock for the 20 minutes, asked him to come inside and go pee and he threw a fit. So I let it go and literally a minute later, I saw him open his legs and just pee right through his pants onto our grass. What do I do now? Wow, this is NOT easy.

Sam & Abby's Mom replied: I have no advice because I havent started PT with Sammy, yet............but thought I'd bump this for you.

Hope you get some answers.

Good luck !

luvmykids replied: It sounds like maybe the novelty has worn off and he doesn't want to stop what he's doing to go potty. It's common but I don't know what you're supposed to do about it.

moped replied: Rae, can I tell you what we do and were taught to do?

We dont ask him at all!! Never. He just says he has to go when he has to go.

I told him the day there were no more diapers that today was the day his body was going to learn to use the toilet.......

4 days accident free

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
Wow, Jack is doing really great! WWTG! Wil on the otherhand will not tell me, never has. He will poop in his diaper and literally walk around with it all day if I let him. Since we have moved to underwear, he is getting better at telling me because he doesn't like the feeling, but not with pee. He had so many pee accidents yesterday and he could careless. I want to say "well maybe he just isn't ready", because truthfully he isn't even three yet, but we have already started and I don't want to turn back now. He really is good about wearing his underwear and even says "no more diapers". The 20 minute rule WAS working, only one accident a day, but not yesterday (he had like 6). I'll let you know how today goes.

moped replied:
Ummmmmmmmmm

Well let me think

Maybe Jennie has some advice too

lesliesmom replied: My DS was like that too. We actually had to stop his training for a while. We didn't know what else to do. But when we did start it back up again, we gave him a sticker every time he used the potty and took one away for every accident. When he collected 25 stickers he got a new Thomas train. After that started wearing off DH told him about the diaper fairy. The diaper fairy would appear only when he was completely diaper/pull-up free. Diaper fairy would take all his diapers and leave him something he really really wanted, which was a Leapster. Once we got that set in his mind I'd say it took a month to be completely diaper free - this included night time. Good luck. I found that boys are not easy to train.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:
Thanks for this! I may use some of your ideas. I have tried stickers, but it lost it's effect after about a day. I didn't want to use candy, but I have tried it out of desperation and it works to get him to GO on the potty, but doesn't at all help him tell me WHEN he needs to go. That is the killer here...How do you get them to understand the FEELING of needing to go. There was one night where DH and Wil were in the basement and I saw Wil dart into the bathroom all on his own!! He obviously felt the need to go, but it was too late...He had already had an accident. I thought it was a good sign, but I feel really bad for him that he isn't understanding when to catch himself.

I don't even want to think about night training yet! Ugh.

grapfruit replied:
I don't know, it KIND of sounds like he does KNOW when he needs to go (since he spread his legs in the yard to go pee. Otherwise wouldn't he of just went??

luvmykids replied:
Don't think about it....I let them night train themselves. Colt did it right off the bat, Macie night trained as soon as she day trained, but Kylie just did a few months ago. I figured we had enough other stuff to worry about, it was no big deal for her to sleep in a pull up until she was ready.

moped replied: I have a question then, do you monitor what they drink before bed to get night trained????

luvmykids replied:
Yes, they don't get anything to drink about an hour before bed (when training) except for a swig when we brush teeth, and go potty right before bed.

Now though they take a cup of water to bed with them in case they wake up thirsty at night.

mysweetpeasWil&Wes replied:

Good point. I guess he feels it coming on but doesn't know what to do. He did the same today when we went to the zoo. I took him to the public bathroom TWICE while we were there, which isn't easy toting Wesley around too, but he never did go. So we were looking at some koi fish and he did the same thing - spread his legs and went right on the concrete. He obviously felt the sensation, but doesn't know how to tell me.

I forget sometimes that Wil is in speech therapy and I have to remember that he is still working on communicating with me. So I'm sure that has something to do with it. But he is also a kid who is so into his stuff, toys that is, so when I ask him to go, he says "no mommy, playing knights". It's like he's saying don't distract me, I don't have TIME to pee. Someone tell me that's a boy thing...because it reminds me of my DH in some ways.

I'm not throwing in the towel yet..........

luvmykids replied:
A little of both, mostly the ability to stay dry which once in awhile requires waking up to go. The problem with Kylie was that she just slept too deep to wake up for it. Colt and Macie though have pretty much always been able to sleep all night without having to go potty, but if they do they can get up and do it on their own.

You're doing a great job, it's just one of those processes that is easy some days and hard others. Congrats on the #2 in the potty!

Insanemomof3 replied: Tristan wore a pull up for a long time, then one day we just took it away. He doesn't ever wake up to pee at night. He takes a drink of water when he brushes his teeth, and SOMETIMES wakes in the middle of the night for a drink, but never to potty.

I may have just gotten lucky though. LOL Demetri still shows NO interest in the potty unless it is bedtime and he is stalling to stay up.

Boo&BugsMom replied:
I was going to say something like what Jen said.

Otherwise, I was also going to suggest not asking, instead say "it's time to go try now". I learned never to ask...because then it seems you are giving him a choice. If you want him to go, don't give him that choice, just tell him it is time. Either take the approach Jen suggested, or still take him every 30 minutes/1 hour or so and tell him it is time to go now. Of course, there are certain times I would have him go anyways, like before going to a store, leaving the house, before bed, after bed, etc. There are certain times where they need to empty themselves without question. However, if you do tell him to go during certain times, I would do it every hour, not every 20 minutes. He may not want to do it because he feels like he's going to the bathroom so much. You can also use a timer so he can watch it. Or, give him a warning...example: saying "in 5 minutes we are going to use the toilet". They don't know what 5 minutes means, but it gives them a warning so it isn't sprung up on them.

gr33n3y3z replied: I think every 20 min. to the potty is to much how about 45 min to the hour

MommyToAshley replied: When he goes pee in the potty, I'd make a big deal out of it. When were were PT'ing Ashley, we all did a little dance everytime Ashley went in the potty. Silly, I know, but it got her to really want to go. If she had an accident, we didn't make that big of deal about it. This worked for awhile, but I think the novelty of this also wore off.

Then, I stole something from Amy Nicole, and still use it to this day. When Ashley would go pee in the potty, I would call up grandma, auntie, anyone --- Ashley was in another room but still close enough to hear me. I would tell them on the phone what a great thing she did and really talk it up. It worked, she was day and night trained at the same time. Even today, if she does something really great, I do this same thing. For some reason, it works better than giving praise directly to her..

danahas4monkeys replied: We are just mastering this Andrew turned 3 in March. What finally did it for him is peeing on a tree, he thinks that is just fantastic! We also did treats skittles work great for us. And I just finally ran out of diapers and said no more cause we knew he could do it he was just being really really stubborn. He'll get it just when you think you can't take anymore and that the Army will surely have to train him he'll decide to do it!