More on Potty Training

Looking Up left a comment the post I did the other day in regards to potty training. She made a couple good points that I forgot to address, so thought I'd address them here.

I'm in total agreement with you on this issue. There's no point in pushing the potty training issue until a child is ready. Potty training may come later for kids with DS not just because they may be developmentally delayed, but also due to the hypotonia that many kids with DS have to contend with. (This includes the bladder muscles!) The reality is, while they may understand the concept of potty training, their little bodies may just not be capable of doing what we ask them to do at age 2 or 3. Incidentally, I have a friend whose "typical" child is 4, (about to turn 5) & nowhere near potty trained yet. :)

Hypotonia can definitely be a HUGE part in the potty training area. We've seen that with Osiyyah. The first few times we tried to potty train him, he'd go a little pee-pee on the toilet, but 10 minutes later be wet. It was like it would just "drip out" if he hadn't finished going all of his pee. But, he wouldn't necessarily feel that he hadn't gone all of it yet.

We even dealt with that when we started potty training him again this last time around, a few weeks ago. He'd go pee on the toilet, and then say "done!", but we didn't think he was quite done yet. So, we'd tell him to wait a little bit and see if anymore will come out. Sure enough just a few seconds later, he'd pee a lot more! Then he'd truly be done. I

t took a little bit of us making him stop to see if he had really gone all of his pee, before he would really get all of it out every time. Every now and then, he'll still think he's done when he hasn't gone all of it. But, it's not as common as it was when we first started a few weeks ago.

His body, muscles and understanding were definitely ready to learn potty training now.

Potty Training

Potty training can be a slower process for some kids with DS. We have worked on it off and on for the last several years. But, we've never pushed the issue, because Osiyyah didn't seem quite ready yet.

We've worked harder at it for probably about the last year. Osiyyah has gotten going poo-poo in the toilet real well and has been good at that for probably the last 6-8 months or so. But, when it came to going pee-pee, it was a lot trickier for him.

So, a few weeks ago, we decided to try him in underwear again and not go back to diapers. He's been doing fantastic. He's had a few accidents here and there, but overall he's been great. I think we're finally done with diapers during the day. He still sleeps with diapers because he'll be dry some mornings, but then wet some mornings.

Osiyyah is 5 1/2 and just now potty trained. We could've pushed the issue when he was younger, but it would not have been easy for him or us. So, we decided to wait and just keep trying. We figured, once he is ready, it will come and be pretty easy for both him and us. And that was the case. It's been very easy to get him potty trained in the last few weeks.

So, there's our experience with potty training :).