Wednesday 8 February 2012

I'm forever blowing bubbles...

I've often heard Mummy bloggers being criticised for just writing about potty training. The truth is that it is such a big thing when you have little ones - when it goes well you want to shout out to the world about it, when it doesn't you are desperate for help, advice and reassurance.

I've only briefly mentioned our potty training adventure, and from reading that you might think that we have long had it all sorted. The reality has been a little different. Although we've been pretty much sorted with the Number 1s for a good while, Harry has refused to do Number 2s anywhere but in the night time nappy or pants. Obviously this hasn't been much fun for any of us, and while we've been lucky in the sense that it generally only happens once a day, it's not a pleasant thing to have to deal with. I've tried not to make a big thing of it - I don't want to make the issue any worse than it is, and from what I've seen online and from talking to friends it's a very common problem.

However a few days ago we had a bit of a breakthrough, thanks to a tip that I read online, so I'm sharing it here in case anyone reading is in the same situation. When you know that they are due to do one - get them to sit on the potty and blow bubbles! It didn't work the first time, but after a couple of false starts we've not had an accident for several days, which is amazing! Of course we've followed up with plenty of praise and tangible rewards.

The only problem is that now we now have a situation where Harry thinks that the only way to produce something in the potty is to blow bubbles...but quite frankly I prefer that to the alternative!

6 comments:

  1. Perhaps you should make it clear, I think you mean 'blow bubbles' with a bubble blowing wand and soap solution! It is nice to know that it works though, who would have thought it?

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  2. I would absoutely recommend it, many months of washing out dirty pants is not at all fun! Good luck with the potty training! And yes I did mean blowing bubbles with a wand!

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  3. Sounds like you have nearly cracked it! I have to say, I think potty-training my boy was the hardest part of parenting so far. Ultimately it's virtually impossible to force them to poo in a potty/loo and I found the whole thing so frustrating. Thankfully, son is now dry both day & night - I just have his rather erratic spraying of the loo to contend with!! Boys eh?!

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  4. I was dreading potty training right from the beginning, and it wasn't as easy as I had hoped...but hopefully looks like we've got it sorted now! He's not dry at night yet though.

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  5. I wish I'd heard this tip sooner - although I will keep it at the back of my mind just in case....this poo business really is more common that we realise, when it was happening to my daughter 5-6 years ago I felt like she was the only one that pooed in her pants....there really should be some kind of support group as it is the most stressful part of parenting in my opinion.
    I hope Harry continues to make progress and your days of being on poo watch drift into the past x

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    1. I really hope that it helps someone! No-one talks about the poo in pants issue, luckily my friend that works in a nursery assured me that it is very common. Harry just needed the confidence to do one in the potty and he hasn't looked back since, which is brilliant. As a bonus he is also usually dry at night now too (albeit often with a night time run to the toilet!).

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