Potty Training times 3

Posted on June 5, 2007 and filed under Uncategorized

When I decided to become a mother, I did not expect to end up with triplets. The struggles of being a mom were now compounded times three. Potty training was a stage which I dreaded. How am I going to train three kids to go to the potty at the same time? It was a daunting stage and I knew I had to be prepared.I have to say my potty training adventures were less then glamorous; I started out with the best intentions. Having heard all the stories from other mothers, my outlook was a bit dim. I remember my mother telling me how my brother was a late bloomer in the potty training department. He was only 18 months old. Times have changed and the average age to start potty training is now around 2 to 3 years old. Therefore, around the age of 2.5 I decided to potty train my trio. I did my research; I bought the potty training books, and the movies. I bought three potties, and thoroughly read “Potty training in a day,” and hoped it would happen as easily as that book made it out to be.

I received all kinds of advice from friends who already potty trained their children, “Let them run around naked” or “try a sticker chart as a reward system.” I decided to start by bringing out the potties to get them used to the whole idea. Oh, they loved them; they moved them right in front of the TV and started watching their favorite TV shows. Time for a trial run; results – Potties: Empty, Carpet: Full. My oldest daughter, by 1 minute, seemed to be more ready than my son and other daughter, whom both had no care for it at all. Therefore, for a few days I focused on just my oldest daughter and noticed she did not want to do this alone, she wanted to go back to diapers like her brother and sister. I put up all the potty training gear, except the movies and decided to wait a couple of months. I did not want to rush or force it. To keep the idea in their heads, I would occasionally put on the “Once upon a Potty” movie. The kids loved it. So after a month or so I decided it give the whole potty training task a go again. I told my husband we were going to make a weekend of it. My goal was to have them potty trained before three, and their 3rd birthday was coming up fast. We marked the calendar for the up coming weekend as “Potty training.” This time we had a potty training doll, she came with her own little potty. Saturday morning came around; we started the day by telling the kids that they were big kids now and no more diapers. We did purchase some of the “pull ups” disposable training pants, which are nothing more then a glorified diaper, but it does give them a sense of being a “big kid,” but without the mess.

At home, they were to stay in their underwear, and the pull-ups were saved for public outings and nighttime. Since I was training 3 and I had a boy in the bunch, I decided to use the term “underwear” for all three. I really didn’t want my son running around asking for dry panties, even though it was funny when he did one afternoon. The weekend came and potty training commenced with our training doll. We showed them how she could urinate or “pee“in the potty and get praise afterwards this made them very excited. They were ready, they had on their brand new “big kid” underwear and they ran off to sit on their potties, they sat, giggled, talked, soon became bored, and walked away from them. Eventually all three had accidents. I figured if I could just get one to pee in the potty they would realize how exciting it would be. I moved the potty chairs into the living room so they could either watch TV or look at a book. In addition, when potty training triplets, the more space the better. Eventually the oldest of the three went pee in one of the potties. The excitement was huge. We cheered and clapped. We were all dancing around this pee-filled potty, as if it was a right of passage in a ritual celebration.

We continued for the rest of the day by having the kids sit and wait on the potties, then get up and play, and then back on the potties. I think they all at least peed in a potty at least once that day. It took about a good week for them to get the whole idea of peeing in the potty every time they had to go. Accidents were common place for awhile, and reminding them was a constant new task of mine, but we were making progress. By no means did it happen overnight.

For my three, having a BM(Bowel Movement), or “pooping” in the potty was a bit frightening to them. My son learned how to urinate sitting down first since I heard that made the transition to learning to have a BM in the potty easier for boys. All three had no desire to “poop” in the potty. I did some more research and decided to use a “special toy” as the reward. It ended up being a simple “kids meal” toy from McDonalds, and ironically enough it was the turtle from “Finding Nemo” named “Squirt”. Squirt went on top of the TV, and we explained how they would get to play with him if they had a BM in the potty. Whenever mommy or daddy went to the toilet, we would come out and say, “We pooped in the potty” and we would grab the toy and play with him. How the tears flowed. They became envious, as they really wanted to play with this toy. Since they could not play with this toy at all, unless they had a BM in the potty, it became the object of their desire. A few days later, one of my daughters decided she was going to BM in the potty. She was so happy when she finally did it. She wanted to show her brother and sister what she did; she was cheering and dancing around her potty. She received much praise and was able to play with the very special toy. Again, there was sadness from the other two, as they really wanted to play with that toy. However, from that day forward my daughter never had another BM accident, although she would still have the occasionally pee accident from time to time. From my research, boys were tougher to potty train than girls were, and I was concerned for my son, as he tends to be constipated, but within a day of my first daughter learning to BM in the potty, he figured it out too.

Now that two were having BM’s in the potty for over a week, my last one still didn’t want to do it. She was somewhat scared of it. I figured if she would just do it once in the potty that she would be like the others and be trained quickly, but getting her to do it the first time seemed to be a real chore. All the horror stories that you hear about potty training were happening with her. When ever she had to BM, she would go and hide and BM in her underwear.

We told her that going in her underwear was not what big kids did. Therefore, she decided when she had to go she would take off her underwear and go on the floor. She was no longer having a BM in her underwear so I gave her credit for that, but the floor was not what we wanted either. Whenever she had an accident, we would have her help us clean it up and place in the toilet and we showed her that BMs goes in the toilet or her potty, not in her underwear or floor. We continued to praise the other two in hopes she would strongly desire to play with the toy. I almost gave up when she decided to do artwork with the one of her many accidents. Luckily, she did BM in the potty and received her reward of playing with the special toy. For a few weeks afterwards, we still had our share of the occasionally pee accident, but for the most part they were trained, and by their 3rd birthday, Mission Accomplished.

Some tips:

*Every child is different; don’t feel bad if your child doesn’t get the concept right away. Most children aren’t ready until they are over 2, some take as long as age 4.

*There are lots of potty training tools, books, DVD, toys. Most potty training books for parents and child can be checked out at the library, as well as DVD’s. A simple “drink and wet” doll can be purchased for under $10

*Make sure potty training is a pleasant experience, never scold or scare you child into using the potty.

*Soft rings that fit on adult size toilets can make the transition from little potty to toilet easier

*Rewards worked excellent for us. Some examples are: A fun toy, stickers/sticker chart. M&M candies, a special new pair of “big kid” panties/underwear.

– By Lora Huntington – Mother to Triplets