I was hoping to have had Jelly Bean potty trained about 6 months ago but his #problemswithpoop have delayed things somewhat. With the hot weather we were having over the last couple of weeks I decided to test the waters a little by letting him run around outside without his pants on and leaving the potty in the garden to make it more accessible. Within 10 minutes he sat down on his potty and did a wee, I was impressed.
I asked his big brother to help me keep an eye on him and keep reminding him to use the potty. Jelly Bean kept saying “no I don’t need to go” and eventually shouted at us “I said I DON’T need to go!” Well that told us. A few minutes later I heard Beanie Boy ask Jelly Bean if he wanted a horse-back ride and I thought that it perhaps wasn’t the best idea. I dived into the garden and said “be careful he doesn’t wee on you” just as Beanie Boy raised his head and said “I think he just has?”
I lifted JB off his back to see a huge wet patch on the back of BB’s t-shirt. Oops!
As the week went gone on I didn’t exactly push him to keep using the potty but he has asked to use the potty randomly himself whilst still doing the majority in his nappies.
On the first day of the Summer Holidays I decided, today’s the day!! Instead of reaching for his nappies I took the plunge and went straight to his ‘big boy Thomas pants’. He was super excited and celebrated by doing a wee on the toilet.
We even managed to venture out in the car for a short journey where he managed to stay dry all the way there and back. I sat him on a Pampers wet mat in the car to protect the car seat so that I could keep him in his pants rather than reverting to a nappy or pull-up pants. I took the potty in the car with us and asked him to use it when he got out of the car at the end of our journey. He said he didn’t need it, then promptly walked across the road and did a wee in his pants.
I took the Beans to say a final goodbye to their preschool ladies as JB has now finished his time there too and he did a further two wees on the potty there.
When we returned home I asked him to sit on the potty again but he told me he didn’t need to, then walked into the garden and wet his pants.
On that first day the scores were Potty 12 Floor/Pants 3 which I have to say I was very impressed with. I worried initially in the mornings when he was watching TV and playing with his trains that he would be too distracted but he actually came to me and said “I need a wee” each and every time.
Whilst he was playing outside I set the timer on the cooker for every 20 minutes and each time it beeped we would say ‘Wee Wee Beeper’ and he sits on the potty. Most of the time he managed to do a big wee but if he didn’t we would reset the timer for 10mims and try again.
Update: Since writing this post a couple of days ago Jelly Bean has been doing a great job. He has had the odd little accident here and there but he is doing about 70% on the potty. We have managed trips in the car to Cambridge and London, each time he has shouted for me to stop the car when he needed to wee and has held it until I have been able to safely stop the car.
We are STILL have big issues with his #problemswithpoop which don’t seem to be getting any better at all. He will only go for a wee on the potty as he tells us he is frightened of the toilet so this is something we need to work on but on the whole I am over the moon with his efforts.