Wednesday, September 22, 2010

PT'ing Ronin

Potty training Ronin has been terrible. We actually started it in January and he seemed to respond well to watching a video as reinforcement and then later we used a sticker chart. But somewhere along the way Ronin was refusing to go, even if we announced it happily, even if we threatened that it was time to go to the potty or ELSE. Accidents were happening, still are, but I tried the undewear-only option because I didn't think he was fully appreciating a pull-up, as well as making diapers a NON-option for him. I made diapers not available to Ronin, but available to Audrey. We were constantly reminding Ronin to put his pee pee in the potty (and poo poo when he would listen). Getting to the potty too late, the puddles on the floor, the wet clothes became too much. I went online and printed out an article regarding toilet training a 5-year old, with the intent of looking up how to toilet train strong-willed children:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Pediatrics-1429/potty-training-five-year.htm
and it was just the right amount of advice needed. And since it came from a pediatrician I printed out a copy for my DH to read so that he would take the time to understand what we were supposed to do. The advice basically said to give control back to my son. Don't remind him every hour, or even at all, to go to the potty. Let him decide when to go. There's more rationale to it, but "letting go" was the gist. That, and put him in underwear. I did put him in underwear, but Ronin still made messes that were irritating to clean up. I made him help me clean them up a few times and he didn't really care, didn't get any ick factor. The DH was disgusted with the underwear messes, so after a big talk we decided to put on underwear with a pull-up over it, even though in the past Ronin had tried this for a few days and still soiled both underwear and pull-up, not seeming to care.

I think it was/is the NAGGING that was/is preventing him from going to the potty. We've had some misses, but without constantly reminding him to go, he is developing his body awareness better. He comes to me and says, "Mommy, I think I'm peeing." Ronin also gets a sticker every time he puts his pee in the potty, and that makes him very, very proud. The storm is not over yet, but it's a little better.