Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Desperate measures call for desperate times!

Nolan is 3 1/2 years old.... 3years, 6months, 3 weeks, 6 days old to be exact. He will not go poop on the toilet. AND YES...we have tried every imaginable trick to get him to poop where he should go poop.....in the toilet.
Dunk the Cheerios...get stickers...get Thomas the train tattoos...do the poopy dance...watch Elmo's potty time dvd...get matchbox cars...go to Monkey Joes...go to Mcdonalds...put the magic lotion on...learn, so you can teach your brother. You are probably wondering what some of these tricks are. Lets just say we have tried them all and then some. My latest act of desperation was that I told him I would buy him a $300.00 bouncy toy if he would poop in the toilet.
"OK Mommy," he said. "I will go poop in the toilet, but TOMORROW." AARRRGGHHHH. He never went in the toilet and I am still $300.00 richer. My husband did suggest that we buy the bouncy toy and put it in the backyard. (my neighbors will cringe). He will only get to play on it every time he poops in the toilet. *sigh* I don't know if it will work, but at this point I am willing to try anything.
I know some of you are saying he will go in the toilet when he is ready. My pediatrician said it was toilet training resistance. He said we need to let him take responsibility in helping to clean his own mess up. Yes, we even had him swish his underwear in the toilet...just one problem besides me thinking I am a horrible mom to let my three year old do this. He likes to swish his dirty underwear in the toilet. So, I quickly changed my mind about the whole taking responsibility thing.
I am still open to suggestions from friends, family members, and even strangers. I look back at everything we have tried and my heads spins...Nolan probably feels the same way.
It is very hard to have patience with him on this toilet training adventure. We recently went on an underwear shopping expedition with him. He picked out new underwear. His favorite was Diego. I picked out Batman undies and he looked at them and said he didn't like it because a bad man was on the underwear! LOL I guess Batman can look intimidating to a three year old. I told Nolan that if he pooped his underwear he had to wear batman. (I am so mean). I probably reversed all the training we have done the past few months with him. AFter I get through this I will snicker at it...I know I will. Right now, I cringe to think we will be going through this with his younger brother soon. SO, I will up my shirt sleeves and take a deep breath...potty "poop" training HERE I COME!

~~~UPDATE~~~
It is the middle of June and I can finally say we are potty trained fully. Nolan hasn't had an accident in over a month. I really can't say what happened except that it literally clicked with him....OVERNIGHT! We just were persistant and honestly started not to care if it was going to ever happen. When he had an accident I told him it made me sad....and left it at that. No yelling, no discipline, and no caring about the potty training thing.

3 comments:

Jenny said...

Oh gosh... You are going to be laughing at me so hard in a year and a half when I'm going through this with Suzi and both your boys can go poo poo in the potty! I wonder how Badass Dad's potty party went.

Julie said...

I had this problem with one of my boys. It about drove me nuts! And he wasn't in daycare. He might have been afraid of the toilet as sounds sometimes frightened him. He would pull off his pants and go other places . . . behind the sofa or a chair,under the desk. When HE was ready he went to the toilet. I had begged, threatened, tried to bribe and NOTHING worked. Don't beat yourself up. A very good friend once told me, "This too shall pass." And it did. And it will.

SuburbanDaddy said...

I can so feel your pain. My oldest is 4 and we still struggle with this sometimes. And the 2 year old just started training this week. I guess they'll get it eventually. At least it makes for great blog material.