Our first stop on this fine* Monday morning was an evaluation with the potty training specialists at Children’s Hospital.
Monkey has a huge fan club at Children’s Hospital, apparently. The NP that we met with today had already heard about how AWESOME he is from the receptionist, lol. It’s really nice to feel so wanted. We were greeted with “It’s my FAVORITE family!” as Monkey stopped at the reception desk to help himself to some Purelle.
The other really cool thing about the NP? She had READ his charts…all the notes from every visit we’ve had, including the ER trip two weeks ago. I can’t even tell you how nice it felt to walk in and not be starting from scratch. I know you folks understand 🙂
She gave us some great tips, wrote a nice letter to the school so we can get them onboard with our plan and advised us to give him Benefiber once a day to try to control the consistency of his movements, that’s the first challenge we need to face. She also mentioned that typically its the bowel movements that are easiest to train for, which really, fine by me. I don’t mind a wet diaper, I can handle those as long as needed but the other, yeah, I’d like to be done there. We go back in 8-10 weeks for a re-evaluation and in the meantime we get to chart. We love to chart around here…any excuse to use Excel!
*It is most definitely NOT a fine day! It’s cold and rainy and after a week of sun and temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s it’s NOT FUNNY. Wah! I want summer!
benefiber is wonderful! can’t taste it or feel it at all. even in a plain old glass of water.
i’m so glad the visit went well. hooray for reading charts!
Sounds great! What tips did they give you?
benefiber is a hit in our house too. I can’t believe she read the charts!!
Her biggest recommendation was the Benefiber, we need a better “consistency” before we can proceed. We were worried that this was an issue but she’s the only evaluator so far who has agreed with us and offered help!
1. Have him sit for 5 minutes after each meal. #2 training usually happens this way. I had no clue, lol.
2. Special bathroom toy that is ONLY used when on the potty. (We’re a bit stuck on this, any idea? A special book is not powerful enough…we need the mother of all toys here.)
3. Use positive reinforcement, small reward for sitting, major jackpot reward for successfully using the potty (either #1 or #2)
4. Set up a chart in 2 hour increments, keep track over the next 8-10 weeks to gauge success.*
5. Try Pull Ups. We had dismissed them b/c Monkey still fits in regular diapers (Size 6!) and b/c they’re not that easy to use and can be messy w/his “consistency” but since he won’t tolerate going naked (he has a FIT if you don’t immediately put a new diaper on while changing him) and so far big boy undies are not welcomed either she thinks this will ease the transition.
I think that’s about it…but I’m going on memory here.
*Funny thing…this is actually what will get Duhdee on board I think. He has so far struggled with keeping a schedule but he’s anal retentive enough that the mere existance of a chart (in Excel of course) will provide the motivation. I married a dork, what can I say?