Potty Training in One Day - Practice Runs

Narmin,

We ordered the potty training in a day kit with Scotty Potty. Everything makes a lot of sense and seems as though it would be very effective. However, my child is not responding to the process that we are using. We followed each step to the tee and it just doesn't seem to be working for us. At first, Josh would squeeze out only a drop because he knew that there would be a big party when he went.

Now that we have gone through all of the steps, he refuses to do even that. He can and does hold himself for hours at a time. His mother and I will tell him that it is time to use the potty.

He will gladly run into the restroom, pull down his underwear, and get on the potty. He will sit there happily as we encourage him to go pee-pee. He will say things like, "I go to the potty." But he just sits there. We read him potty books and continuously try to encourage him.

He will sit there for fifteen minutes and finally get up not having gone a drop. He then pulls on his underwear and almost immediately empties his bladder. I can not express the frustration when this happens.

I know that he has bladder control because of the length of time that he holds it in, he would just rather go in his pants than on the potty. We have strictly followed the 9 time practice rule showing neither excitement nor disappointment in the process.

Joshua just does not mind practicing 9 times. He counts down with us. We have done this well over ten times and he doesn't care. He happily runs to the restroom, pulls down his pants, and hops on the potty. Then, he gets off and pulls on his underwear and yells, "Eight more times!!".

He is almost exactly 30 months and I know that he has the bladder control necessary to hold it. I just don't know what to do. The guide states that the child when find it easier to use the potty than practice going 9 times every time they have a mistake. What do you do, though, if the child doesn't mind the practices?

Please get back to us as soon as possible as I feel my wife and my patience may go out the window along with our sanity and will power. Thank you.

-Kurtis

In the Parent's Potty Training Guide: How to Potty Train in One Day - I talk about choosing the right potty training rewards or consequences for your child - because each child is different - the parent is usually the best person to figure what the best consequences are for their child.

So, generally speaking, doing practice runs is good consequence for wetting underwear. Most children do not like doing practice runs, so it provides the perfect consequence for the undesired behavior of wetting potty training pants and it also builds up the child's muscle memory as s/he practices going to the potty and sitting down on the potty.

But as you have read - this does not work for every child. Some children actually have fun with practice runs. Joshua, would actually count down the runs.

Also,with Joshua, his parent's were reading him books when he sat on the potty. Now this is usually considered a good thing, however, I though that in Joshua's case, he probably enjoyed the reading so much that he was not going potty just so that he could have his parents read to him. Then when they stopped, he could no longer hold it, so he would end up having the accident.

So my suggestion for his parents was to find out what his currency is and then use that instead of practice runs and also to stop reading to him when he was sitting on the potty.

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child must clean his underwear with help (9/20/2009) Reviewer: Dee (CR, IA) It is often helpful to have the child help rinse clean his underwear. I would make sure the main bulk of the poo is gone so it is not fun to play with, but that he must help with the later rinsing that is not fun.