The day we took away Clara's pull-ups feels like an eternity ago. The last 16 months have felt long and hard, but like a lot of things, worth the work.
Click here to read the one year in update.
When we left off at the one year mark, we had just finding collecting data on her bowel movement habits (lovely, right?), and had experimented with isolating ourselves to the restroom for three hours in the evenings in hopes to catch a a BM success, which proved ineffective.
Finally, on January 21, 2019, we pulled out the big guns.
I posted about it on Instagram here. Recap below in italics.
Well, today is the day. I’ve been avoiding this like the plague but after 14 months of cleaning up poopy pants I figure maybe I should take the advice of Clara’s BCBA and just do it.
See all these toys? Yeah. All of Clara’s favs. And they will disappear by the time she returns from school.
Once she successfully poops in the potty she will have access to all of them for the remainder of the day. Then they disappear again until the next success. Repeat daily. Omgosh.
She is a cute but she is stubborn (14 months and she’s only had one poop success and ONE POOP ACCIDENT AT SCHOOL. Meaning, she doesn't poop in the toilet at school nor does she poop in her pants at school). She just loves saving it all for mommy and daddy. We feel so special. :-)
It’s not everyday someone asks you to pray for their child’s pooping habits, but if you feel so inclined ... 🙏🙏🙏. Day one! Here we go! #specialneeds #cohensyndrome#operationpoopgoesinthepotty
We are now a little over a month into this method of positive reinforcement, and while it isn't moving as fast as I would like, we are seeing slow signs of progress. The hard part is having eyes on her 24/7 to catch her signs of needing to have a BM. Additionally, if I miss the signs and she goes in her pants (which she likes to do the minute I leave her room/presence), it might be several days until the next BM, which lessens the opportunities to pair the behavior (poop in potty) with the reinforcers (light-up, musical toys).
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| Camille is the BEST cheerleader around. |
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| Not pictured, ALL THE TOYS ON HER BED. |
Slow and steady wins the race, right? Easier said than done, but that is what we are clinging to during this season on life. Put in the work now and eventually it will pay off. So we press on.
Praying that in four more months, at the next blog update, we have much continued success to report!
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| This girl. Just can't get enough of her!
ALSO, here's a little laugh for you in case you need one on this Tuesday. Last week I was in that crazy hour of day called witching hour (yes, it is still a thing when your kids are 5 and 6), so I left Clara in her room to finish dinner prep. Brandon walks in the door five minutes later (mistake numero uno, left Clara in her room unattended for five minutes) so I ask him, "Hey, once you get changed can you go check on Clara?"
Several minutes later he's all, "Ummmmmm Britt. What is going on? Did you forget to come back and clean up all this poop on the floor?" And I'm all, "I know I am losing my mind and forget a lot of things, BUT DO YOU REALLY THINK I WOULD JUST WALK AWAY AND LEAVE POOP IN HER ROOM?" I turn the corner and he is standing there, dumbfounded, with Clara's pants, poop-streaked-underwear, and poop in his hands.
Guys.
She pooped her pants once I left her room and THEN SHE TOOK HER PANTS AND UNDERWEAR OFF ON HER OWN.
There she stood, leaning over her bed, naked from waist down, playing happily with her favorite fidget toys.
I can't even, you guys.
So while this whole situation was gross (#understatement) and obviously not ideal, can we all just stop and cheer that this kid 1. is starting to recognize poop is gross and shouldn't stay in her pants and 2. knows how to pull off her pants!
That is all.
Happy Tuesday!
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