Potty Training

How old was your child(ren) when you finally got them potty trained? Are they even potty trained as of yet? I feel that special needs children are definitely harder to train. My son was nearly 5 years old before he was trained. When I say "trained" what I really mean is not using the bathroom in his underwear. While Austin is trained in that aspect, he still is unable to wipe his own bottom consistently. Don't get me wrong, he tries. He just isn't able to effectively get himself clean. Although, when he tries, nine times out of ten it ends up with a clogged toilet or a drowned floor. There have been times that he flushed and my bathroom ended up flooded with toilet water and poop! That was a lovely treat to clean up...lol. Definitely gives new meaning to the saying from Family Guy (possibly?) "All hands on the poop deck!"

With my oldest son, he literally woke up one morning the week before he turned three and said "I'm a big boy now, I don't need any pull-ups." Seriously, that was it. He was day and night trained in that one moment. Never had an accident, either!

What methods do you use to toilet train? We tied everything with Austin. We tried treats, encouragement, etc. Nothing in the whole wide world worked. We even tried those flushable styrofome things that he could aim at. Nothing. Cheerios and Froot Loops to aim at? Nothing. Now, don't get me wrong, those things probably work wonders for some, just not in our case. The one thing that I said I would never do is what I ended up resorting to...and it worked! After the umpteen hundred and fiftieth time of him pooping his pants, I finally got so frustrated and I caved and made him wash out his own underwear. Disgusting. Gross. Nasty. BUT IT WORKED!  After making him do this only 2 times, he finally got it, and was finally trained. It sounds gross, and it is, but there is definitely something to it! It must be the aversion (naturally!) to having to deal with poop. Whatever it was, it worked! Now, that is not to say we didn't have accidents, and it did take him longer to be night trained, simply due to medications and his thirst that went along with. But I was so relieved to not have to deal with him peeing his pants all day long!

What methods did you/ are you use/using?

Until next time,