United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I am getting all of Aarons pants and shorts and sewing velcro into the buttons and snaps. He's gonna be 3 in 20 days (YIKES!) and I guess I had better potty train him. He don't have great use of his arm or enough to pull up and push down his pants but I got him some bigger sizes of jeans and shorts and so hopefully he will be able to do this by himself one day. We went to WalMart to look for a potty seat for him and we found a buzz lightyear one or actually he found it, I was looking at the musical one. I think he thinks it's a toy-is he in for a surprise! I will get him used to it first then when we get back from vacation on the 15th or so then I will really concentrate on training him. I even got him some spider-man underware! Gosh, I don't know how to react to this. Excited because in the near future he won't be wearing diapers anymore, then again I hate to see him struggle and I just know he will. How have you guys done it? Did the kids struggle with the pants? Do they still?

Hi Paula, I'm still working on my 3 year and 4 month old boy with potty training. He's not really thrilled with it! But, as far as my older son, who is my obpi, he was potty trained earlier than this one. Yes, the pants were a bit of a struggle, but you're right on about getting bigger, looser pants. It's very helpful. My 8 year old just started wearing jeans with snaps about a year and half ago. He still can't do button jeans, but he's figured out a way to do snaps. Eventually as Aaron gets older and more coordinated, he'll figure out a way to get those pants up on his own! My son still does it one handed.
Good luck!
Jaime

Paula:
My first recommendation to you, is to skip the pants and shorts with a zipper and button or snap. They are incredibly frustrating for ANY kid who is potty training. Sport pants are "in" as are sport shorts. They only have elastic and are so much easier to get up and down. Also, lose the overalls (if you put him in those) for a while too.

I did this for my non-bpi kids as well as for Juliana. She was trained at about 2 1/2 years old and at that time had no "useful" function of her hand or arm. (By "useful" I mean that she could do the therapy stuff, but she couldn't really use it in everyday life: eating, toileting, getting dressed etc.)

By using pants with only elastic waists, and buying undies a size larger, she was successful. I have decided NOT to buy clothes a size larger. Some people do. I thought it would make Juliana more uncomfortable. She found a way to pull her pants up and down one handed. She still does. I found that the one thing that really helped was being very regimented about going to the potty. We went every 2 hours or so. Juliana was motivated to do it herself and didn't want ME to pull her pants down or up. So, since it took her longer to do it, I wanted her to not be dancing around and then peeing in her pants because she couldn't get the pants down fast enough. I found that explaining that, helped a lot.

She is almost 5 now, does it all on her own and is very independent. We still do not buy her any jeans or khakis or shorts or skirts that require zippers and snaps.

Good luck,

claudia

i didn't have jeans till i was about 12 and before that i think i used joggers most of the time.


Also kirts with zips at the back are hard to do.