Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Shit Happens

Ella's on day 6ish of potty training. She's doing great going pee. Well, I am still the one who initiates telling her she needs to come try to 'go potty' on the toilet, but she has not been having any pee accidents. We can even run errands and she hasn't had accidents. But she poops in her underwear. And it's gross. Everything I read stresses the importance of not shaming children when they are learning to use the toilet. Obviously. I'm just not really sure when the light is going to turn on and she's going to at least try to poop on the toilet.  I read this article and the suggestions confimred that I am still entirely too immature. When I read about cutting a hole in the pull up and placing them on the toilet, I lost it. Really? I mean, whatever works...but still, that shit's funny (pun intended).

Ella is REALLY into Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.  We have been talking about getting a light up Rudolph for our front lawn as a reward if she goes poop in the potty...and she's super excited about it...then she poops in her underware and tells me 'it's ok because i still get chocolate,' refering to her M & M treat for peeing. She's a smart cookie this one. Any suggestions?

P.S. Am I the only one who has to fight the urge to just throw the underwear away because it's super nasty to clean? (Read between the lines: I have thrown a few pairs of underwear away because I'm that lazy. And it's that gross).


6 comments:

Chicago Mom (Heather) said...

I have no suggestions because I'm a complete failure at potty training. Neither of mine are! I'm going to work on Keira the week I'm off for Christmas.

Ummm no. I'd be throwing them away too!

Unknown said...

so she doesn't give you any clues that she's about drop a load like squatting under the dining room table or backing into a corner? well poop.
have you dared to try just letting her walk around without underwear??? some kids are hesitant about having nothing to cradle their deliveries in. she may tell you she's goint to poop and give you time to plop her on the pot.
or try having her sit on the potty for a while, read some books or discuss the meaning of life and the urge crap in the potty will just overcome her after recognizing the desperation in mommy's eyes and the desire to please you and finally get that damn rudolph you keep enticing her with.
good luck and don't hesitate to throw away undies, that's shits gross dude.

rozanny said...

No you're not the only one to throw them away... my sister in law did EVERY time. My daughter did the same thing...

The four things that helped with my daughter (she'd been without accidents for at least 4 months when she started pooping in her pants)
1. I told her nicely but firmly that it wasn't very nice to mom when she pooped in her pants. She asked why and I told her that I didn't like touching or smelling poop and every time she pooped in her pants I had to do something I didn't like. ( I know... a little mean, but you could see a light turn on in her face when she realized that it was gross, not just inconvenient.)
2. I let her pick out her panties and if she pooped in them she had to wear plain old white panties instead of the Tangled/Princess Tiana ones that she likes.
3. I told her that if she could go for 5 days without accidents then I would take her to Pirate Island... a place with pizza and games and prizes...
4. If I could tell that she had an accident because she just didn't want to take the time to go, ie: she was too busy playing, then I made her sit in time out for as long as it would have taken to go potty... so she didn't think that she could just go play as a reward for not taking time out of her busy schedule to use the potty.

I'm not sure which one was most effective, but not too long and she was using the potty again. Now it's just night training that's driving me nuts... She was going at night in panties but after almost 3 weeks of having to change her bedding every day I decided to put her back in pullups at night. Grrr. It seems like she can do things until she gets bored for trying to do them and I have to find new ways to motivate her to keep doing it. Hope that's not the case with everything!

rozanny said...

Sorry, that was kind of a long post wasn't it?!

brian, meghan, finley, and adalaide said...

oh man. i totally threw out some underwear too! so, random place to ask this....but can i get your address? i want to send you a christmas card, since i stalk your family online and basically feel like we are friends.

for what it's worth, i stopped giving treats to finley once she mastered the peeing, and then only gave one when she pooped.

~j~ said...

honestly meg if i wasn't laughing so hard right now I would try to remember some of the ol trick of the mom trade but my sides hurt :))
Good luck!
xo
j