He’s been eating a lot of brownies…

Warning:  This post is about poo.  If you don’t like to discuss poo (you probably don’t have kids or you’re past this stage of kid raising or you’re just WAY more mature than I am) then I won’t be offended if you don’t read further.  You were warned.

The Roc has finally accomplished something I’ve been waiting a LONG time for: Pooing in the POTTY!! YAY!

A year ago he starting peeing in the potty.  All I needed to offer were a few GFCF chocolate chips and the boy got it done.  No problems.  No accidents.  Easy.  He’s been peeing in the potty ever since, standing up even!

My second, and much larger, hurdle was to get him to poo in the potty.  No amount of chocolate chips could entice him.  We took away all sweets and offered them as a reward for pooing in the potty.  No effect.  We promised toys.  Nothing.  We told him we would take him to his favorite restaurant (a Mexican place that serves tortilla chips – CORN overload).  Nada. GC even tried to force him.  Remember this post?  After the pooy underwear I decided I would let it go for awhile, because that’s just not fun to clean up, and I’m a cheap girl, I’m not buying new underwear every time he has that kind of accident!!  I did leave a box of brownies on the back of the toilet as a reminder for the Roc.  He would even tell me “I’ll get brownies if I poo in the toilet.”  but it still wasn’t working. That brownie mix sat on the back of the toilet for many, many months (don’t worry, it didn’t expire, but I did have a few friends ask me if I knew I had brownies in my bathroom).  I couldn’t think of anything that would get him to “go.”  Very frustrating.

Then, as we were coming up to the year mark of successfully peeing in the potty I had a “light bulb” moment.  The POOL!! The Roc LOVES the pool.  It’s what we do all summer long.  He can hardly wait to get there.  It’s what he’s been talking about for weeks!  I wondered if that could be the reinforcer that would get the job done, so to speak.

As the weather started to get nicer the Roc started talking about the pool.  I casually told him that there is a rule that little boys his age would only be allowed to swim in the pool if they were potty trained, pooing in the toilet, full time.  He didn’t like that idea and had a slightly terrified look in his eyes and said “that wouldn’t be good.”  I gently reminded him every time (many times a day) when he would bring up how excited he was to go to the pool when it opened.

Two weeks ago the Roc told me he had to poo while we were reading some books.  I, very animatedly, told him that I REALLY wanted to make those brownies downstairs and if he would only poo in the toilet we could make them!  AND he would get to go to the pool when it opened–very soon!!  He got very excited and said he wanted to use the toilet.  Once seated upon said toilet he burst into tears and started screaming that he wanted to get down, that he didn’t have to “go.”  I decided not to back down and told him I knew he had to “go” and he was going to use the toilet.  Lots of screaming followed.  He got on and off the toilet a gazillion times, while I physically blocked his escape from the bathroom.  After about an hour, (literally!), and lots of tears, he finally went!!!  Whew!

We immediately went downstairs and made those brownies.  He was thrilled to have a brownie (it had been months and months).  We had the same sort of struggle with him the next day (lots of crying and screaming and my butt fell asleep from sitting in the hallway because I wasn’t allowed to leave his sight) but after a few days the fight seemed to go out of him and he “got it.”

At the end of last week we went over and signed up for the pool and I took him swimming both Saturday and Sunday for a few hours each.  He was in heaven.  He is so proud of himself, he spontaneously told our neighbor that he poo’d in the toilet so he got to go to the pool.  He even told his horseback riding instructor!  Pretty funny!

I am just so happy.  No more icky diapers for me to change!!  I’m still giving him brownies, but only once a day, and never before a meal.  I know that I’ll have to fade this out eventually, but I think I’ll wait until after our Minnesota vacation.  I don’t want any regression on this great new skill!

ps: don’t worry, I didn’t take any pictures of this potty training experience, though I will admit the thought crossed my mind, but only to totally gross out my sister.  I’m camea happy, but not that crazy!