Sooo tired of accidents - Potty rant
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Sooo tired of accidents - Potty rant
| Wed, 05-16-2007 - 1:15pm |
Let's see, it is just past lunch and I have changed
| Wed, 05-16-2007 - 1:15pm |
Let's see, it is just past lunch and I have changed
Carey
I'm so sorry. I definitely know how you feel, but I don't know what to say to make it any better except that it eventually will get better. I'm still involved in managing 12yo bowel problems, but as tiresome as it gets, it's soooooo much better than it was than when three kids were in diapers simultaneously, or when I had one in diapers and was still wiping the three older kids' bottoms 'cus they couldn't do it, or when I was getting called to school to clean up ds who'd had complete loss of bowels. It was years and years and years of more pee/poop than I thought I'd ever see. I'm finally finding the light somewhere near the end of the tunnel.
Considering I grew up as an older child of a dozen siblings, changing cloth diapers of younger siblings, with a mom who did daycare, so I changed even more diapers, and I did lots of babysitting outside the home as well as at home, so I changed even MORE diapers, I really thought I'd seen a lifetime of pee/poop. It wasn't even remotely close to what I've experienced with my own kids and their toilet issues!
I think not only is there frustration because of all the mess you're constantly getting to clean up, but there's all the spoken or unspoken judgments about why your kids can't toilet "properly" yet. I've received much unsolicited advice over the years. Do people really think this is fun for us?! (AS dh used that line on me once, "I just don't find cleaning up poop as fun as you do.")
As far as your dd wetting accidents, I personally used double layers of the 5-ply cotton training underpants when I potty trained my kids. It greatly reduced the amount of pee I had to clean up. If you had plastic pants over those, you probably wouldn't have any messes on the furniture at all. (Of course, my own 3.5yo NT dd wet herself twice today. She's generally potty trained and never has accidents at church or preschool, but she gets too involved when playing at home so has phases where she still has lots of accidents. At least she's to the point where she'll change herself, so I don't have to do too much with her messes since most are outside. She's my first who was this potty trained by this age, so I'm considering it my bonus for surviving the other kids' potty training days.)
I hope the kids give you enough occasional good potty days that you survive this phase with your sanity intact.
Just sending hugs to Pam and everyone. I only have one child and I got tired of it too. Like Carey, we had the whole encopresis issue and I too am a "poop" expert with lots of knowledge of miralax, digestive enzymes, fiber, various potty-training methods, and also with great knowledge of ways to get stains out of clothes, rugs, furniture, etc.
Hang in there. I wish I had better advice. For us, with ds (PDD-NOS), it took a full 2 years to potty-train, and it didn't really sink-in until we started a pretty demanding ABA'ish method. Then we had to get the whole encopresis thing sorted out and that actually seemed to be a big part of the problem too. It was kind of like a vicious cycle.
He is now 5 and only now can he reliable "feel" he has to go, sit, do it. He's self-sufficient for no 1. But still has trouble with wiping after bm's etc. He even called me his "wipe helper" the other day. I had to laugh! But at least he doesn't have accidents in his pants anymore, or the totally soaked bedsheets every morning. I feel like getting him to that point was better than earning a PhD! I have a poop PhD!
I know how hard it is. Poop issues are one of those bizarro things, a badge of honor or something, that only parents of ASD kids can relate to. I really, really understand.
Sending you lots of hugs,
Love,
Katherine
Hey Pam, HUGS!
I have not survived (yet), but I'm doing that very thing right now (and with only one child).