When Potty Training Becomes More Challenging...

I had potty trained one child.

She was relatively easy to potty train, and just took a little longer to be trained for poop. She went completely diaper free when she was 3 years and 1 month.

Now, I am training my youngest, and it is CHALLENGING.
She is extremely stubborn. And, a little speech delay is not helping to communicate.

I have tried:
- cute potty with her favorite character
- bribe (she loves sweets, so M&Ms have been her treat for successful peeing in toilet)
- cute training pants (I like Japanese training pants with more absorbency and they come in kids favorite characters)
- posters on bathroom wall to explain potty procedure (they are illustrations I pulled off from internet)


I learned that kids personalities and characters have A LOT to do with potty training.
While my oldest was motivated to go pee in toilet by giving her stickers on her "good job, you did pee/poop in toilet" chart, my youngest has no interest in such an activity. She looks at me like, "so what?".
That is why I used food to motivate. The oldest asked me, "did I get sweets for reward, too?" When I answered honestly, she was quite unhappy saying "that is not fair!"

Also in her case, motivating with "you can go to school if potty trained" or "you can wear pretty underwear if potty trained" is out of options because she can care less about these or she has no comprehension when I explain those things.

But, we as parents have to do what works for each child.

However, food attraction has not overcome her stubbornness. Now, we are at the place where she does not care if she gets her treat or not, she does not mind being uncomfortable in wet training pants, and I am running out of option. It is almost as if she realizes that I am trying to potty train her when things start to go well. That is when her stubbornness kicks in and tells her brain saying, "hey, your mom is trying to change something that you are totally fine as is."

I really like her to be potty trained so that she can start school in the fall. It will help her speech and social skill big time if she can start.

Still, my friends are giving me some ideas to try. I am willing to try anything after carrying around two to three extra sets of clothes and training pants, having "accidents" in the bookstore, even poop.

Travel Diary 5 - Getting Sick

Sickness does not take vacation even if you are on vacation.

We have had our share of sickness on vacation stories, and this trip was no exception so far.
I must admit though what we have experienced so far on this trip is not the worse so far.

The girls and I flew thinking we had mild allergy symptoms. And, I think we really did.
But, that somehow turned to cold and I was having a terrible cold symptoms. Thanks to Benadryl at night and Sudafed and Ibuprofen, I got through the first week of our stay in Japan and got over the cold relatively quickly.

However, I got something else...

Pink Eye.

Really.

I had not had pink eye for many many years. Probably since I was a child. It was so bad that my eye did not open one morning (probably around 4th day here) that I had to go to an eye doctor. Good thing that my parents purchased health insurance for us during our stay.

As I went in to the eye doctor, I was immediately separated from the other patients because it could be very contagious.
After waiting for an hour, the nurse swabbed inside of my eye lid (more like scrubbing!) to test if that was viral. It turned out it was not, so I was prescribed antibiotic eye drop and oral medication.

All of the bill from doctor's office and Rx costed only 9700 yen which should be about $100. That is without insurance! I love how affordable Japanese health care is. I must add that the nurses/doctor was sympathetic that I had to pay that much out of pocket since my insurance will reimburse later. You kidding?? This is inexpensive comparing to what we would have to pay in US for not having insurance.

My health problem did not end there for this trip. While I was staying in Tokyo for the weekend, I had food poisoning.
I spent a good hour in the hotel bathroom...


However, I must say the worst medical experience we have had during the trip was my youngest daughter's stomach flu.
It was when she was about 18 months old.
She started throwing up and having diarrhea non stop. She would not take anything and got dehydrated.
Her temperature was close to 40 degree (is it about 105??), and she was limp.
We took her to a pediatrician here in Japan, and she got an IV one day and another one the next day to be hydrated. She did not even fight to get the needle in which was very abnormal for her.
Thanks to the hydration and good rest, she bounced back quickly and in 4 days she was almost back to normal with high energy.
The pediatrician bill with two visits with two IV and anti nausea Rx..... less than 17000 yen (= less than $200) without insurance!


Even with sickness, we always manage to get things done and enjoy the stay in Japan.
We spend a lot of money for flying here. So, sickness won't stop us!

This is the photo from Shinkansen between my pink eye and food poisoning...