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From: ned@SCINEWS.UUCP (Ned Robie)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Potty training
Message-ID: <174@SCINEWS.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 21-Jun-85 19:09:04 EDT
Article-I.D.: SCINEWS.174
Posted: Fri Jun 21 19:09:04 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 24-Jun-85 08:16:57 EDT
References: <2797@decwrl.UUCP>
Organization: SCI Systems, Research Triangle Park, NC
Lines: 32

> Sarah Dugan writes:
> 
> 	I have a 3 1/2 year old daughter who ... doesn't seem to understand that
> 	"poopies" are dirty and stinky....
> 
> I can't help feeling that it's a mistake to teach that "poopies" are dirty and
> stinky.  That kind of social condititioning is just extra baggage; it doesn't do
> any good and may do some harm.
> 
> ---Pete
> 
> Kaiser%JAWS.DEC@decwrl.arpa, Kaiser%BELKER.DEC@decwrl.arpa
> {allegra|decvax|ihnp4|ucbvax}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-jaws!kaiser
> DEC, 77 Reed Road (HLO2-1/N10), Hudson MA 01749		617/568-5441

My 4 year old son pees in the toilet fine and rarely wets his bed.
But he still hasn't taken to the toilet when he needs to poop.
We've tried all kinds of positive reinforcement and have rejected any
negative forms for obvious reasons.  The doctor says to bribe him with
candy...  we laughed, bribing with the latest transformer robot didn't
even work.  So we have given up on the bribing strategy which we thought
was questionable in the first place (we were desperate).  Now we're just
being patient.

Funny thing is, for about a week we knew he was secretly doing his business
in the toilet and carefully cleaning up after himself.  But that didn't last
too long.  Before we knew it, he was back to going in his pants again (sigh).

Does anyone have any suggestions?  Is this a common *problem* among 4
year olds?

-- Ned Robie