Accident Free

It has been almost a month since Jackie's second birthday. More specifically, it has been almost a month since Jackie has been allowed to wear underwear at daycare. I am happy to report that Jackie is officially day trained with zero accidents (bowel and urination). During the week or so in underwear, her personal cubby at daycare was decorated with a plastic bag during parent pick up, to indicate she had some sort of toileting accident. Now, it has been over 2 weeks of accident-free days. Not only that, she consistently pees and poops in the potty at home and in school, and is requesting both when needed. She used to have bowel accidents even though she was urination trained at home, but it has only been a month of consistently wearing underwear in all environments and she is accident free from both.

Getting day care on board with the reward system from home may have been key. The day I showed her a lollipop at daycare and told her she'd get it if she pooped for her teacher was the first day she pooped in the potty at daycare instead of having an accident. They did say that they couldn't give lollipops anymore because of the choking hazard, so Jackie now gets a sticker for pooping in the potty at daycare and a lollipop in the car on the way home if she has any stickers. She bought into this reward change immediately and gets really excited to show off her stickers when I pick her up.

Last week I bought Jackie a step stool for each bathroom. She is so excited to use the bathroom independently that she requests it much more often or she goes in by herself without getting me first! She can walk in, pull her pants down and sit on the potty without me. I will hear "Mommy, Look!" or "Mommy, I peed in the toy-yit!" and I'll realize she used the bathroom without me. The only problem is, if she uses the potty without requesting me to help, she can't pull up her pants yet. So when she is finished and gets off the toilet, she just waddles and calls out for me. All I have to hear is "Mommy, you do it pants up Jackie"...or some string of relevant out of order words like that.

As for night training: This is day four of her waking up dry!

Happy Toileting,

Jackie 2 Year Milestones

Things have been so busy since we’ve been expecting our second little girl that I haven’t been able to post about Jackie’s behavior or milestones. Since I originally started this as a toileting blog, I thought I should update this to determine if taking her to the potty so early in life was successful in leading her to independence.

She turned two on March 27th, and has been potty trained and only in underwear for months! She initiates and is also taken on a schedule just in case. She earns a fruit snack for peeing in the potty and a lollipop for pooping in the potty. We are very happy we made it a routine early in life so it’s always been a part of her life. We didn’t have to do much training to teach her to be independent because she has been so accustomed to sitting and going from a young age. Yesterday we went to DC to the zoo all day and went to Dave and Busters for dinner until 9pm. She stayed in the same underwear all day—she peed in the potty each time we took her and pooped twice in the potty! I was so amazed and proud of her. She surprises even me with how good she is getting with toileting successfully. This morning was another time where she requested to poop in the potty without just going on a schedule. We are very happy with our decision to toilet her as an infant and to make sitting in the bathroom part of her regular routine. It made my day to see her so successful with toileting, especially when in public all day. She has generalized beautifully.

On the metro on the way home from DC, Jackie was talking to her relatives on the train, saying hello to everyone, singing, and speaking sentences. The woman next to me asked how old she was and I said she just turned two. The woman continued to tell me that she was a Speech pathologist and very impressed with Jackie’s language! That also made my day yesterday! It’s always nice to hear her accomplishments aren’t all in my head because I am her mom!

2 year appointment: As you know I am a board certified behavior analyst, so I have been working hard to help build communication and independence in Jackie. We went to the 2 year pediatrician appointment on her birthday, and the pediatrician was very excited to hear Jackie talking and laughing in the room. They asked me to get her down to her diaper, and were shocked that she was in underwear. I expected her to be shy and not demonstrate her language skills, but she was talking in full sentences to the doctor during the session. To top it off, in the middle of our appointment, she independently went toward the door and said “I have to go sit down potty, mommy” and started opening the door. When we came back from the bathroom, the pediatrician asked for my business card :)

Milestones by her second birthday: She has a very big vocabulary and usually speaks in 5-8 word sentences. We hardly see any tantrum behavior and I believe her language is a big reason for that, because she has learned using her words is easier. She can count in order from 1-13. She knows basic shapes and she does now know her colors yet. She is potty trained and is only in underwear during the day. She only wears a diaper at night (although she often wakes up dry.) Eventually, wearing underwear at night will be our next step in this process.

Happy Second Birthday, Jackie!