Monday, January 16, 2012

throwing in the towel - again

we have stopped potty training - again.  over the course of the week there was only one accident outside of the bathroom (on a neighbor's indoor trampoline!), he woke up dry every day, he willingly tried to sit on the potty without being asked, would generally go 'try' when asked (like before getting in the car or before meals) and was getting great feedback from his teachers about how great he was doing at school (he stayed dry/clean but never went at school).  the problem was that he would hold it as long as possible.  there is no problem with bladder control here - we are talking more than 5 hours in some cases. 

the problem was that he would jump off the potty at the moment he couldn't hold it any more and pee (and/or poop) on the floor.  we tried everything.  we let him have treats while sitting on the potty, play games on our phone while sitting on the potty (that was our one total success) and every other means of keeping him sitting at the moment he started peeing.  what was worse is that mason is our super neat kid who has to use a napkin (or several napkins) at meals, he likes to be clean and the mess of pee was getting to be too stressful for him.  not to mention that the twenty trips to the potty and crying leading up to actually going was starting to wear on me!  but peeing on daddy while he helped in the bathroom - twice - was what caused us to throw in the towel. 

we will try again in the spring.  i really, really don't want to have three in diapers, but i don't want to stress mason out either.  just from hearing from other friends, it seems that turning three is the threshold for successful potty training for boys.  only mason doesn't turn three until after baby is born...  love.

4 comments:

Witenkling Mommy said...

So he was sitting on the potty holding it, then jumping off? Interesting. I agree - don't push PT- when they are ready it goes more smoothly - at least in my experience with the girls. I've also heard the boys at 3 (or later) thing....

Becky said...

I don't comment a lot ... but YES! 3 was the magic number for our boys. Trae was a little bit earlier, but by his own prompting, and he was the 2nd so maybe that had something to do with it. But there were still many many accidents well up until 3. Boys are just different ... I think some of it is an attention thing. They are just too busy and distracted doing other things to notice or care when they have to go :)

Becky said...

I don't comment a lot ... but YES! 3 was the magic number for our boys. Trae was a little bit earlier, but by his own prompting, and he was the 2nd so maybe that had something to do with it. But there were still many many accidents well up until 3. Boys are just different ... I think some of it is an attention thing. They are just too busy and distracted doing other things to notice or care when they have to go :)

Becky said...

Sorry - didn't mean to comment twice. But now that I re-read the post, I'm seeing holding it isn't an issue. I'm sure you've heard of it and tried it, but have you done the cheerio thing? I'm sure you are having him sit to go, so there isn't as much aim involved, but maybe still the game aspect of it will make him want to "push out the pee." Also, I had the boys sit backwards on the toilet at first.