Wow, hard to believe it's been a year since we potty trained Chelsea!!!  Those days of diapers are a thing of the past, I never realized how easy it would be once I decided I was ready to really do this thing.  Yes, it was a hard week, that's no lie, but soooo worth it.  If you're a parent of a child with Down syndrome, or any other child your struggling to potty train, the best advice I can give you is plan ahead.  Make sure you really have the time to dedicate to doing this, and don't mess around.  Don't plan anything important, get your other kids out of the house for the week - hello grandma & grandpa!  I wrote this last summer days after she was trained.  I can happily report that within a month of day training, she trained herself over night.  We kept pull ups on for a couple of months then decided it was pointless because she was always dry!  I'm so proud of her, she RARELY has accidents (3 total throughout her Kindergarten year and they were all just tiny pee accidents while on the playground.  Can't blame a girl for not wanting to waste recess in the bathroom!)  She both poops and pees in the toilet and just goes when she needs to - no prompting necessary anymore.  We're not so good at the wiping part, it's more of an inconvenience to her than it's worth, but isn't that the truth with many 'typical' kids?  I'd also love to cure her of the strong and sudden urge to go to the bathroom EVERY time we sit down to eat at a restaurant.

So here it is.  Here is what finally worked for us at 5 1/2 years old. 

I wrote this last summer days after she was trained.

So after 3 1/2 years of working on it, here's what finally WORKED for us ;)

* I devoted an entire week to it. I knew we weren't going to get anything done during that week, there was nowhere we HAD to go (except her tball game, which we did go to on day 3) I also did it when big brother was going to be at summer camp all day for 2 weeks. This was all premeditated. Potty training was actually the reason he went to camp!
 
* Use consistent language - toilet, that's it, nothing else. Then pee and poop. Also underwear - not undies, panties, scivvies (how do you spell that anyways?!) ;) choose one word for each thing and be consistent.
 
* On the first day I removed everything from the bathroom so there were no distractions - EVERYTHING but the toilet, toilet paper and the bathroom sink! I'm not sure it was necessary, but it did motivate me to paint my bathroom by day 3 :) Then on that first day I gave her lots of juice w/ her breakfast and sent her to the bathroom by herself and told her she could come out when she went pee and poop. Surprisingly she did this within 3-4 minutes, so we got to move on with the day quickly ;) After this I reminded her - "don't pee or poop in your underwear." We didn't worry about flushing or washing hands that first week. Gross, maybe, but they'll live.
 
* We went on with our day, playing games, puzzles, watching Calliou, playing outside ... and each time she had an accident (and there were plenty), we had to STOP what we were doing and I would facilitate HER cleaning herself up. After changing and putting her wet/dirty clothes in the washing machine to soak, she could NOT go back to the activity she was doing when she had the accident. If you take anything from our experience, this would be the most important thing. I did have to remind her, or ask if she needed to go quite a bit that first week. I would always let her decide, then if she said no, I would remind her, "okay, but if you pee in your underwear, no more ... (TV, games etc.)" Now days if I have to tell her that, she'll think about it, and sometimes she will jump up and run to the bathroom.
 
* The second part of this concept applies to outings. When we're in public, if she pees or poops in her underwear ... we go home. Seems harsh, but THIS IS WHAT WORKED! The idea is, if mommy or daddy pee or poop in our pants, we would have to go home and change. You may be tempted to take a change of clothes in your bag or car. Don't. Seriously. On day 3 she peed at her tball game and it almost killed me to take her home - but I DIDN'T have a change of clothes, so we did go home and this was a turning point for her. As she had to go home from outings she really started getting it. (I did put a towel in my car to line the car seat if I ever needed to on the way home.) I'd say the worst was when she pooped at brother's ball game. She was playing on the playground and it had come out her underwear and was all down her leg and she had it on her hands. Oh my gosh, it was awful!!! Don't tell, but I didn't even put her in the car seat - we weren't far from home - so she buckled in and I rolled the window down and off we went. It was funny b/c she was flipping off all the cars on the way home - it just happened to be her middle finger that was covered in poop.
 
* I also had to do lots of prompting while we sat in the bathroom together - finish, or go a little more. Before all of this she didn't get that at all and would just go a little bit throughout the day, she never fully emptied her bladder - but now, it's not even an issue. I'm just so shocked at how quickly and how well she has gotten it. She's smart, and she doesn't want to miss out on whatever is going on. In fact it pisses her off, and she figured it out quickly that I wasn't messing around.
 
* Now days, I don't remind her very often, she'll just go on her own like my son did at 5! Her biggest problem is watching TV. Since we're packing and moving, I've been letting them watch more TV and she'll zone out on it and she's pooped in her underwear quite a few times this past week. She's also got some bowel issues anyways - constipation, which causes her to have those little tiny poop balls (TMI ;) I know she's uncomfortable and always has been pooping on the toilet and that's okay. We just keep a close eye on her and don't let her watch TV unsupervised if she hasn't pooped that day ;)
 
All of this is adapted from the "Murphey Method" - Bridgett Murphey is the former president of the KCDSG and presents her method at various conferences. I tried it like she presented it for about 6 hours - but I had to adapt it to work for us. She said no reminders, and tells you to do night training at the same time. I knew that wouldn't work as Chelsea hadn't ever woken up dry. Never. But, now that she's daytime trained, she's waking up dry, so she's worn underwear to bed the past 3 nights and she's been fine! Chelsea just needed to figure out how to get control over those muscles and I had to motivate her to do so. I love this method b/c I'm not motivating her w/ food or bribery or anything. It's plain and simple, NATURAL consequences - I love it. You pee or poop in your underwear? ... we'll have to go home, and YOU clean it up. 


The Murphey Method also suggests buying all white underwear, no princess' or spiderman, just white.  I searched for days for white underwear, but unfortunately, my child was already 5 years old, and weighed 45 lbs.  Try finding white underwear for big kids.  Not so easy.  I did buy some boy underwear, but they didn't fit her body well so by day 2 we were into Ariel and Cinderella.  Didn't phase her at all.  If you can't find the white underwear, use what you've got, don't stress out about it like I did!
 
I don't want to sugar coat it. There are times we're leaving and she hasn't peed for 3 hours and I know it's a long car ride so I'll make her go in there against her will. She doesn't care when she poops while watching TV, so that's always fun getting her to clean herself up. And yes, I do leave a chucks under her bed sheet for extra safety at nap and bedtime. Whatever you do, stick to it. Plan ahead of time, make sure you don't have a lot going on anytime soon (like a vacation or long car ride ;) You can do it!!!
Oh yeah, and I did teach her how to squat outside about day 5. It's summertime and call me lazy, but sometimes it's just easier to go out there ;) A few days ago we caught her trying to pull her drawers down on the back deck ... I guess I should have clarified that we only squat in the grass, hehe.


                                            
                                          Love buying super cute undies these days!