Monday, April 25, 2011

Maeve... and the potty. Part 500?

I can't believe I am even still addressing this issue with Maeve, but potty training- yes, potty training is just not happening like it should.  There is something clearly wrong here.  And both Maeve and I are incredibly frustrated.

Last week we had a "poo poo" party for Maeve because she decided she wanted to poop in the potty.  That lasted one night.  The next day, she was asking for a diaper again.  I decided to cut the diapers cold turkey.  I had been "allowing" her to poop in a diaper, not really pressuring her to poop on the potty a ton.  But the kid is almost 4... its time to poop on the potty.  I'm sure you all can guess what happened when I banned diapers and made her wear panties... eventually yes, she pooped in those. 

And just recently, she's been having a ton of pee accidents.  This post was prompted by an accident she just had- I literally JUST put new underwear on her (she pooped in her pants) and five minutes after putting the undies on she called out, "Oh no I peed!"  What in the WORLD?????

I am just at a loss here.  I stay home with them all day.  Meaning, I am here to work with her 24/7.  She gets rewards and tons of praise for going on the potty each and every time.  When she does have accidents, we always keep calm and say something like, "That's okay, next time you need to tell me if you need to poop/pee...etc."   She hates peeing her pants.  That's the thing I don't understand.  She is embarrassed, and wants them changed right away.  After she has an accident, its like her confidence is shot or something?  She will not put undies back on.  All she wants is a diaper. 

So this is the cycle we've been going through for months and months now.  I can't imagine it should be this hard. 

I started thinking, and it hit me- hard- I realized that she could be having some bladder issues.  I grew up with horrible bladder problems.  I was in and out of the doctors, specialists, hospitals, etc. growing up because I had a problem with having accidents.  It was more of a problem of feeling the need to go vs. not feeling the need to go, and this was caused by never-ending bladder infections.  

I made a doctors appointment for her to get checked out.  Of course, I don't want her to have a bladder problem, but it would almost be a relief to have an answer as to why this is just not working. 




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5 comments:

Jessy Schoch said...

Ashley, reading this I thought of a kidney/bladder problem before I even got to that part!! I know Harrison had the same problem Emily had, his was corrected by surgery but the Dr. had often told me before that that he could have problems with "holding" it!! I'm so glad you're getting it checked out, I had u/s done on the other kids to make sure their kidneys looked good since it does seem to be hereditary. We were just lucky and caught Harrison's during one of his last u/s in the womb. Don't get too discouraged though, it will happen when you least expect it!!

I always seem to write a long comment..sorry!!

The Paulk's said...

Great idea! It really can't hurt to get her checked out, just in case. Then you'll know what exactly is going on (like, is there something more than her just being stubborn?). Good luck. If the doc says everything looks good, then I suggest not even making diapers an option. She may have accidents, but if she knows that even if she has an accident that she's not getting a diaper NO MATTER WHAT (even at night) she'll probably get it!! :)

Catherine said...

Good idea getting her checked out. We had some trouble potty training our daughter and I know you didn't ask for it, exactly, but here's what worked for us. We had to start taking her ever 30 minutes just to try. Then we increased it to an hour after she got good at the 30 minute thing. We always said "we're just going to go try." Then we started a potty chart. I made it a week at a time on construction paper. She got a little smiley face sticker when she peed on the potty and then a big star sticker if she pooped. That really was great incentive for her! Eventually she began telling us she had to go potty, and we had to be VERY watchful at when she acted like she had to poop cause I think for some reason that's harder for kids to control or let you know before hand.

Hope you have good luck soon. And yes, I would agree, just totally get rid of diapers. We went cold turkey on diapers after the first couple of weeks and it helped A LOT!

You can do this! You'll feel so proud once she gets it, and so will she!

Oh yea and after maybe 6 months of the potty chart we stopped using it as much and then after a maybe a week or 2 straight of no accidents she got a special toy for being potty trained. Every now and then she'll have a random accident but otherwise she does great.

Good luck!

Catherine said...

not 6 months, 6 weeks, sorry!

Leslie Collins said...

I think that you are smart by getting her checked out. Keep me posted today.