Potty Training is Not for the Impatient

Potty training is no fun, even on a good day, and after potty training Rose (which took over a year), I was not looking forward to potty training Cyprus. Luckily, the local school district had a parent class a few months ago on how to potty train special needs kids. Man how I wish I had learned this stuff a long time ago.


The problem is that I'm not a very patient person, but with two special needs kids that is exactly what you need to be. With Rose I had tried the method of putting her on the potty every half an our and rewarding her with stickers. Yeah, that ended up with both of us in tears most of the time.


When I took the potty training class the first thing they suggested was to just take notes for a week. I honestly did a double take. Why would I need to take notes for teaching my kids how to go in the potty? The instructor then explained that by taking a week before starting training to write down every time you child pees/poops in their diaper from the time they get up to the time they go to bed, then you can identify if their body has created its own routine. Usually this works for special needs kids because they can't usually identify the signals for when they need to go.


I went ahead and tried it for a week on both of my boys - Cyprus because he's getting old (just kidding) and Juniper because he's obsessed with the potty.  I was going to be an awesome Mom, figure out their schedules and then get them both potty trained at once.


(Pause for laughter to subside.)


I talked it over with their pediatrician and he said not to worry about Juniper as very few boys were ready at his age. And with Cyprus's Autism he thought it best to give all my focus to him.  So I swallowed my pride and just focused on Cyprus. By monitoring his schedule I soon discovered a semi-routine that his body followed. So I started putting him on the potty 15 minutes before he usually went, usually after mealtime. And it worked.....until life got in the way.  Don't you hate that.  School, illnesses, fatigue, etc. etc. made it hard for Mommy to make anything into a routine.


So for once, I am looking forward to school being over so that I can focus the next three months on his routine. Technically he still has one more year of special needs preschool, and the teachers are awesome at trying to help stick to his routine. However, we haven't been consistent enough at home for Cyprus to connect that there is even a routine.   So that's my goal. Help my son connect the idea with going potty in the potty as a regular occurrence.


Much prayers for success appreciated.  Then once school starts again I can work with Juniper, because he is still way to obsessed with the potty.  Here's looking forward to the days of no more diapers/pull-ups. Though you seem so far away I have a glimmer of hope that you are coming nearer.