Potty training wave 2

In the Christmas vacation we geared up Beertje's potty training again.   He started 10 months ago when he turned 2 at home and in the daycare with the introduction of a potty. Rather casually he got to sit on it regularly, got stickers if by coincidence something happened etc.   He sat along with other children of his age...who took off their diaper by July. But he just sat there for hours as if it was a stool, casually , and nothing happened.  In the summer filled with heat waves, he spent most weekends outside without trousers with a potty nearby ...but not much happened in the potty.  We bought him new underwear but he stayed indifferent by it all. We really had the feeling he had no clue when he had to pee and therefore could not control at all when what was happening where.

As I feared he'd need to change clothes in class 4-6 times a day, we agreed with the teacher that he'd come to school in diaper pants so he could join the other children when they all went to the toilets.  And he happily joined them and usually nothing happened and the teacher confirmed he'd probably wasn't ready.   So we continued to ask him a few times per day to sit on the a potty but we let him wear diapers without too much more pressure or attention on the topic during autumn.

And each time we ran out of diapers, we wondered how many of them we should buy again.  In December we had another 2 big boxes delivered.

After 4 months and a free week at home in our agenda we decided to give it another try and check if things were different.  Clearly potty training isn't so handy in winter time when all accidents are due to happen inside (and potentially on the sofa's...thank goodness we hardly have any carpet) but we survived that with Kabouter as well.  We left to the Ardennes after Christmas with a trolly suitcase with all Beertje's pants as I don't have a laundry machine over there.  The first day the heating was full of drying hand-washed pants.   But the number of washed pants decreased and the number of successes increased.  Sometimes he announced himself he had to go to the toilet...often when that wasn't the case, but clearly his awareness had changed. This time he was more interested in getting some new underwear and to put it on like the big boys. The weekend before school started again, he only had one accident as long as we regularly asked him to go to the potty or toilet.

But at the start of school, the teacher would welcome a whole new group of young little children that go for the very first time to school in her class. It didn't seem the right moment to drop Beertje without diaper in her class as well and let her deal with the likely accidents and change of clothes. So he went back in diaper pants as always even though the teacher would focus more on his successes when going to the toilet.   By the end of the week I noticed the number of accidents at home on the rise again, which was frustrating for everyone.   On top of that Beertje started to panic to poo (with or without diaper) and was visibly more stressed.

As I happened to run into his teacher on Sunday, we discussed his potty training and his changed awareness and reactions. Since she had a student teacher in the class, she had a bit more time on her hands and we decided Beertje would start going to school without diaper.  And now we are one week later with only 3 real accidents in 5 days. That's a lot less laundry than I anticipated. Success still mainly relies on an adult taking him to the toilet on regular intervals, but he has surprised us 3 times as well by interrupting his play and going to his potty on his own initiative without any comment . Woot woot, I think we are finally succeeding.

So it was a really positive week, although Beertje had suffered from a lot of tantrums and separation fear. For the first time he really protested in the morning to go to school during 2 days. Probably the entire process and all those adults checking up on him are rather stressful to him (even though it worked!).   On top of that he crashed with a little bike in school , leaving him with a rather bruised nose and forehead. Poor little thing.  That's a lot in a week.  But next week will be easier already.