Sunday, July 19, 2009

potty training bootcamp


Sass has been potty training for several months now and we have totally hit a plateau. She will have great days and then really not so great days. She is good as long as we take her ALL the time, but she rarely tells us. Even if she has an accident she only tells us about half the time.

Since Bubbie is away this week at the beach with the "grands" I have decided it's time to go hard core on the potty training. We have been pretty laid back about it and worked on it here and there, but we are going full force now.

First thing first, we needed potty prizes. We have been giving jelly beans for going potty but they obviously aren't working. This afternoon I hit up the good ol' Dollar Tree and started stocking up! Lucky for me, my girl loves her some princesses and Dollar Tree is full of fun princess goodies. We have wands and bubbles, sidewalk chalk, new coloring books, and even pink silly string, plus oh so much more! I really should have taken a picture to show you, maybe tomorrow. Oh, and how could I forget... STICKERS! Must have stickers. Lucky for me, I found a book of 414 Ariel stickers for a $1! YAY!

We started this afternoon. I put all our surprises in a big gift bag and made Sass her first "potty ticket". I wrote the numbers 1-3 on it and started flooding the girl with diluted juice. I explained to her if she went potty in the potty she got to put a stick on one of the numbers and when all the numbers were covered she could trade in her ticket for a surprise. She took to this immediately telling me she had to go potty and Viola! she did. Sticker number 1 was earned. We took our ticket and our stickers to my mom's house for dinner. Sass preceded to then pee on the floor the next 3 times.... uh oh... maybe this isn't going to work. But finally we had two more successes.

She then came home and picked out her first prize, a pink fairy wand that lights up and makes a very magical sound. We made a new ticket, but this time it has the numbers 1-5 on it. She went potty two more times and earned two more stickers... three more to go until she gets back into the prize bag! Yay Sass!

We plan to go no where tomorrow. I am going to oj and cranberry juice this girl as much as I can and hopefully we will get better and better at telling mama when we have to go potty. I trained Bubbie this way with potty tickets and prizes, so hopefully it will work with Sass too!

Pictures and updates to come tomorrow. I'm too tired tonight to work on them!


* image from The EC Store

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8 comments:

Unknown said...

Do you like the baby bjorn potty??? We will be in the market for one soon. Do you have more than one for each level of your house?

Unknown said...

Good tips. We just started training, and will have a boot camp soon! Good luck!

Emily said...

You just made my day. My daughter was also doing great and totally went backwards! You just gave me hope and great ideas (and peace of mind in knowing we're normal)! Thanks!

kimberly4562 said...

Hey lady(:
I am in this exact stage right now, that is such a great idea. I have been trying to think of a prize system, and like everything, I was over analyzing. Thanks for sharing your story, I will definitely be able to have a reward system now(: Here is my terrible potty training story, I am searching the internet now for other mom stories for advice and support(: http://yovia.com/blogs/kimberly/2009/07/20/isaacs-potty-training-makes-another-terrible-turn/
Good luck, to the both of us! And all potty training parents everywhere, haha. Have a Great Day!
-Kimberly

KiwiLog said...

Hi! We loved your post so much that we decided to feature it as a part of KiwiLog's weekly Mom Blog Round-up. Thanks for the great information!

Emily Geizer said...

Glad she is responding so well to the consistency.

Unfortunately you might find that the rewards offer a short-lived incentive, but really you want to build up the natural incentive - she's learning something new and gets to wear big kid underwear!

Staying home for a few days and being super consistent is really the key. To read more tips go to:Follow the Zing of Toilet Training and read a whole series devoted to this topic.

Best of luck to you!
Emily Geizer
www.childperspective.com
Raising Better Parents and Happier Kids!

greenkiddo said...

alison,
yes I love the baby bjorn potty. we usually keep it in the car. I love the simplicity of it, so easy to keep clean! we do have a potty both upstairs and down stairs. She is perfectly content to sit on the big potty but can't do it with out assistance so the little potty comes in handy! If you use the big potty, start her sitting backwards, totally helps!

Anonymous said...

Love the ticket idea!