Boy pee-pee

So how come no one told me that when you are potty training a boy, one of the biggest issues is finding boy friendly potties and getting them to not pee on the back of their undies when they sit on the potty! When I started out potty training my son, I had no idea that (little) potties are not unisex. There really are boy potties and girl potties. Do they mark this on the packaging? Do they give you any clue whatsoever? NO. I had to go through three potties before I found one that works to keep the pee from spraying over the edge every time.

First I should state that I have no idea if my son is normal. He can not only pee about 4 feet but also pees almost horizontal. He has easily peed over 3 inch pee guards. He hates when I touch his penis while he is peeing so I get one chance to aim it and that is it. He will not do it himself. He also loves to watch himself pee so he angles his hips upwards making it even harder to keep the pee going down. This has led to many embarrassing times at friends houses. "Oh I am so sorry but my son peed on your shower curtain!" This does not make people want to invite you back to their houses. It is also embarrassing having to change my son's pants when he DID go pee on the potty but managed to get most of it on the back of his pants.

I did finally find a potty at the Dollar Store that has a very high back. My son straddles the chair backwards and that solves the peeing over the top problem when we are at home at least. When we go out I keep a wash cloth handy for catching the stream before it hits his pants.

Foreign potties

We had a huge speed bump in our potty training. My son stopped going potty when we went out. He would go potty if we went to a house but no where else. He would just hold it until he couldn't and then pee all over himself. When we started potty training he would go anywhere. He even went potty at our county fair. Then out of nowhere he just stopped. I was talking with my mom about this and she said "Do you give him a treat if you go out?" I said no because I don't like carrying cookies around with me. She pointed out that that was most likely my problem. I realized that she was right. I tested the theory at the gym. He had never once gone potty there. It worked! I showed him a piece of candy corn before he sat on the potty and told him that if he went pee he would get the candy. He sat down and peed. I was so happy! No longer do I have to dread going out with him. I refused to put him back in diapers because I knew he could do it and I was right. I just needed the right tool. Bribery. I did spend a minute being worried about how to wean him off treats for the potty but I am sure it will be just like everything else with him. He weaned himself off the breast at 12 months, then the pacifier with out a fuss. I have still not figured out how to get him to poop in the potty. Maybe my mom will have another brain storm.

Next week we are going to visit my grandma in Phoenix AZ for a week so the potty training will go on the road! I am really excited that I don't have to pack diapers (cloth ones) for the trip. Since he only wears them at night, I will just use paper ones. He is down to one or no pee accidents a day and now that he will pee anywhere again, I think we can do this.

Naked buns

Potty training is turning out to be a much bigger learning experience for me then I had anticipated. When we started my son would stay dry better when we were out of the house then in the house. Now he rarely has pee accidents at home and about 80% of the time stays dry when we leave the house. His biggest undoing is when he is distracted when we go somewhere to play and he will not tell me he has to go until he has already gone. So I have found that when we go out it is best to watch the clock more then my son. When we are at home I let him run around with no bottoms because for some reason he does better that way. He went though a faze where he would have like 6 accidents a day in his undies at home but when I took them off that stopped. At home he is really good about telling me when he needs to go. I just need to watch him not the clock.

Poop is of course another mater. What makes me feel better is that it is clear that getting pee down before poo is very common. I have been trying to tell him that poop goes in the potty and letting him see when he does poop in the potty instead of whisking it away like I normally would. I think it may just take time. I do catch some poops (in the potty) but he will not tell me when he needs to go poop unlike when he needs to pee. He just stands there and gets a far away look in his eye. I call it his poop stare. I never did anything to get him to tell me when he had to pee so I guess that he will just figure it out on his own.

Day 14

We are still on the potty training band wagon. We have got it down to no more then one pee acadent a day. We are still working on the poo. My son poops mostly in his diaper at night or during nap time. Nothing I can do about that really so I try not to think about it too much. I am really quite proud of him over all. I am asked quite often how I know when he has to pee. At first I said that I didn't know, I just took him and I think it did start out that way but now I am seeing that more and more he is telling me when he has to go and when he doesn't. He will grab his crotch, point at the cookie box, or just go and stand by the potty when he has to go. I am also seeing that he is holding it longer and does not want to go early. He will often hold it for an hour now. This is really great when we go shopping.

For those that wonder if I have an advanced child I would like to point out that I don't. I (of course) think he is just the cats meow but he is really very normal. He did not start walking until 14 months, the words he says are so garbled that only I can understand him, he does not use a fork or spoon, and he only does two signs so far (eat and more). So he is really just a normal little boy. I think that putting him in cloth diapers really helped with potty training later because he knows what it feels like to be wet and what causes it.

Day 8 Poo poo problems

My son has been mostly going poo in his diaper at nap time and at night so I really did not realize that he does not want to go poo in the potty! These last two days, we take him to the potty and he goes pee, then he gets down, goes behind something and poops! It is very frustrating. I also understand that is is very common too. I knew I could not get out of this whole experience without some issue. I am not sure yet what I am going to do but I think the only thing I can do is to be more vigilant and try to catch him before he poos and put him on the potty. Oh well, the potty training continues...

