A Quick Potty Update

     So Sam has been potty trained for about 4 months now (it seems like a lot longer than that). In the last potty post I had made a few goals that we were still looking to hit. As for now, he will mostly say when he has to go to the bathroom, but if he's doing something really fun he'll totally lie and say "no" even if he's doing a full on potty dance.

     I'm working with him now on pulling his pants up and down but he still needs a lot of help. It's hard to watch him trying to do it on his own when I know that I can just do it in two seconds, but it's part of the process.

     He hasn't had any accidents in a long time. at one point he did regress for the better part of a week and had, like, three accidents a day all over himself and the couch, floor, kitchen chair, wherever. We went back to basics and did almost a "toileting schedule" and put him on the potty every 90 minutes and we fixed that problem in about a day.

     I still put a pull-up on him at night and a nap time, though nine times out of ten he's dry after nap and in the morning, so mostly its for mess prevention and convenience.

     Our biggest problem right now is poop. Most of the time, he out right refuses to poop on the potty. At the beginning of last week, some wind of fortune blew in my direction and he went on the potty for about three days straight and of course we made the hugest deal ever about it. Since then? Nada. At least he is considerate enough to go during nap when he's wearing a pull-up instead of messing his whole outfit. I've tried to read some things about kids who refuse to go #2 and I'm not finding anything definite or really helpful. I'm hoping he'll just grow out of it at this point.

     Next is Abby. I was hoping to train her by the end of the summer before the weather got too cold. I let her run around the house for two days with no pants like I did for Sam, but she didn't seem to be making the connection and we stopped. She picked out her own potty and underpants (yup, Despicable Me boy briefs), and she is definitely still interested in in so I'm thinking about trying again shortly.
   

Boomerang!

Where have I been?

Oh my goodness I did not expect to take the WHOLE summer off from blogging. Honestly the time that I spent on this thing just got overwhelming, especially the photos, which I suck at editing.

I really did like writing here and am planning to come back but mind my pictures because they will be strictly unedited lol.

So just a quick preview of whats to come: what we were up to all summer, how the first season of growing our own food went and plans for next year, a quick potty update (hint, he's doing fantastic), our continuing prep for possibly baby #3 (!!!), Sam's home schooling schedule.

Potty Journal: Week 2

The last time I wrote about Sam on the potty I was aaaaalmost at the end of my rope. Frazzled. Frustrated. And I had no idea what to do next. 

Over the two days that followed, he had more accidents on the floor than he had been having initially. Lysol and paper towels were our best friends. 

Something has happened over the rest of week though. Something clicked for him. 

That peeing every ten seconds problem? Gone. 

The frustration and discouragement? Gone.

The really huge problem I thought we could never get over: peeing in his pants and not knowing/ caring? Gone.

It took the better part of a week of peeing on the floor and in his (super cool) new underwear, but with gentle reminders he now seems to know that pee doesn't go all over the floor or in his pants, but ONLY in the potty. He gets it. 

He now refuses to pee in his pants. In the past three days he has been totally accident free except overnight, which isn't really an accident as overnight dryness is about physiological growing, not understanding or executing a task. 

I still put a pull up on him at nap time and obviously at bedtime. Today though he did wake up dry from his nap but I'm still using pull ups just in case. 

Today we even went out to the store with my mom and brother, potty seat in tow. He started jumping around and wiggling so I knew he had to go. We went into the big, scary, (even for adults) public bathroom and he went! Right away! No sitting and coaxing for 15 minutes. It was awesome.

I feel like I'd been dreading this particular milestone since he was a baby. Its like, a BIG one. I know he still has a long way to go; he doesn't pull his own pants down or say that he needs to go using words, and poop is pretty much luck if it goes in the potty or not (but we haven't really talked much about poop yet) and I know that he still may regress and go back to having accidents, but I feel like we have a good foundation. He gets the concepts, he seems proud of himself for learning and I think now I have SOME clue what I'm doing. 

