I am certainly not an expert on this topic. I am 80 percent or so through my first potty trainer. While I might not have tons of helpful advice, if you are currently on this journey too let me say that I feel your pain! Potty training is NOT for the faint of heart. If you are one of those moms that potty trained your kid in a week or less then more power to you, but for most of us that is not real life. We started this journey almost a year ago. Yes, you read that right, a year ago.
He had just gained a baby sister: Strike One.
We were not consistent: Strike Two.
He was almost, but not quite ready: Strike Three.
Three strikes you’re out? Or maybe not. Many moms have told me he won’t go to college in diapers! I have learned a bit over the last year to say the least. I have learned that I will never have a clean bathroom, ever. I have learned that consistency is mandatory, despite the fact that three bathroom trips in one hour does not in fact mean you will achieve success. Nope, sometimes it merely means 5 minutes later you will have a puddle on the floor. I have also learned that hiding in my room to catch my breath just for a minute is often the key to calmly putting on yet another pair of undies, and another load of laundry.
My son has SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) and there were times when it hindered our success. Some days he did great, and some days he was in never never “sensory land” and didn’t even register that he had peed. I tried many different methods. We found flip cloth trainers and I breathed a sigh of relief that we were no longer wasting money multiple times a day. If you think diapers are expensive, pull ups are twice the price! We were plugging along “great” until one day he started screaming. Every. Single. Time. It was shortly after he started school and I guess the transition, and their methods at school, were just more than he could process. It was incredibly frustrating, for both of us.
One weekend after school I declared war, on potty training and not my son, do not fear. We ditched the pull ups, grabbed a huge stack of undies and towels, and hunkered down at home. He ended up being sick the entirety of the next week. Honestly staying home and being consistent every day was what he needed. That and the time to be ready.
We are not 100 percent there but we have less accidents every day! I am finding that there is in fact light at the end of this tunnel. Hang in there Mama’s, you can do this!