Day 6

Today was a real test. We took our son in nothing but undies to the fair. He did so well! Not one acadent. We used the new traval potty that goes on top of the big potty and took him every 45 minutes to an hour. One time we went in to the bathroom and a lady said to me "There is no changing table in there!" I said "Its ok, we don't need one". Yesterday he only had one accadnt and it was with the liquid poo so I can't really blame him. Someone sugested that he might be drinking too much juice. I cut out his juice altogether a few weeks ago because the doctor sujested that it could be the cuase of the sores on his bum from his poop. It worked really well (his bum is healed!) and I have not givin him juice since, so I know it is not that. I have decided that he needs more fiber. I give him whole wheat toast but he can't eat many raw fruits or veggies because he has no molers to chew with yet. We eat a lot of beans but he hates them and won't touch them.

So I should review what we have been doing. We put him on the potty every 45 minutes or so and sign potty to him. Sometimes he tells us he needs to go but most of the time he doesn't. We give him a cookie if he goes potty but we are starting to cut down on the cookies. If he does not ask for one, we don't bother anymore. We only use diapers for nap time and bed time. We put undies on him because if he peed without undies he would not even feel it (only my carpet would). He goes on little potties and the big potty but if he goes on a little potty we put it up on a chair so he has to stay there for at least a minute. At this point I am sure that we will not be going back to diapers. It is all just fine tuning from here on out. Yah!

Day 4

Potty training has been going a lot better then I thought it would. On Tue. we had no accidents at all and my son even pooped in the potty! We went to the lake and brought our smallest potty with us and he used it with out problems. On Wed. I thought that I should see if he will let me know when he needs to go. Needless to say there were more accidents that day. He does not always let me know so I need to keep track of that myself. I have decided that at this stage he just can't be expected to tell me when he needs to go every time. He does not really talk at all but he does sign a little bit. I have been using the sign for potty forever and he knows it but he will not do it back to us. He really does not like it when he wets himself. He looks at me and pokes his undies like he is saying "Look mommy! I'm all wet!" When he does wet himself I let him know that I am not happy but not mad either.

Today went really well. We had to go to an appointment and I was really worried that he would not use the potty when we went out. I don't want to drag our little potty with us everywhere. It is small but not small enough to fit in the diaper bag. So I went to Babies R Us and found the Potette Plus. I love this thing! Love, love, love it! I did not want to get the fold up seats because they do not last and they pinch sometimes. I used the Potette so that my son could sit on the potty at the office without me holding him. It worked like a charm! No sliding and it just folds up and fits in my diaper bag when I am done. Best $15 I have spent yet. It got great reviews from everything I have read. This really takes a load off of my mind. I was really worried about going places.

The only issue I still have is that sometimes my son had liquid poop. He just can't make it to the potty when this happens. I really do not blame him for this, when I have diarrhea, I can't always make it to the potty either! I don't know if this is normal or not. I guess I will have to ask his doctor.

Day 1

Today was the first day that I ditched the diapers and started getting serious about potty training my son. He did amazingly well for his first day. I set up the paint drop cloths and put away any toys that can not be washed or wiped down (like books) and set up a potty on both floors of our house. I made sure to get my son up almost the minute that he woke up so that I could catch his morning pee and possible poo. I got his pee no poo though. All the time he was awake, he was in undies.

Throughout the day I took him to the potty about every 30 minutes or so. I had bought an egg timer to help me remember to do this (and as a cue for my son) but the minute I took it out of the box it did not work. Oh well, I did fine without it. My son did really well, every time I put him on the potty he peed or at least tried. I can tell that he is trying because everything "down there" flexes. Then I gave him his cookie. I use animal crackers as a treat for going on the potty. It seems to be working very well. A few times today he went to the potty and opened the lid or pointed to the cookie box to tell me he had to go. I caught him going behind the coffee table to poo but he is a fast pooper so I was not in time to get him on the potty. I will have to be faster next time I guess. Over all we went through 6 pairs of undies. I really did not need the drop cloths so I am going to put them away tonight. Most of his accidents were really small, you could barely tell he was wet. Overall a very good first day.

Potty training

I am going to do it. On Monday I am going to start potty training my son. I know I sound crazy, talking about potty training a 17 month old. I know that stronger, smarter moms have struggled to do what I am about to try but try I must. In March 2010 I have another baby coming and if I don't at least try to potty train my son, I will be kicking myself for months. So on Monday I am going to put down paint drop cloths, get out the Spot Shot, set up potties on both floors of the house, and put my son in undies. I have always felt that going cold turkey is best for my son.

Just so everyone does not think I am a complete nut, here is my reasoning that my son is ready. First of all we have been putting him on the potty for months in between diaper changes and he understands what it is for and will go potty in it or at least try. Second he has started to pull off his diaper when it is wet and at night wakes up to be changed if he is too wet. Third of all I have been doing a lot of researched and have come across this statistic that in the 1950s 92% of all 18 month olds were potty trained. They attribute this to cloth diapers. My son has been in cloth since birth. My last reason is that I was potty trained at about 18 months and my sister in law potty trained all three of her sons before two so I know it can be done.

Part of me is dreading this change. Lets say that things go smoothly, now I will have to think about where the potty is when we go out and it will add a whole new dimension to traveling. Part of me is excited though. I have always enjoyed a challenge and I have always done things differently then other people especially when it comes to raising my child (cloth diapers, home birthing, Hypno-birthing and so on) so I am used to people thinking I am strange or that what I am attempting is a bit crazy. I plan on writing all about my potty training adventurers right here so that others can learn from my successes and failures.