Things that Helped and Things that Didn't

*I loved the book The No-Cry Potty Training Solution. It totally goes along with my stress free, gentle parenting approach. Rereading certain parts really helped get through those initial dark potty days, after the initial enthusiasm wore off and before the success started to kick in. 

*A lot of places talk about hyping the whole new underwear thing, but honestly, Sam could take them or leave them. He really doesn't care about clothes and prefers being naked to anything. It definitely wasn't a huge catalyst to peaking his interest, but now he really likes wearing them.

*He did respond to the whole sticker chart thing. It's just a piece of paper taped to the bathroom wall. I got books and sheets of all different kinds of stickers and he gets to pick whatever one he wants. It's a nice little reward that doesn't cost a fortune or fill my house with junk. 

*TMI but the watch-and-learn method really works too. He watched both of us and we told him what was going on and then I propped up the mirror so he could watch himself and that helped him out too.

*Lastly and most importantly, the best decision I made through this whole thing was letting him run around naked and pee on the floor. Sure it was a mess and stressful, but n hindsight, I think this is what really got him to get what's going on with that "need to pee" feeling. 

Now he's free to relax like a little man. Tighty whities, chillin' on the couch with a beverage. 

A Potty Journal

     I. Am so. Exhausted. Never before has anything puzzled me to much as potty training. Sam is now three years old and current me resents former childless me for looking down on mothers who's kids were still in diapers after two. I remember thinking "my child will never be in diapers at three." Whelp, welcome to the real world ex-me, how do those words taste?

     A while ago I started reading online about how to start potty training a kid. We bought a potty about a year ago and showed it to Sam and were met with COMPLETE disinterest. He was obviously not ready, so we tucked it away, taking it out every few months to try again.

     Before his birthday we tried again, made a potty chart, got some potty board books and started hyping the potty again. I bought The No-Cry Potty Training Solution by Elizabeth Pantley, which is pretty in tune with the whole attachment parenting way of life. We started "potty learning," and he happily talked about the potty and sat on it with his clothes on, sometimes with his clothes off, but never actually did any peeing. I really feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. I know all about potty training theory, like don't ever scold your child for having an accident, let them do it on their own time, stay upbeat and reward successes. But mechanically? No clue. I have so much anxiety over it because I feel like this is one of those do-it-right-or-your-kid-is-a-serial-killer parenting moments.

    Friday was my day off, followed by my weekend off so I felt that this was the perfect time for the full court potty press. I was super motivated. I told Sam the night before to say good bye to his diapers and that tomorrow he would get big boy pants and use the potty (which he did, which was adorable). Friday morning we woke up ready to rock. I changed his last diaper (tear) and put him in disposable training pants. I sat him on the potty every hour for 15 minutes at least. He didn't do one drop of pee on the potty all. Day.  As soon as he got off the potty he peed the disposable pants. Saturday we kept trying, and even went to the zoo with foamy potty seat in tow and he actually did pee on the zoo potty once. By Sunday I started thinking that maybe the disposable pants were too much like diapers, so we went to Target and got some of those old school white training pants with the extra layers and some super cool train underwear for later. He really likes his "unnaweeyahs" but it really didn't change the outcome too much. Monday and Tuesday I was at work and from all reports, the trend of sitting on the potty with no results and immediately peeing in the pull up (which I gave to my mom and Jeff's grandmother who watch the kids when I'm at work) or underpants continued.

Sam either doesn't know or care when he is wet in diapers and would never complain about it. I also had no idea when he was pooping. I knew this was going to be a hurdle when we eventually started potty training him. Because of this and because he didn't seem to make the connection between having to go and the potty when he had the trainers on, I took drastic measures. Yesterday, we started going pants free. Yes. Free wheeling buns all over the house. I was terrified and really hesitant to do it but honestly, its made all the difference int he world. He can SEE himself peeing and then all I had to do was associate that feeling with "quick! Run to the potty!" Last night was full of experimenting intially. I caught him pushing pee out onto the floor just to watch himself. After a few times though, he really seemed to begin to understand. He actually peed on the potty for the first time that I was sure wasn't just due to timing and then he did the most amazing thing: he came up to me and said "mama, have to go peepee potty please?" So I rushed him into the bathroom, placed him on the potty, and he peed right away and clapped for himself when he was done. Of course I made a HUGE deal about it and told him over and over why it was so amazing. Later on, he was playing by himself, and then quietly got up, sat down on his little potty in the living room and pooped. I was ecstatic. I'm so relieved that he really seems to get what he is supposed to do. He can associate that need to go feeling with sitting on the potty.

