Booty Camp

You have got to be kidding, right?


Yes, there is such a thing. It is a potty training boot camp! If you have kept up with this blog, then you know JT is about 3 1/2 and not yet potty trained. He does a a developmental delay and this could explain why he isn't yet or it could just be because he is a boy and not ready. I am really ok with him not being trained yet. We have new one about to arrive and I have heard the stories of regression and potty training.

However, due to licensing rules at his daycare center, he can't move up to the next room until he is trained. This could pose a problem with the speech and language part of his delay because his friends did move up and now JT is in a room with kids almost one year younger than him.

In an effort to try to get him trained to move to the next room, we enrolled him in Booty Camp! It is run by a pediatric nurse who successfully potty trained her own six children with this method. She specializes in training special needs kids. I thought.....this would be PERFECT! The class was from 9AM-2PM. She claims to potty train in one day and her success rate is 96-98%. She came recommended by a speech therapist. How could we go wrong?

I had an extensive conversation with Wendy, the potty training drill sergeant, before I enrolled JT. I told her all about JT and how he has trouble understanding language. I told her his diagnosis. We talked at great length. I told her he wasn't dressing himself yet. I told her everything I thought would help BEFORE hand just to make sure this was the right thing to do.

Booty Camp was last weekend. It has taken me that long to get the courage up and be able to write an entry for this.

It.was.a.complete.disaster.

I was emotionally spent and physically drained after the five hours. I am not going into much detail because there is far too much I could say on the topic. I had to walk out of the "camp" twice in tears and spent most of the afternoon crying.

We put JT back into diapers once we got home from Booty Camp. It will stay that way until he shows us he is ready. I feel Wendy's approach just will not work for JT (and that is putting it mildly). I am still disappointed that we put JT through 5 hours of this and even though I had an extensive phone conversation before I signed him up, she didn't use any visual aid for JT and EVERYTHING was verbal (and too complicated for him). I guess the words HE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND LANGUAGE and DOES BETTER WITH VISUAL AIDS and is a MONKEY SEE MONKEY DO learner wasn't understood by her.

Her two favorite phrases:"It is your (speaking to the child) responsibility to listen to your body and go pee and poop in the potty."

"That is unacceptable behavior and I will not tolerate it." (when your child has an accident).

If the child DOES have an accident then you make the child clean up their mess, have them throw their undies into a bag and the towels into the garbage, clean themselves up with wipes, and put on a new pair of underwear.

Um....so my child is supposed to understand those phrases when we have been told to use 3-4 word sentences with him. Gotcha......

The child is supposed dress and undress himself and take responsibility of himself for everything. You are not to remind the child to go to the bathroom. They are supposed to just go when they need to. I had no idea this was the method before class. Shame on me for not asking more questions. While I am sure it works for some, I can't see how this would work for JT.

Out of the 5 kids who were there, I swear only 2 may get it. Three of them ended up "boycotting" and would cry when they sat on the potty. One seemed to be doing ok and then there was JT. This lady claims to have a 96-98% success rate. Now I don't believe it.Believe it or not, that is the short version.

I have spoken with JT's daycare teacher, pre-school teacher, the director of the daycare center (who was a special ed teacher), and many friends and family about the results and methods of Booty Camp. Every person had the same reaction. They were mortified and couldn't believe this would work for any 3-something year old.

There is one good thing that came out of Booty Camp. We are now teaching and letting JT try to dress and undress himself. When he is ready, he will at least be able to get his pants down TO go to the potty. So far, he is able to get his shoes off. He is getting better at getting socks off and as long as his pants are loose, he can almost pull those down.