Potty Training

We potty trained Blake, my son with down syndrome, at age 2 with the help of a behavioral psychologist that gave us tips for teaching them to use the potty.

1. Log the time that the child soils the diaper
2. After a week you will have a general idea of the "routine."
3. Place the child on the potty chair during these times (up to 20 minutes surrounding and give them lots to do.. read a book, talk, sing, etc.
4. When the deed is finally done in the potty chair praise them extensively, so they will know they have achieved the goal and do it again.

We toilet trained Adrian the same way after he got settled in and adjusted to our home, around age 3. He still wets the bed at night, so we have always worn pull ups at night. The environmentalist in me chose these chlorine-free and fragrance-free nighttime pull ups. They are less likely to cause skin rashes in addition to being environmentally friendlier. I got them by the case at Amazon.com. I subscribed to the auto-shipments every 3 months to get a discount.
Adrian is 8 now and we are still having accidents at night. At the advice of the same children's psychologist that advised me on potty training before, we have moved to cloth pull ups at night. They feel "wetter." They are more eco-friendly too, because they are reusable. No waste! I guess, I was worried about cloth leaking on the mattress, but I found these waterproof cloth undies called "Potty Scotty" that are wonderful. They don't leak at all!!! They are affordable and unlike the disposables, you only have to buy them once.

These are the "waterproof" variety. I bought some Potty Scotty regular training pants and doubled them up at night, so he wears the cloth under the waterproof. Seriously, he doesn't leak at all! :)

The other tips recommended to eliminate wetting at night for my youngest son with down syndrome were:

1. Make sure he goes to the bathroom just before bed.
2. No liquid an hour for bed.
3. Praise him when he has a dry night.

If this doesn't work we will consider a bed wetting alarm, but he has already had many dry nights! Good luck potty training your child with down syndrome!