Works for Me Wednesday, hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.
Here's a post I've had sitting in my "drafts" for several weeks.
With two relatively easy potty trainings under my belt, I was totally unprepared for my third child's cycle of witholding and constipation that made it nearly impossible to beat. It took some patience and creativity to finally be successful.
First, we tried to associate a pleasant experience with sitting (....and sitting...) on the potty. We had a stack of his favorite books, including a Nursery Rhyme book which came to be affectionately known as, "The Poopie Book." I still worry that my son will always feel the urge to go whenever he hears "One, two, buckle my shoe," but perhaps he can work that out with a therapist.
We also looked at his diet. We cut back on the milk and increased the water, and tried to add more fruits and vegetables. Canteloupe was his favorite fruit and it was just the ticket.
Then, we had to find the right motivation. Stickers, candy, and treats had no effect whatsoever. Not even Superman underwear could entice him into success. Finally, my husband hit on the Eureka idea.
Our son loved to build things. Even at age two and three, he was always trying to put things together. We had some extra bricks laying around from an old building project, so my husband got him all worked up about building a tower with those bricks! One brick for every successful "brick" in the potty, you could say.
It took awhile, but by the end he had a stack of bricks 6 feet tall. We didn't care what the neighbors thought, at that point we were so THRILLED we almost left it up permanently
as a monument to poopie success.
Who'd a thunk? Something so simple could work so well! It was all about finding out what really got him excited and "thinking outside the boxers!"
So, besides candy and stickers, what are some other offbeat motivations you could try?
