Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Potty Training

Why is it that everything I read online about potty training indicates that parents feel that their children are potty training really late (and they're really embarrassed about it) when their kids are like 3 or 3 1/2?? My kid's 4 1/2 and he's just finally starting to make some progress! I know that he's late, based on average, but aren't there other kids in the same boat? I'm fairly certain that it's a power struggle and he is completely physically capable of using the potty on time, every time. He also hates anything new and different -- like having to use the potty anywhere away from home. He'd rather hold it all day or pee in his diaper (because that's what a pullup is, right? A diaper?)
And while I'm on the topic of diapers, what's the deal with night-time diapers? They only make the extra absorbant ones for kids up to a certain size! (And that size is most surely smaller than my son.) The Huggies overnight diapers are great! But they only go up to size 5. The overnight "underwear" doesn't hold much. I got really excited when I discovered that huggies is now making on overnight (extra absorbant) version of their pullups... but... wait... here it comes... not in their largest size! Why not? Because there's apparently no demand for that. Ugh! Owen likes to save most of his peeing for nighttime, and he can really fill a diaper! The size 5 overnights have turned out to be the best at holding it all in, even though they're too small. Although I recently discovered online that they make inserts that you can put in the diaper to add asorbancy! What does it say about my life that learning this information was one of the highlights of my week? Yippee! I'll have to order them online (because no store is going to carry them) and let you know how it goes.

When, oh when, will these diaper days end?? It's been a long messy road... Remember the days of meconium (Steve changed all those :-)) and the yellow fountain in the face (boys only)? Oh, but with the girl (and I know this is not specific to girls, but my boy didn't do it) it was poop up the back. Messy, smelly disgusting poop channeled up the butt crack into the back of the onsie (and oddly, almost none in the actual diaper!) Oh and remember the first time we had cake with a lot of food coloring in the frosting? I was so shocked by the Lofty-the-Crane blue poop that Owen thought there was something wrong! And then the poop starts getting very adult-like. Oh joy. This is when you really start to wonder why you're still changing the kid's diaper! And these days, in the struggle to not be potty trained, there's wearing underwear at home and having little nuggets fall out of the underwear onto the floor. I just love those!

3 comments:

ooolia said...

I feel for you. I completely understand. I never understood why night-time diapers were only for little kids. It's perfectly normal for some kids to not be potty trained at night until 7 or 8 years of age. That's what my pediatrician told me. I wonder what they use.

Meanwhile, I'm letting day care attempt to potty train C. He wears underwear at school (and has accident after accident after accident), but only diapers at home. I'm counting my blessings.

(my word verification today is: pluuwuu. sounds like a toddler saying please to me)

Ann in NJ said...

JC and William and Rachel were all much closer to 4 than 3 when potty training occured. My best result was with specific motivation. I told William (at age 3.5) that he couldn't go in the pool with regular diapers on, and he was not allowed to pee or poop in the pool (and why). It worked for him.
Pull-ups are diapers, yes, and I never found them useful. I used the old-fashioned thick cloth training pants, and just did a lot of laundry. Perhaps if he's uncomfortable enough, he'll figure it out? And I did bribe (excuse me, motivate) as well. JC earned a cool space station set. The challenge is figuring out what motivates your child. What's in it for him?

Susan Z said...

We are only sort of venturing into potty training here. We have had the occassional poop or pee in the potty but with no real regularity at all (not very random interest). As for pooping up the back...at first I swore that Jo would do it because she didn't like that outfit she was wearing. Jim had the benefit of Doug finally getting over 4 days of constipation when he was about 4 weeks old. My strangest poop is the army green we have when we have had too much sugar. Of course popcorn kernals in the poop are sort of interesting too.
(my word verification: wzablx= was blacks?)