Potty training that worked for us...
So... Potty training a toddler, not so fun! I wanted to share our story and how we attempted and failed three times before finding something that really intrigued Ardynn enough to finally start using the toilet. Below is a picture of "pretties" as we call them, it is a dress up jewelry kit that is made up of little links in the shapes of stars, hearts, and flowers that I picked up at the dollar store and you can link the pieces together to make necklaces or bracelets. This was supposed to be a reward from the "treasure chest" method of potty training, you know, where your toddler sees that there is a box in the house full of un-touchable toys that they only get to play with if they use the potty... Well I am sure that works for some children but not mine. She would put more effort into trying to get to the toys rather than using the toilet. Then throw a HUGE fit when I would tell her "NO", and I swear just to spite me have, an accident.
The first potty training attempt was candy, that should have stopped me right in my tracks but I was so determined get her using toilet that instead of trying to find my own method I fell for the "other parents use it, it must work" or "The book says it really works, so it has to be true". And to top it off with a big juicy cherry, I tried the candy method TwICe... Really!
Well long story short, I read a blog about teaching children the importance of doing nice things for others and how they get to pick a fuzzy pom pom to put into a jar for each nice thing they do. When their jar is full their mom and dad would take them out to do something special just for them to reward them and it works, they feel good and continue to be nice to others even their siblings believe it or not! So I thought I would try the same method with buttons (because that's what I had on hand) they are colorful, shiny, and come in all sorts of shaped and sizes. Ardynn could pick a button from the big jar and add it to her cup every time she would use the toilet, two buttons for poopoos and one for peepee. Once her cup was full of buttons we would go to the store and pick out a new toy. Come to find out the buttons weren't interesting enough to excite her into using the toilet before having an accident and it took a lot of freakin buttons to fill up that tiny cup!
I decided that because she couldn't see her progress with the buttons in the cup maybe I needed a sticker chart, well anyone who knows me knows that I HATE sticky things so I was desperate to find another way. That's when I came upon the "pretties" chain. I put a small nail in the wall above the mirror in her bathroom and put all the links in a cup on the sink. I told Ardynn that every time she went pee in the toilet she could pick 1 pretty to hang on the mirror and 2 if she went poop and when the chain got to the bottom of the mirror we would go to the store and pick out a brand new toy. This caught her attention and because she could pick a new shape and color each time and see her progress literally growing down the mirror, she was trained within 2 weeks!!
This was about 2 1/2 months ago and we still use the pretties, only instead of getting them for using the toilet now she gets them for going a whole day without an accident. She's good to go now and we probably don't need to use the encouragement anymore but it gives us an opportunity to spoil her just a little. ;)
The first potty training attempt was candy, that should have stopped me right in my tracks but I was so determined get her using toilet that instead of trying to find my own method I fell for the "other parents use it, it must work" or "The book says it really works, so it has to be true". And to top it off with a big juicy cherry, I tried the candy method TwICe... Really!
Well long story short, I read a blog about teaching children the importance of doing nice things for others and how they get to pick a fuzzy pom pom to put into a jar for each nice thing they do. When their jar is full their mom and dad would take them out to do something special just for them to reward them and it works, they feel good and continue to be nice to others even their siblings believe it or not! So I thought I would try the same method with buttons (because that's what I had on hand) they are colorful, shiny, and come in all sorts of shaped and sizes. Ardynn could pick a button from the big jar and add it to her cup every time she would use the toilet, two buttons for poopoos and one for peepee. Once her cup was full of buttons we would go to the store and pick out a new toy. Come to find out the buttons weren't interesting enough to excite her into using the toilet before having an accident and it took a lot of freakin buttons to fill up that tiny cup!
I decided that because she couldn't see her progress with the buttons in the cup maybe I needed a sticker chart, well anyone who knows me knows that I HATE sticky things so I was desperate to find another way. That's when I came upon the "pretties" chain. I put a small nail in the wall above the mirror in her bathroom and put all the links in a cup on the sink. I told Ardynn that every time she went pee in the toilet she could pick 1 pretty to hang on the mirror and 2 if she went poop and when the chain got to the bottom of the mirror we would go to the store and pick out a brand new toy. This caught her attention and because she could pick a new shape and color each time and see her progress literally growing down the mirror, she was trained within 2 weeks!!
This was about 2 1/2 months ago and we still use the pretties, only instead of getting them for using the toilet now she gets them for going a whole day without an accident. She's good to go now and we probably don't need to use the encouragement anymore but it gives us an opportunity to spoil her just a little. ;)
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