Toilet Training - experienced mommies, please help!

amother

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 6:06 pm

I thought I had an answer for what these (in my case) four weeks were for between camp and school. TOILET TRAINING! My son (oldest, if it makes a difference) has been 3 for a few months, but until now there was no way he was ready.

When he was still in camp, he would come home and happily change into underwear. Without any prompting on my end (or practically none) he would go to the bathroom as needed. He had the occasional accident, which was - I think - to be expected, but seemed to be really on top of it.

That was about a month ago. Now, in the last week or two, he's been on a total downward spiral. After a bunch of days in a row of staying completely clean and dry without any prompting whatsoever, he's been starting to wet and soil his pants numerous times a day.

I'm at my wits end. On one end, I guess I can just chalk this up to his being immature, and put him back in diapers until midwinter or sukkos vacation when we can try again. But there's that stubborn part of me that won't let. I know he can do it because he DID! And I just spent a month trying to toilet train him... should I just dump it all and put him back into diapers?!?!?

HELP!

miami85

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 8:22 pm

I can't say that I'm "experienced" per se, as I'm only in the parsha myself for the first time with my 3.5 year old, but one thing that I can say from my experience that I noticed with my son is that: is HE (your son) emotionally ready to consider himself a "big boy?" I tried a long time to get my son interested in toilet training (he could wear the underwear, sit on the potty but nothing would come) to no avail, but when he was ready--I was able to motivate him by saying "I guess you're not ready to be a big boy" But I also paired this concept with some new toys that "only big boys can play with"--such as a game with small pieces and play doh. When he balks I remind him that if he's not going to keep it up then he can't play with these toys and I have to put them away until he's ready. Before he got into toilet training--all the motivation in the world couldn't get him to go--even the "big boy" shpiel, now it works like a charm.

My 2 year-old is interested in the toilet and wants to "make on the potty" but I know that he's not mature enough to take care and take responsibility for his needs so I'm not pushing the toilet training on him just yet.

amother

Mon, Aug 25 2014, 9:27 pm

For a nice while he would come home from day camp and ask for his underwear. And he stayed dry and clean without any prompting from me! Now that he's not in day camp anymore, he's been on a steady, rapid decline. Maybe because he's spending more time playing with his younger brother instead of kids his age who are toilet trained? Is his baby brother giving him negative peer pressure? I didn't think about that till now but maybe that's the answer.

In which case, I still DON'T know the answer... should I just wait until he's back in playgroup and then start again (keeping him in diapers until then? keeping him in underwear until then and throwing out countless pairs a week - when he's thorough enough and I'm tired enough to just dump it...)