Book Review: "Oh Crap! Potty Training" By Jamie Glowacki

Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


There are so many things to say about this book. First of all, I wish I had read it when my son was potty training at age 3 (or, actually, before that, but whatever). He wasn't hard to train but because we waited so long it took forever (like months). With my daughter? She's 27 months old, and is completely, 100% day and night potty trained. It took less than a month.

Anyway, enough about my kids. Jamie lays out the facts for you. She goes in-depth into the basic blocks of readiness about going to the bathroom (from "clueless that it's happening" to "hm, something happened" to "uh, I did something" to "oh, hey, I need to pee/poop"). She addresses the steps to assessing your own child's "readiness" and how to go about it. While she does have some steps that I disagree with (like no underwear at all for a week or two) she encourages every parent to tweak her protocol to fit their child. She discourages rewards, but acknowledges that they are fine if you want to use them. There are chapters devoted to poop, to EC, to special circumstances. She even tells you how to defeat the dreaded bedtime "I have to pee six million times" stalling tactic (which frankly, I desperately needed!).

Every parent looking to potty train should read this book. It is a little hard to track down because you have to buy it through the author's website, but maybe if enough people buy it then it will become more readily available.

***


I did win this book though a giveaway on Erica's blog a while back. You should check her out, she is awesomesauce. 

Also, for more information about Ms. Glowacki's book, check out her website. 

The Finer Points of Pooping on Cows

J lost tooth #2 at his cousin's 4th birthday party on Saturday. There was a bouncy castle with a slide inside, and he somehow bit it (haha) on the way down and knocked out his tooth. He came running up to C and said "Daddy!! I went down the slide, and hit my face, and here's my tooth!" For the record, the tooth was already loose and nearly ready to fall out, so he wasn't actually hurt by the ordeal.

The tooth is in the baggie. I made him get out of the piñata line to get his picture. I'm so mean. (He didn't lose his place, the other kids were nicer than I am.)


The bouncy castle was a big deal for Dee too. She had lots of fun, as long as nobody bigger than her was in there at the same time.

 

Now, I bet you want to know about the pooping on cows. I mean, surely, I would never have included it if I didn't mean for you to find out about it, right?

On the way home today, Dee informed us that she needed to poop. This is a big deal, as she is potty trained now and we weren't quite home yet. So I asked if she needed to go right now, and she said "No, I need to poop...on a cow."

"On a cow?" I was bemused.

"Yes, me need poop on a cow."

This inspired an entire discussion about the uh...technical details of pooping on cows. We asked what she thought would happen if she pooped on a cow. She mentioned the stinky part, and said it would stick to the cow. J chimed in, wiser older brother that he is, and pointed out that it would depend on what *kind* of poop was going to be landing on the cow as to whether or not it would stick. At this point I was laughing pretty hard. Then Dee said "Moo" and I laughed so hard I cried. It was one of those moments you never expect, and then BAM, you look like an insane person riding in a car while your children discuss the finer points of livestock defilement. 

Moo.

And He's Potty Trained.

J, not C. I mean, of course C is potty trained, but I am talking about J. At just shy of 3 years and 1 month old, he is 100% potty trained. It's amazing. I feel like we're wasting pullups at night because he's been dry every night for the last 4 nights (and more than 4 naptimes), but they are too flimsy to reuse. He has occasional accidents, but he can ride in the car for 2 hours and not pee in his pants. It's amazing. Really, it was not as hard as I expected. I thought potty training would last for months and months, which it sort of did, but not once we began in earnest. I knew J was ready. He could hold it, and he'd tell us that he needed to pee, but then if we said we were taking him to the potty, he'd say "No, I'm just going to pee in my diaper." Frustrating? Yes. I even requested a book from inter-library loan on finding the right method for potty training your child. We haven't gotten the book yet. I may still read it, but I'm not thinking it's going to tell me much since we're pretty much done. Our tricks?

1. We waited, probably longer than we had to, before giving J the diaper ultimatum. We told him on Friday January 21 that we were packing up his diapers and there would be no more (however, that weekend we had a lot of parties and things to go to, so he did wear a diaper a couple times that weekend) other than at bedtime. We let him pick out some special underwear (he picked Yo Gabba Gabba, because there are monsters and a robot, though he's never seen the show). By Monday he was mostly diaper free. On my birthday (Saturday 1/29) he was 100% accident free. He did have some power struggles with Daddy on Friday, and he ran around "with his butt hangin out" (i.e. sans pants and underpants). Sunday there were a few accidents, but we were at his cousin's house and there was a lot of chaos, so we ended up setting a timer for every 40 minutes to make sure he went pee in the potty. No more accidents after that. He had one incident at daycare on Monday where he pooped in his pants, but that was it. No accidents since then.
2. Skittles. Apparently they make great potty treats. 1 for peeing, 2 for pooping, a bonus treat for washing his hands.
3. Upping the ante. Let him pee on the big potty (standing up). Still refusing? Offer him a target. We use a square of toilet paper, but I have torn it into creative shapes (ok, a heart, or a circle) as added incentive.
4. Give him things to do while he's pooping. J gets bored in the bathroom, so he actually has gotten so that he brings his frog potty out to the living room, sits by Daddy (while C is on the computer) and hangs out while pooping. I figure we'll work on getting him to stay in the bathroom at some point, but for now, it's all good. If anyone has ideas (he's vetoed reading books) I'd love to see them!

Three

The number of times J has peed in his potty this evening, while watching a movie. I don't think he's quite back to 100% after being sick last week (had a fever and just wasn't a happy camper) so he's watching Ice Age II while I play on the internets and make dinner. Anyway, apparently just removing the pants of this child makes him use the potty. A LOT. Now if only he'd start telling me all the time when he needs to go potty...