This potty training thing has been one of the most challenging things I've ever done as a parent. It is SO much harder potty training a child with SMA than it is a child without. It is physically and emotionally exhausting.
We started last Friday, and luckily Ella quickly learned how to pee in the potty. Unfortunately, being on an all-liquid diet, she needed to go about every 10-15 minutes. If she was sitting on the potty, she'd go there. If she was somewhere else, she'd go wherever she was. She had no idea how to hold it or tell us if she needed to go.
After almost two full days of this, I was about ready to give up. It was too hard and too stressful. But I forced myself to push through, knowing that I had given myself all of Spring Break for this process.
Luckily, by the end of the day on Saturday (the second day), she started holding it longer and even sometimes telling us that she needed to go. From that point on, she never had a pee accident again :)
And then there's the poop.
Oh, the poop.
She basically decided that she didn't want to poop in the potty. Ever. Every day, she would go in her underwear 3 to 5 times. Every single day, for seven days in a row. We'd ask her if she needed to go poop (knowing her basic "poop schedule"), she'd say "Nope," and then go in her underwear within 30 seconds. Almost every time. And I think she secretly loved it. Grrrr...
We bribed her with toys, candy, her iPad, walks outside, etc. but NOTHING worked. We tried getting angry with her. No good. We tried being indifferent about it. Still nothing.
Finally on Thursday, after she pooped three times in her pants during her clinic appointment, we decided to increase her Miralax dosage that goes into her daily formula (with her doctor's approval, of course). We actually tripled it :) She normally has a small dose of Miralax every day to help keep her stools soft so that it's not hard for her to push. But by increasing her dose that much, it made it so soft that she "accidentally" went poop on the potty the next day.
And I think that's what did it. She realized that it was ok to go in the potty. That first day after the Miralax increase (yesterday) she still had a few small accidents in her underwear, but she also went poop in the potty a few times.
And today (Saturday), she didn't have a SINGLE accident ALL DAY!! She even stays dry during her naps! We are thrilled!! She really gets it now. And she is SO proud of herself :)
So tonight, Ella got her reward. We took her to Build-A-Bear to pick out a new friend :) She was so excited and Ava and Henry were equally excited for her!
It has been a lot of work this past week, but totally worth it! However, now I feel like I need a "real" Spring Break, ha ha :)
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| Such a big girl! |
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| Ella with the doggie she picked out (she named him "Trevor"). |
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| Kissing the heart that goes inside |
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| Ella and Trevor in his doctor outfit :) |
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| We even got a wheelchair for Trevor! |
