Potty Training

I'm going to make this fairly sweet & short. I tried potty training Niran at 18 months & due to various issues it wasn't accomplished the many times I tried. When we got to North Carolina I was going to try again & never give up. I really wanted something to motivate him, a reward or bribe, whichever you call it. I call it a reward for his accomplishment, but I had no idea what we were going to use. A couple days before we were to start again we were driving home, telling Niran how he was going to start potty training like a big boy. About a block before the house he said he had to go potty. We ran him inside and he went, just like that. Daddy & I were cheering him on and without talking to Daddy I told Niran "If you can keep going potty like a big boy, Mommy & Daddy will buy you a bike!" Why I didn't think of it sooner I don't know, maybe because we had bought the bike for his birthday the weekend before. Yes, it was 1.5 months until his birthday, but it was a great sale! He was very excited for this. Every time we were at Walmart and he saw the bikes he wanted to ride them (he did some times as well). Now it was time to figure out how to track his progress. That night it hit me. CandyLand! I would make a board game on poster board, much like CandyLand with the final prize being his bike! I ran it by Dusty the next day & he liked the idea as well. I got the poster board & the prizes then started working on the game board itself. We weren't able to start on a Monday because the idea came so late and the board wasn't easy to make it. We did start Tuesday morning, after a very late night for me, and here is our progress!

Aug 9, 2010 - It has begun! Niran's Potty Game! He was very excited about his game!

Each space represented a success in going potty. Every 15th success he won a small prize. When he made to the end he would get his new bike. If we waren't quite ready to say he's potty trained & should get his bike I was prepared to extend the board to allow more time.

His 1st Prize! The first week started out slow of course, but by the end of it I knew he had it. It was just a matter of continuing to reinforce going potty every time before having an accident.

Bubbles, this landed as his first trip to the potty one morning. Daddy came home from PT to him going crazy chasing bubbles done. We ran out of bubbles that morning.

His Woody & Buzz Lightyear cars. He won these at two different times, but he was very excited to get both. Probably b/c he loves car that much. The Woody car marked the halfway point. After that it went pretty quickly.

His dry erase books, one of his favorite prizes! He actually did very well his first time tracing the letters!

Last prize before the big one! Another prize he loves, it's a bath toy. The last few days of his game went VERY fast. He was getting a prize a day. I was hoping that he would do well enough so Daddy could be there to see him get his bike. The day Daddy left for training (he left at midnight) Niran had a few accidents because he wanted to play instead of going potty.

The morning after Daddy left for training he did it! It was the second trip to the bathroom for the day. It seemed like ages before he went. I was so excited I had the bike setup outside for him, but he just did not need to go this morning. I was even loading him up on fluids.

Yay! He did it! I told him that we needed to go get his bike. He was so excited talking in Niranese. Put his shoes on and tried opening the door before I was ready.

Sitting outside was his bike & helmet. He was so excited and got on & rode for a little while, but it was a bit warm so I brought him and his bike inside so he could ride around for awhile.

All the hard work paid off. We had one set back when he broke his leg. It was really hard getting his chonies off over his cast as well has trying to get him in the bathroom quickly. The accidents became too frequent and I did not want issues with his cast so back into a diaper he went. Once he was out of his cast he knew exactly what to do. We still have night time training to do, but we're waiting a few more months to start that.