Yipieee!

It's been about 2 weeks now that our 4yr old has been "potty trained" after years of working at it! We've tried rewards, big-boy underwear, the potty-dance, M&Ms and more!

One thing that helped is that he seems to be lactose intollerant, and as we started really looking at the ingredients of food, we realized that milk products and lactose is in so many things!  He may not have been going to the potty because he was getting mixed feelings, false alarms and/or "chinese firedrills"! 

It's been tricky, but we've mostly cut it out of his diet and replaced what we could with lactose-free foods (margarine, soy milk, etc.) and also told him why he could not have one thing while trying to make sure we provide foods he CAN have (and enjoy).  Eventually we will re-introduce things into his deit but first we want him well-entrenched into using the potty.

It also took a lot of firm love. 

Each time we tried a system it would work for a while, but then degrade into a scream-fest. We know we did not want the bathroom to have a negative conotation so we eventually would back-off and relax a little. One thing was definite, he knew WHAT he had to do and could do it, he just wouldn't.

A friend of ours came by our house for maybe a week or more and spent 3-4 hours taking him to the potty every 5-10 minutes. It got to the point that he would be yelling "I don't want to sit on the potty!".  At least 2 times when they left, within 5 minutes he peed his pants.

They repeated to him and asked him "Where does the poopie go?" and "Who is responsible for putting the poopie in the potty?" over and over making sure he fully understands that it is HIS responsibility.  We had long since made him clean himself up when he messed.

When he pooped in his pants, they would take some of his toys (the IMPORTANT ones) with them and say that he has to poop in the potty to get them back! I think they took a couple loads of them, and talked about how her husband was going to have fun playing with them.

He was also told that when he pooped in the potty he was to call them (no matter the time) and let them know and they'll bring his toys right back!  So one night, at 10pm they got a phone call where they were greeted with "I pooped!"  Unfortunately, that night he then pooped in his pants a few hours later, so then the requirement became he had to poop 2 times in a row to get them back.

How much of a factor this was, I don't know, but one night he pooped in his pants and so he was put to bed early. We had decided before then that they were going to be allowed to watch a movie before bed and we stuck with that. He was lying in bed listening to the movie that his sister was watching, but unable to watch.

I think the combination of it all finally got to him but getting "clear" signals I think is a major factor in getting him to go. Yes, he's had a few accidents but we haven't focused on that because each time there was a reason (like while he was sleeping in the car during a 3-4 hour leg of the trip) and it was just pee. Our primary focus was to get poop since he was already doing pretty good with the peeing.

So now it's 2 weeks with no pooping accidents and 99% success rate with peeing.  He's also gets out of bed in the middle of the night and goes, goes to pee when we ask him to (like before going out of the house), announces when he has to go and often just goes without saying anything!

It is such an increadible relief and not only that but his confidence and self-accomplishment has made a huge leap! He's turning into the boy we know he is!

Now we just need to get him to remember to wash his hands afterwards on his own!  One battle at a time...