Sunday, May 31, 2009

5 months of this...

Friday marked the 5 month "anniversary" of Blake being diaper-free. Not of Blake being potty trained unfortunately!

In the last month, we've made MAJOR strides on actually completing the potty training mission!

In early May, we noticed something that might serve as a major incentive to staying dry - the achillies heel we'd been looking for!!! Blake regularly was asking to do 3 activities, that are not high on my list of things to do: play-doh, moon sand, and painting. (Mostly, these are low on my list due to the amount of work and clean-up that I do!). But since we were looking to motiviate Blake, I figured I could either clean up these activities or clean up pee accidents!!!

So we started an incentive program (gawd, I sound like the HR rep I used to be!) involving Potty Points or Potty Dollars. Each time B peed in the potty he got 1 potty point (hubby printed out some home made potty dollars to give him). Every time he pooped, in the potty, it was worth 2 dollars. An accident cost the same amount. The reward, trade in potty points for time playing play-doh or moon sand. Each dollar is worth 5 minutes!

I'd say it made an instant impression. The day we started it, he went potty a bunch of times, and got a bunch of points. Late in the afternoon, he traded in points for 20 minnutes of moon sand time. He was ECSTATIC!!! However, at that point he had no potty points left (he'd spent thme all) and he'd gotten what he wanted (moon sand) so after dinner, he peed in his pants! Darn kid....

So we modified the rules, and said that he had to always keep a reserve of $2, so he could still pay for an accident. After a few more successful days, we also doubled the fines ($2 for peeing in pants, and $4 for pooping). For the next 10 days or so, he'd rack up his money, trade it in for play-doh time, and have an occasional accident. We thought we were making progress....

And then suddenly, last Friday started a string of 6 dry days in a ROW!!! AND, as if that wasn't enough, 6 dry NIGHTS too!!! Holy cow!! We apparently have finally gotten through to this kid! After waking up dry a few times, we started giving him $2 if he could stay dry at night too. Friday & Saturday have seen 1 accident each, but the difference... B has been NOTICEABELY upset about the accidents and really sad to give up his potty points!!! Woo Hoo!!! And, a double bonus, he's willing to go potty and goes when he needs to on his own, vs. being told!!!

The icing on the cake for B and me, Trev still isn't dry at night. (He'll kill me when he's older and sees I wrote that on the internet!). So now that Blake is regularly staying dry, T is a little upset, and trying his hardest to stay dry then too!!

So....either we found the right strategy, or it just took 5 months, but either way, we might be totally potty trained soon!

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