Potty Training Update

WARNING: This post contains a lot of discussion about poop.

The boys have been without diapers for about three weeks now and overall they are still doing well. As expected, things have shifted a bit as they moved back into their normal routine at school during the week. We found that Adam was having trouble staying dry through his naps so we had to send him with pull-ups to reduce the amount of laundry that was coming home. His teachers are monitoring him and letting us know whether he was wet or dry afterwards. Once he is consistently dry we will stop sending the pull-ups. I think he’s just having an issue controlling it in his sleep, especially since they nap right after lunch (and drink) time.

Both of the boys have had a few accidents because they were either on their way to the bathroom and couldn’t make it or made it to the bathroom but couldn’t keep it in the toilet. Zachary actually wet himself because he stubbed his toe on the way to the bathroom. It’s sad, but kind of funny too. Both have had a couple of incidents where they are so excited that they don’t pay attention and then end up standing in a puddle. Adam recently had the poop literally scared out of him during a fire drill as well; that was an interesting one.

Speaking of poop, we are seeing some real progress with Adam now that he is potty trained. We’ve had him on anywhere between a half and full dose of Miralax for over a year now just to keep him regular. Without it he wouldn’t poop for three or four days at a time. By that time he was already in lots of pain and we’d have to give him laxatives so that he would literally explode. We tried talking to him and encouraging him to no avail. We hated having him on the medicine and tried multiple times to take him off of it but every time we lowered the dose he stopped pooping again. The worst part of the whole thing was that he was terrified of pooping. He didn’t want to do it. When we went to see a specialist he said it is a behavior, it’s common, and it usually goes away after potty training. I hope he’s right. For the last week Adam has really been showing positive signs. He tells us that he has to poop, he pushes, and sometimes he actually goes. We have reduced his Miralax to about 60% as a result (and because he was pooping his pants because he couldn’t control it). Hopefully over the next few months he really gets into the habit and we can take him off that stuff.

Still speaking of poop, Zachary has some poop issues of his own. He has always been the opposite of Adam in that regard. Fill Adam with laxatives and he won’t poop; put Zach in the same room with an ounce of apple juice and its like he has the flu. Zach has enjoyed potty training so much that he’s become obsessed with pooping. He probably poops 6 – 8 times a day! Sometimes he squeezes and squeezes, grips and grab, only to push out a pellet the size of a piece of dog food. So while we are telling Adam that he should poop more, we are telling Zachary that he should poop less. It’s crazy!

Overall the boys are doing very well. They are in pull-ups when we go out on the weekends and at night, but we are constantly monitoring them to see when they are ready for underwear full-time. We could probably take most of our trips out of the house without a pull-up. I was originally terrified that using a public bathroom would be terrible, but we’ve done it a few times and it’s not too bad. We have a fold-up seat that fits in our backpack that makes it really easy. Zach could probably lose the pull-up at night as well; he was usually dry even in diapers. We’ll probably wait until they are better settled at school before we worry about pull-ups at home It’s been almost a month so I guess it’s safe to call – THE TAYLOR BOYS ARE POTTY TRAINED!