We introduced Oscar to a potty just over a year ago with the intention of accomplishing it before he started preschool in September last year. We bought the potty from Aldi in their baby and toddler event as they had a blue Mickey Mouse one so we bought two, one for upstairs and one for downstairs and then a toilet seat and step as well. Oscar was really excited and he was great on the potty, he knew what it was for but he just full on refused to wear pants! That was absolutely fine though, we didn't want to pressure him so we decided to leave it. We left the potty in the room though so he could still go when he wanted to. We also thought that when he started preschool and he saw his friends have pants on that this would encourage him to wear them too. But it didn't! Our aim was to try again in the Christmas holidays!
We needed a new potty at this point, one that was a bit taller and comfier for him so we searched through Amazon and read lots of reviews and finally found the perfect one! It's called a Fisher-Price Ducky-Potty and has some pretty good features! These include a removable bucket which makes it easy to clean, grasp handles so Oscar can hold himself and feel more secure, a built in splash guard (perfect for boys) and a handle on the back, this makes it easier to pick up, empty and clean. The design is a bright duck face too which makes it fun! You can find similar from here. Oscar loved it and again he did great but even with a star chart, he just didn't want to wear pants! We weren't sure if this was because he hates being in wet clothing like if he spills a drink on him or gets a wet sock, he just gets so upset. When it was raining on Thursday, he was so excited to jump in the puddles but then he was upset because he got wet! So maybe the thought of him having wet pants was making him anxious. The thing is, we knew that as soon as he wore pants for the first time, he would do amazing at it. We tried to put his mind at ease several times but we decided to leave it and try again in February half term. Then lockdown number 3 was announced so we thought we'd give it another go during this time instead! Seeing as we're not allowed to go anywhere, we could concentrate on potty training and have no distractions!
Before we got started this time, we ordered three items off Amazon that we thought would maybe help Oscar overcome his fear -
- A new star chart - this one was big and magnetic so we could stick it to the fridge and have it at his level too. It comes with a lot of magnets as well so there's lots of choice with tasks but it can also be customised with the dry and erase feature! It has honestly been amazing so far and at the moment we just have potty training on the 'I will' list but hoping to add more tasks along the way! You can find it here.
- A new book - I've wrote about this publisher in one of my previous blog posts but Campbell Books have such a good range! We purchased the 'No More Nappies' one which again has been great! Find it here.
- And finally, some new pants! - We have many pairs of pants but my best friend gave me some really good advice, with one suggestion being let Oscar choose his own pants to help him feel excited about it. So of course he asked for Disney Cars ones and thank goodness we found some! They can be found here. We ordered age 2-3 as from reading the reviews, they come up big. And they definitely do but he'll grow into them ha!
This time round, I felt more prepared and felt like this could be it. We showed Oscar the book, read it a few times that night with him and it looked like he was really taking it all in. We spoke to him about wearing pants again and we could see he was getting anxious about it as he was pulling on his lip so instead of putting them to one side again, we worked out a new way to try and encourage him to wear them! A couple of years ago, we bought a big bag of second hand cars for about £5, because in the bundle, there were a few Disney Cars. The rest of them were Hot Wheels cars which Oscar wasn't into at that time so we just put them away upstairs and they were forgotten about, this was until last Tuesday. Now, he is really into Hot Wheels cars and it popped into my head we had this bag somewhere! So we said to him, if he wears pants all day, he can have a Hot Wheels car at the end of the day, after bath time. And this actually worked! We couldn't believe it when he let me put them on him! I only have 35 days worth of cars so hopefully by then we'd have cracked it ha! We're also giving him one star for every time he does something on the potty, and then when he get's so many stars, he get's a treat!
So Tuesday 2nd February 2021 was officially Day One of potty training! He only had 3 accidents but he kept his pants on all day and I felt so proud! Day two - no accidents and I can't believe that I'm saying this and it's so strange but I'm so proud that he did a poo on the potty too! Day three and four - no accidents. Day five - he had a little accident and he got so upset but I reassured him and told him that it's ok, we'll just put a fresh pair of pants on and try again. From day three onwards, he's also been going on the potty without me telling him to as well. I'll walk into the living room to find him sitting on the potty or to find a wee in the potty! He's just been amazing! The next obstacle will be when we're out and about more but I'm just so happy that we've got him in pants to be honest! We did walk down our road and back on Friday with him wearing pants and he was fine!
We've got to the stage now that he can't even be bothered to put a star on the chart himself anymore! After he's done a wee, I'm so excited, clapping my hands saying well done, shall we go and choose a star? And he replies with 'You can do it' and just carries on playing! This is a good thing right?!
