Today is Day #1 of following a modified version of Dr. Riffel's The Potty Training Boot Camp. For a few weeks I have been doing the non-committed version as we battled a very bad diaper rash with Ava, aka: lots of naked time, occasional mommy-directed potty sittings and treats and kisses when she would go.
Ava did very well with this lax 'training' and so I thought today would be a relative breeze. I was wrong, for a few reasons. 1) On previous days Ava might have been diaper-less for up to five hours, but with the option to put a diaper back on if we went out or if she just felt like it. Today when it was stated that we would no longer be using diapers when she was awake and that she was expected to always use the potty, the taking away of the diaper option was a definite stressor for her at first. 2) Ava is teething, mildly, but the added fussiness and short nap did not helped our potty efforts. And 3) the Boot Camp style suggests giving your child a drink that is a "treat" to encourage them to drink frequently, increasing the opportunities for a successful pee on the potty. For us that was a healthy mango smoothie with water added to make a juice of sorts. I thought this would be great except that twice Ava gulped down a whole cup which meant holding her full bladder caused a lot of pain and therefore anxiety about going. After dropping the juice approach, she had much more successful sit-downs throughout the day when her bladder wasn't as full.
Despite Ava's very short nap, the afternoon was significantly better than the morning. She woke up happy, still ready to do without diapers, and she had no accidents. She went on the potty many times and by the end of the day was consistently initiating on her own (without my having to tell her it was time to try going). By any standards, Day #1 was an overwhelming success!
Hurray baby girl, you're a BIG girl!
My Day #1 thoughts and what I'll do differently next time
Boot Camp suggests giving a small treat each time your child successfully goes on the potty. This was of course a great incentive (especially to keep her on the potty, knowing if she goes she'll get a treat), but I'm skeptical about whether moral will stay high tomorrow and beyond when we're supposed to stop the rewards. Second time around I will try giving only encouragement and applause first and see if that's enough to keep the child going before moving on to sweet rewards.
Boot Camp also includes what they call "drills" after each accident. Not only do you make them clean the mess up themselves and "wash" their own messy clothes but you also are to take them by the hand and walk them back and forth from the potty to different rooms and back to sitting on the potty ten times. I thought this approach was a bit harsh for my sensitive girl but wanted to achieve the same goal--making an accident not worth her while so that it was in fact easier to learn to go on the potty. When we reached the point where she was deliberately having an accident because she didn't want to sit, I did an abridged version of the drills (only three or so repetitions) and called it 'practice' as opposed to discipline or consequence. Using that word had Ava doing the drills willingly since inherently she does want to learn but still she found the whole process not worth the fight and only had two accidents early in the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment