Potty Training - The End Of The Road

It has been a long, hard road, but we finally crossed the bridge into Big-Boy-Pantsland.  My younger son is almost four, and I wasn’t sure he would live to see his next birthday at the rate we were going.  While my first son was Mr. Compliant, Number Two taught me some valuable lessons in potty training.

First of all, each child is his or her own person, and the more you honor and acknowledge that, the more eager and ready your child will be to “do the right thing”.  Once I backed off the potty-pressure, he was on his potty-game, as long as it was on his own time.  And this is where I probably had the most trouble: learning to trust my three year-old to KNOW when he needed to go to the bathroom.

Our son had huge issues with bowel movements.  It was obvious he didn’t like them because it would be DAYS before he would finally go, usually accompanied by abdominal cramping and pain.  Since it was quite a horrible experience for him, he didn’t want to go again and would, once again, hold it for several days before finally giving in.

We tried so many things with him - radical techniques like holing up in the bathroom until he would finally relent to bribery with little chocolate bars.  Each trick worked about once and then we were back at Square One.

What finally worked for us was a series of revelations and a bit of intervention.  We came to realize that:

• Our child was his own person and needed to learn this on his own.
• Our child did not want to be “singled out” by bribes or stickers.
• Our child knew what the potty was and how to use it. 

Then we intervened.  It was a radical move, but it worked for us.  We added a teaspoon of the age-old remedy, Castor Oil, to a serving of his favorite side dish: applesauce.  He spooned that applesauce down like usual, and by the next day, he was easily experiencing bowel movements.  He has not had one accident in the five weeks since we added that ONE TEASPOON of Castor Oil.  It was a little “push” that he needed to get on track.

That’s not to say everyone should run out and buy Castor Oil to get your child to go on the potty.  The timing has to be right.  The development level of the child needs to be appropriate.  There are other alternatives as well that work.

Please comment and leave any tips or stories you’d like to share about your potty training experiences.  Each one is unique, and that is how we all learn what works for our own child; by trying what has worked for others.