Sunday, November 04, 2007

Smart little poop

CAUTION: This post contains mother-of-toddler poop talk. Read at your own risk.

Today we began toilet training Lucas, albeit with no forethought or real strategy in mind. He's two years and two months old, and all the books say this is about the time to start training.

I saw him grunting during breakfast and put him, fully clothed and diapered, on the potty. He sat there until he was done and then asked to be changed. For the first time ever, he used the word "diaper," totally without prompting.

Usually he poops once a day. After pooping on the potty today, he returned to it twice to poop again. He even threw in a gratuitious non-potty poop for old time's sake.

He must think this is a fun game. I'm not going to be happy, however, if he decides it's fine and dandy to poop four times a day from here on out, especially since I must tend to his modern-day chamber pot. Not cool.

He's going to kill me if this post is still online six or seven years from now.

Feel free to leave toilet-training tips in the comments.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

all I can say is....good luck. toilet training was a big headache and I'm hoping I'll have more of a clue with the second. the one thing I will say, though, that ppl told me is that he may do really well for a while then kind of fall off the wagon. this seems to be pretty normal. so be ready for accidents, even after you've made some progress.

ArticulateDad said...

All I can say is, our second (now nearly 3!) still isn't potty trained. We had decided to just take it easy and let him come around (at least as much as we could). See, we were in Czecho, when the Painter was 18 months. Everyone looked at us like we were insane (because they start training at one!) So we tried to follow suit (disaster ensued) resulting in residual power struggles with our now 5-year old today. I don't think it gets any easier.

A few months ago, the Inventor indicated that he wanted his own potty (not the recycled and bestickered one his brother had used. We bought one. He used it for a few days (once successfully) then decided he liked his diapers.

I think the idea to let him sit on the potty fully clothed might actually be a brilliant turn. I'd say, don't do anything more for the next couple weeks. If he comes to associate the toilet with going, and you don't make it a power struggle (i.e. he thinks it's his idea), you may strike gold.

halloweenlover said...

This made me laugh out loud! I think you're pretty lucky that he will poop on the potty at all!

Annie's Mom said...

One word: Bribery.

mgm said...

oh, yeah, there'll be progress then backslides. Our son (also nearly three) was doing quite well about two months ago, pooping on the potty several times a week. Then came the mystical Trip to Grandma's House about a month ago. I don't know what happened but he hasn't pooped on the potty since, though he did pee on it (and his pants) last week at daycare.

We, originally, were sitting him on the potty periodically during to day around the time when we knew he normally needed to go. Since then, though, we've adopted the "He'll Do It When He's Ready" philosophy and let him set the course.

Also, I understand that boys take longer than girls.

Field Notes said...

I don't have any toilet training tips and don't have kids, might never, but I still get mileage out of poop talk. Not sure what that says about me, but good luck with the training. I doubt he'll be a 4 dumps a day dude forever :D