When In A Pinch......

At thirty-eight months, Sugar Bear is to be considered quite a bit on the LATE side of potty training. The truth of the matter is.....we've been working on this since last summer. At the time, she was showing most, if not all, of the classic signs of being ready. We had some success, but nothing too encouraging. I am a firm believer in not pushing a child towards potty training, but at the time, I felt I was on a time constraint. Sugar Bear was supposed to be potty trained to begin at her new daycare/pre-school, when I had to return to work in late August. She just wasn't progressing, and it felt as if I was stressing her out about it. After a bit of discussion with her new care provider, Sugar was off to school in her pull-ups. I had hoped to skip pull-ups all together, but.....I had to do what was easiest for us all.

So here we were 6 months later, and Sugar Bear had ZERO interest in potty training. She would flatly REFUSE to even try to sit on the potty. Believe me.....we had all the tools:
potty chair
toilet ring
4 different potty books (which she loved to read)
Lots of fun underwear (which she picked out)
2 videos (she loves Potty time Elmo)
the Potty Time Elmo Doll

and we used all sorts of techniques. We casually talked about pottying in the toilet every day. I let her "help" me use the potty. She studied her friends at daycare using the potty. We made a chart.....and on it went. She just flatly refused to even sit on the potty. We'd let weeks go by with NO mention of the potty, then we'd just start asking her if she wanted to try the potty. NOPE! sigh....

I got all sorts of advice about bribing her with toys and treats. First off, Sugar Bear has to be one of the least materialistic kids I know. Seriously, you could buy her a fancy new toy and set it aside for her until she earned it....and she'd just shrug at it and walk away. Secondly, I just wasn't that worried about her being potty trained enough to resort to using candy just yet. Honestly I figured she'd potty train when she was ready. The only reason I was even concerned, was she was the ONLY child not potty trained at her school. I was starting to feel guilty, however, I knew that only in her time would it happen.



About three weeks ago, we stumbled onto the perfect motivation for Miss Sugar. We were at a pet store picking up some goldfish for our outdoor trough, when a different type of aquarium caught our eye. Within minutes Sugar Bear was infatuated with HERMIT CRABS. Out of all the pets in that store, these were the ones that she BEGGED for. I told her that I needed to do some reading about them, before I could decide if we could provide them a good home. Not only did I know NOTHING about Hermit Crabs, I was pretty sure she'd forget about them once we left. NOT SO.....this little honey began to earnestly ask me when we could get a Hermit Crab. So I did some research, and decided that THIS might be it.



I explained to Sugar Bear, that Hermit Crabs are a BIG responsibility (not really), and that she needed to show me what a big girl she could be before we got some. Together we made a potty chart that simply asked her to PRACTICE sitting on the potty 10 times, and if she got a BONUS (actually poop or pee in the toilet) we'd get TWO hermit crabs. She was excited and eager. We proudly taped her chart right by the potty, and set to work. It took some convincing that first morning, but she finally sat on the potty. Once she realized that she need only sit there long enough to sing "twinkle twinkle", and it didn't matter whether she produced a product or not, she was more than willing to "practice" 3 times a day.



Within 4 days, she finally peed in the potty. This was huge. She had not peed in the potty since late July. It was thrilling. On the chart, I had actually put "poop in the potty" as the bonus because sometimes, all though rarely, she would sit on the potty when she was already in the process of pooping, so I thought we'd be more likely to get a poop, than a pee. As you can see....she got FOUR pees in the potty, so we headed out and picked up our two newest members of the family.





I am not thrilled with the photos, as Hubby was mortified that I was taking pictures in the pet store, so they are all quick snaps. sigh......what a fuddy duddy. Sugar is VERY proud of her Hermit Crabs, and all is well. I only have photos of the red heart one, as little mister football has buried himself, and needs some quiet time to adjust.



The BIG news....Sugar Bear is 100% pee potty trained. The whole poop thing...well, we are working on it. She is pulling the classic "holding it" maneuver, and with the help of prunes....we may conquer that as well soon. We are so please....her caregiver is pleased, and most importantly, Sugar is so so sooooooooooooooo very proud.



So when in a pinch.......try the Hermit Crab potty training technique. It works. Thumbs up!