A few months ago I read about a technique called naked potty training. In three days your child was supposed to be miraculously toilet trained. What did we have to lose?

Parker has been showing us all the signs of readiness for quite some time. Every time he sits he is productive. Every once and a while he'll even tell us when he has to go.

So Friday morning we went sans pants and diapers and gave it a shot. He did REALLY well. One accident in the morning but it was totally my fault- he told me he had to go and while I ran upstairs to get the potty seat he went.

Then on Saturday we had to put clothes on to go over to Manga (the new and hysterical name Pand F have been calling my mother- let me tell you how thrilled she is about it) and Papa's house. Two accidents.

Sunday once again we were naked from the waist down and not one accident. The problem is this: Parker is starting to develop a fear of sorts of using the potty. Because he is not a very verbal child the link from sensation to telling us he has to go just isn't there. To compensate we have to ask him if he needs to potty every 15 minutes. I think it's just too much pressure. Because we don't want him to grow to hate the toilet we're throwing in the towel...or should we? He has done really well but I don't want this anti-potty business to get any worse than it is. Currently, the only way we can get him to use the toilet is to bribe him, i.e. we have to potty before we eat lunch, or we can only watch Dora if we potty first. I'm just not sure that's the right way to do it. I should mention, however, that all three days he woke up dry from naps (we put him in pull-ups for naps and bedtime) and dry two of the three mornings.

What to do? I wanted to try now because there are going to be so many big things happening in the next six months- new "school" in September, big beds sometime in the late fall, and a new baby in January. But maybe we should wait until he gives us more verbal cues that he needs to go...

I was potty trained completely at 17 months (had to brag) but B wasn't until he was almost three (yes, I just threw you under the bus)...so we have time.

Attempt One= pseudo-failure

Posted by Brooke* at Monday, June 22, 2009 |