Potty Star

That's my kid! He is a potty champ! Who knew?! He was 100% ready and has exceeded my highest expectations. I am seriously so proud of my little boy.

I would recommend the Potty Boot Camp, based on my one experience using it, even though I didn't stick completely to it. I used it as a guideline, and I think it was really helpful for Gunner. The book recommends feeding the kid lots of salty snacks and fluids throughout the day, and then taking them to the potty every 20 minutes. I did that, and he peed 20 times that day. 20 times! That's a lot of practice using the potty. He was a seasoned pro at it by the end of the day. He was also very very tired of using the potty by the end of the day, and if there's one negative about the program, it is that it can burn a kid out on peeing. Every time the potty timer went off in the evening, I'd say, "It's time to go potty!" And he would say, "No! I'm done peeing!"

The book then recommends continuing potty intervals over the next several days, starting at 30 minutes and working your way up to and hour or so. I could tell that Gunner couldn't have handled another intense day of timed peeing, so I decided to back off of him, and just take him every hour or so. He only had one big accident. And he successfully went #2 on the potty twice the second day! I think that's a huge success!

Also, the nighttime thing was sort of solved for us. We decided to put a diaper on him for overnights, and when we went to get him ready for bed, he said, "No. I wear underpants now." So we shrugged our shoulders, and nervously put him to bed in his underpants. He got up a couple times to pee in the middle of the night, and woke up (almost) dry. Last night, he went the whole night dry! I couldn't have been more proud of him this morning!

We ventured out to our first public place yesterday. I took him to the library for about a half hour. I took him to the bathroom before we left the house, and then I told him that the library also has a potty. We went in, picked out our books, checked them out, and then he ran down the hall shouting, "I have to use this potty!" So we did. I was so proud of him for self-initiating that one, and especially for telling me about it and having a public potty success.

So, he's doing great. And besides one small incident this morning in which he hid in his bedroom closet so that he could poop his pants (thankfully I caught him in time to get him to the bathroom with a stern reminder that "poop goes in the potty!!!!!"), I'd say that he's almost there.

I am under no delusion that our work is done. I'm sure that it has just started. But at least it has been a good start. I also think that it has been a good bonding experience for the two of us. I spent a lot of time just playing with him this week, besides working with him and praising him for all of his successes. I think it has been good for his confidence, and it has been good for me to put some trust in him, give him some responsibility, and see him accomplish some really big goals.