The Poop Jar

While Ella has been pee potty trained for quite some time, she's still not pooped in the potty. Oh sure she did it a few times in the beginning but they weren't really successes, because they really just made her more scared. So we backed off because I was afraid she'd hold it in with the veracity that she held her pee in, and we'd have a real medical issue on our hands.

But when your child knows she needs to poop and afterwards says, "Mom, I pooped. You need to change my bum." And while changing her she reminds you to "Make sure you don't get any poop on your hands mom." You know it's time. And although this might be completely unrelated...when your toddler tells you she's "building a cantilever" and she actually is...she can probably go poop in the potty.

Now, just so you don't think we're totally being played...she does have some sensory processing issues that make change and new sensations very anxiety provoking. But we're working with someone from CDS and we've learned so much about small little things to do and changes to make that have made a WORLD of difference in just a few months time. But I'm still bound and determined to have her FULLY trained befor three.

So, in light of all that, we decided to wait until after all of our summer traveling was done...which was A LOT. We made a social story about it and read it a lot. We prepped her for it, telling her after we get back from camping, Pull-Ups are gone and she'd be pooping in the potty. We returned from camping and she participated in getting rid of the Pull-Ups. Then we went over the system with her and introduced the Poop Jar (thanks Kristie for the great idea!).

Once she fills the Poop Jar up with pom-poms she gets to take a trip to York's Wild Animal Kingdom. We scoped it out online and she's super excited. She said the kangaroo was her favorite animal so a picture of him made it on the jar.

So she gets to put one pom-pom in for every time she sits a while and tries. (This is difficult for her because up until now, she's run around for a good 1/2 hour to work out her poo.) And she gets to put 5 pom-poms in if she actually goes. She also gets a swedish fish and m&m's for an immediate reward when she goes.

I thought I was in for another long battle...but it's not been so bad. We implimented this on Sunday when we returned from camping and she resisted that day and most of the next, holding it in and clearly becoming uncomfortable. But then, on Monday, she did it! It still scares her, but she did it again today! I think this will prove to be much less of a struggle than I thought! Yay!