Human vs. Canine… Who pooped on the floor?
A week ago, my 22 month old daughter randomly asked to sit on the potty. My husband helped her ditch the diaper, steered her in the direction of the bathroom and promptly got distracted by another task. A few minutes later, she ran into the room and announced she had made pee-pee. Skeptical, he went to check her work and found that shockingly, she had indeed urinated in her potty. A mass text went out to basically every one on my husband’s contact list alerting them to this momentous occasion. I myself announced to everyone at work that Gracelyn had successfully used the potty. The three other employees with children under the age of two expressed their admiration, stating “Wow, she’s so young. That’s amazing!” as I beamed proudly (the other 20 employees at my hospital could care less, they are more dog people afterall). I marveled at the prospect of having a toilet-training savant for a child and got giddy at the thought of all the money I would save not having to purchase diapers for two children at once.
However, as the days have gone on, one thing has become abundantly clear…. I got cocky!
The day after Gracelyn’s epic use of the potty was a complete bust. My husband spent about 6 hours in the bathroom with her with zero success. Being the supporting, loving wife that I am, I just assumed that he wasn’t doing it right and I could be more successful. On my day off, I tackled the challenge head on. I had heard from a friend that if you let your child run around pantless for a weekend, they will potty train themselves quickly.
Gracie was thrilled to run around the house (and outside at times, much to my husbands disgust) completely naked. However, as I was putting her baby brother down for a morning nap, she came tearing around the corner in distress stating “Poo-poo floor”. She’s barely verbal at this point in her development so I was equal parts shocked and horrified that she had formed enough of a sentence to convey that she had defecated on the floor.
Sure enough, I was led to a pile of human excrement where the turds were GIANT. They resembled what may have been evacuated from an adult (or a small elephant), not a 22 month-old child. Ironically, Gracie had defecated right by the front door, as if she had been waiting to be let outside to relieve herself. And then I got to thinking… what if my geriatric dog, who occasionally has bouts of fecal incontinence, has been falsely accused of dropping a nugget or two in the house? What if all along the culprit was a semi-feral toddler who was setting her up to look guilty?
Over the past week of continued accidents and failed attempts to use the potty, I have resigned to thinking that Gracie is too young and lacks the vocabulary at this point to make potty training successful. However, I worry I am stunting her development by not encouraging her to try to use the potty whenever she states she has to go. If I discourage her from toilets now, will she still be in diapers by the time she’s attending high school? Does it make me a Bad Mom that I consider spending hours in a bathroom with her a poor use of my limited spare time?
I have decided to resort to what I know best… dogs. I’m hoping that the techniques I have successfully used in the past to potty train our puppies can now be extrapolitated to my daughter. My strategy is as follows: Develop a routine that avoids making mistakes, reward good behavior, correct for, rather than punish bad behavior.
Yesterday was the first day of my new philosophy on housebreaking my child. My dreams were crushed when both her and the dog had an accident nearly simultaneously in the house. I am now contemplating laminating our floors in puppy pee pads and absolutely no one is getting a treat after dinner tonight!
