I never would have imagined that potty training would be so difficult. I am a mother of three wonderful boys. Kaleb is 6, Declan is 3 and Oscar is 2 months old. When I began attempting to potty train Kaleb at 2 years old, he fought me tooth and nail! I tried everything from sticker rewards to bribing with new toys. Nothing was working! I decided to put it off until he showed an interest in the potty again. Well, low and behold, he turned 3 and the interest was still not there. And now we just had another baby! When Declan was 5 months old, I woke up one morning and told Kaleb that he had to give his diapers to Declan because he wasn't a baby anymore. To my surprise, this worked. So we broke out the underwear that I had boxed up and put some on. Well, we went through several pairs of underwear that day. So the next day I decided to try the naked approach that someone suggested to me. Kaleb began to notice when he was peeing and pooping and within two days of doing this, no more accidents! I was amazed. I never would have thought this would work after all the other methods had failed.



So when Declan turned 2, I decided to wait until he turned 3 thinking that he would understand his body better. In between that year though, I began talking to him about the potty and reading books. Then, when I found out that I was pregnant with Oscar, I slacked off because I didn't want him to regress once the baby was born. Declan never showed the first interest and could care less if he was wet or dirty. So, when Oscar was 2 weeks old I started working with Declan once I realized that he wasn't going to be the jealous type. I stripped him down naked and began our proven method. The first 2 days went pretty good with just a few accidents here and there. Then, it stopped working! I had no idea what to do since this method had worked with Kaleb. I decided not to give up though. Well, it came time for him to go on vacation with his older brother to their PaPa's house, 6 hours away! I was nervous, but was confident that Declan would be okay. When he came home we pretty much had to start over. Since the naked method did not work though, I just decided to put underwear on him and see how it would work. Six weeks later and several accidents later, Declan finally started to become aware of his bodily functions. The day I knew we were making progress; I was in the dining room helping Kaleb with his homework and I saw Declan dart out of his bedroom and into the bathroom. I got up to check on him (I thought he was going in to get a toy he had left in there or something like that) and he was sitting on the potty! He sat there for a few minutes and I asked him if he was okay. He then stood up and pointed at the potty and said, "Look mommy, I made big poo-poo!" I have never been so excited about bathroom business in my life as I was at that moment!



My point about this whole process though is, every child is different! You just have to keep working with your child until you find what works for them. If you give up everytime they have and accident, you are not setting a very good example for your children. Show them that if you just keep trying until you get it right, you will be successful! Who knows what method of potty training will work for Oscar, but as long as I don't give up, he'll learn to not give up!