The Potty Diaries

Yep, potty training.  That part of parenthood that is unavoidable, sometimes messy, and can even make adults want to run and hide, but that’s only if you’re one of the lucky ones.  Yes, lucky ones.  Parents not dealing with a child who seemed to have no concept of the difference between wet and dry and would spend all day in a messy diaper if I didn’t catch her and wrestle a clean diaper on her.

Our pediatrician made sure that I was thinking about starting potty training during A’s last check up.  Not in a pushy-you-should-really-start-this-now way, but more of a this-might-take-her-longer-to-grasp-than-most-kids-so-start-the-introduction-now kind of way.  While I completely understand and mostly agree with that assessment, I balked.  Why?  Did I not want to push my daughter into something before she was ready?  Did I think it would be too much of an upset to her routine to try to add potty breaks?  Yes and yes.

Let’s face it, when you have a child who is already majorly resistant to routine changes and attempt to add something major in while getting another child ready for school it’s nothing short of a recipe for disaster.  Okay, maybe not disaster, but a massive headache at least.  I figured the smartest and probably easiest thing to do was to wait until school was out and I could devote my full attention to potty training.  That was my fabulous plan.

Wait, hear that?  That would be the sound of my fabulous plan flying out the window.  Yep, A went and decided to start potty training on her own.  I blame the Huggies pull on diapers.  I bought some to try since changing A’s diaper is a bit of a challenge, especially when we are out and about.  Apparently, after wearing them a few times A decided she liked the “big kid” feel much better.  Next thing I knew, she wanted to use the potty.  Granted, it has still been a slow process.  As eager as she is to use the toilet, we still are taking it slowly.

Initially, A wanted to use the toilet as much as possible, but she was having trouble with the transition between play, potty break, and back to play so I made her slow down.  After spending a couple weeks slowly adding one more bathroom break every few days, she has finally settled into a routine and can handle the transitions.  I figure she must be really determined to do this because usually it takes her longer to acclimate to a schedule change.  Of course, the promise of Minnie Mouse underwear might have something to do with that…

So far, she has been doing really well with potty training.  We’ve had a bit of a set back this week since she has been sick, but since she is still staying dry through naps and for most of the day and using the potty when she’s feeling up to it, I’m not complaining.

This is a major triumph for A.  From everything I had heard and read, kids with SPD can be very difficult to toilet train.  So far, A has been the opposite.  Granted we still have a long road ahead, especially given her extreme dislike of public toilets (too noisy), but I think that with some patience and a good set of earplugs, we’ll make it.