Friday, January 10, 2014

My Daughter is in the 3 percent...

So we decided to try a 3 Day Potty Training "Boot Camp" program and see how it went. After having some potty success over time, we decided to jump right in. We completed 2 days of the program and one "pre-day" before deciding this was just not for our daughter. The program claims a 97% success rate, but by day 2 this obviously was not going to work for us. Perhaps if we were willing to give it longer (as some peoples' testimonials claimed they needed) this could have worked, but in  my opinion it was torturous for the parent and frustrating to the child.

I stumbled upon this program while surfing the web for potty training tips. Looks and sounds pretty good in theory. in practice, THIS IS A LOT OF WORK for the parent. Letting your child have accidents all over your house for 3 days is a pain to say the least! No wonder so many children are not potty trained by age 2. I can't say I saw no progress whatsoever, but not enough to make it worth the energy it would take to continue this for any reasonable amount of time, or more than 3 days. By the end of day 1 I was EXHAUSTED! Like worse than when she was a newborn exhausted! I am not saying the program would not work for someone else, it just did not work for us. If you are interested in trying this is what we tried: http://www.startpottytraining.com/.

Here is the diary I kept of our three days:

1/8/14, "Pre-Day", practicing with diapers and undies:
6am- woke wet, sat on potty, stood up, started peeing, got 1/2 in 1/2 out. Good enough.
6:30- dry diaper
6:45-7am- sat on potty happily, but no go
7:15- dry diaper, POTTY! 1/2 in 1/2 out. Good enough.
7:30- diaper a little wet, sat on POTTY, BM!
8:10- warm wet, sat on potty, but no go
8:30- dry diaper, no desire to try potty
9am-  dry diaper, sat on potty, but no go
9:15-  dry diaper, sat on potty, but no go
9:20- fresh wet diaper, whisked to potty, changed right away
10:10- fresh wet diaper, whisked to potty, changed right away
10:30- dry diaper, no desire to try potty
11am- dry, resisted potty, wet herself as soon as I put panties on her. She was upset.
11:20- bm/dry, changed right away, sat on potty, but no go
11:45am-12pm- Played bare bottom in/out of bathroom, accident in front of potty. She was upset.
12:15- playing in/out of bathroom again
12:45- she went into bathroom to wet her diaper, changed her into JUST UNDIES
1:15p- dry, sat on potty, but no go. Wanted big potty, still no go though.
1:45- dry, sat on potty, but no go
2pm- dry, no accidents! Changed into pull up for nap/
2p-4:15p- NAP
4:20- woke dry! POTTY! 1/2 in 1/2 out. Good enough. Put on undies.
5pm- dry diaper, sat on potty, but no go. Accident.
5:30-7pm- pull ups to go to Wal-Mart, bought more panties.
6:45p- wet
7:30p- PERFECT POTTY!
8pm- Bed w/undies only for 1'st time ever!

Results: 12 accidents, 5 potties, apx 30% sucess rate

1/9/14, Potty Boot Camp Official Day 1, undies only:
6am- woke wet (cold), sat on potty, but no go
6:30- dry, sat on potty, but no go
7am- accident #1
7:30- dry, sat on potty, but no go. Accident #2
7:50- accident #3
8:10- dry, poop in panties, sat on potty, but no go.
8:30- accident #4
8:50- dry, happily sat on potty, but no go
9:20- dry, happily sat on potty, but no go
9:30- accident #5, got a little in the potty.
10am- dry, POTTY success!
10:30- accident #6
11am- accident #7
11:30- dry, POTTY success! (11:45)
12:05pm- dry, sat on potty, stood up, started peeing, got 1/2 in 1/2 out. Good enough.
12:30- accident #8
1pm- dry, sat on potty, but no go
1:15- accident #9
1:30- dry, sat on potty, but no go. Resisted.
1:30-3:30pm- NAP, woke DRY
3:45- POTTY!
4:30- dry, sat on potty, but no go
4:50- accident #10
5pm- She went to bathroom, said "bye-bye", closed door and peed on floor. Hmmm.
5:40- accident #11
5:45- accident #12
6:15- accident #13 in her high chair while eating dinner
7pm, dry, BM POTTY!
7:45- peed in tub
8pm- dry, bed time

Results: 13 accidents, 5 potties, 1 miss, apx 30% success rate

1/10/14, Potty Boot Camp Official Day 2:
4:30 am- accident, changed her, back to sleep.
6am- woke dry, sat on potty, but no go
7am- accident #1 (signaled?, ran to potty together, sat, but she held it, changed her, she peed again #2, she cried.
7:45am- dry, sat long on potty, but no go
8:30- accident #3, sat on potty, but no go
8:40- accident #4, no signal, peed in her tent. I CAVED and put on a pull up.
9:45- dry, sat happily on potty, but no go
10-11am- pull up for Kindermusik
11:30- wet (10:45ish), sat on potty, but no go, pull up
12:10- dry, passed gas, sat/protested, stood, peed 1/2 in/ 1/2 out of potty. Good enough.
1pm, dry, sat on potty, but no go
1:10- peed in p/u (pull up), accident #5, ran to potty together, but no go
1:30- dry, NAP in p/u
3:30- woke wet, accident #6, sat on potty, but no go
3:50- wet, accident #7, sat on potty, but no go
4:20-  wet, accident #8, sat on potty, but no go. Back to undies.
4:40- accident #9
5pm-  sat on potty, but no go
5:15-  sat on potty, but no go
5:20- accident #10
5:45- went into the bathroom to poop. She told us "out", went in, shut the door, came back out, said "help and took my hand, I helped her with her panties, then she said "bye bye", shut the door again, and pooped on the floor. ??
5:50- accident #11
6:20- tried potty, protested, peed on bathroom floor. Put on pull up over undies.
6:45- wet herself while playing, didn't seem bothered.
7:30- dry, bath
8pm, dry, bed with pull up.

Results: 11-13 accidents, 1-3 potties, apx 15% success rate.


What did we learn? Our daughter does better when she is not stressed and we are not stressed. She does better with sitting on the potty at intervals when we play the Potty Time song (http://www.pottytime.com/). She actually stays dry longer in the pull ups (probably because she is not stressed). She is capable of learning what room to eliminate in. She gets happy when she succeeds. She does not yet seem bothered or uncomfortable when she has an accident. She loves to flush the toilet and say "bye-bye" to the pee or poo. We are gonna take it slower and see how it goes.