     Today has been a lot of reminding. He has many many accidents, but I'm trying to focus on getting him to pay attention to what his little body is saying and to take a break to sit on the potty. One thing that's still making me nuts though is that he pees so frequently. He pees like ten drops every ten minutes. What's up with that? When he sits on the potty he stays there for several minutes, so it's not like he's getting up too soon. I gave him extra milk this morning to increase the number of potty opportunities and it resulted in a hailstorm of pees on the floor. I feel bad that all morning revolved around accidents on the floor, reinforcement, cleaning up, and then more accidents. By noonish, he was feeling frustrated, I was frustrated, and he asked for a bubble bath to relax in (love that) which I happily gave him.

     After lunch he was must more relaxed. Abby on the other hand, has been beside herself that Sam is getting the majority of the attention. End result, everyone is having an early nap, including mommy. Today is one of those rainy dreary days where I have no motivation anyways. I need a break. And some time to reflect on how far we've come. Today there's pee in the potty which there hasn't been, he knows what's going on and what he's supposed to do. I'm off the rest of today and tomorrow also, so I'm hoping we'll be in a pretty good place come the weekend. I'm not expecting anything less than weeks to pass before he's completely day time potty trained, and am just looking for progress.

Vaccines: Pc

Pc or Pneumococcus is the second installment in my series of posts on vaccines. To read my post on HIB, and why I started this series, click here. 
All information from Dr. Sears' The Vaccine Book.

Pc: Pneumococcus
>Given at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months of age. 

Pc bacteria, or Streptococcus pneumoniae, is a bacterium that, like the HIB bacterium, is passed like the common cold and is more common in infants, toddlers and the elderly. The Pc bacteria can cause:
          Cold symptoms
          Ear Infections
          Blood Infections
          Meningitis- an infection of the lining of the brain
          Pneumonia- an infection causing fluid to build up in the lungs

Signs and symptoms of infection with Pc:
Mild infections caused by Pc present like a cold. A fever that does not resolve on it's own after a few days would prompt a trip to the pediatrician, who would treat with antibiotics if symptoms of ear or sinus infection, bronchitis or possible pneumonia are present. Usually the antibiotics will treat the illness without ever being discovered as Pc. 
Moderate infections begin like a mild infection does, but the child will also appear lethargic, may have labored breathing and will "look sick" enough to call for a chest X-ray, blood work and oral antibiotics or IM antibiotics (administered my intramuscular injection).  The blood cultures are positive for Pc (that take 48 hours to result), and the parents of the child will be called to have the child come to the hospital for 1-2 weeks of IV antibiotics.
Severe infections with Pc will present with meningitis or blood infection symptoms which the treating doctor will immediately recognize. The child would be immediately admitted to the hospital for several days of aggressive IV antibiotics and possibly respiratory support via endotracheal intubation in an intensive care unit. Most children with severe Pc infection will recover fully but it may take weeks in the hospital. Long lasting complications such as brain damage or hearing loss are caused by swelling of the brain. Fatality is 20-30%, 60-80% in the elderly. 

~Pc is the most common cause of meningitis in infants and a common cause of respiratory infections. Infection with Pc is not required to be reported to the CDC, so it is difficult to say precisely how common it is. It is believed that the number of serious Pc infections has decreased from 60,000 cases yearly to 17,000 cases after vaccination began in 2001. 
   Although the vaccine has done much good, the current vaccine now only covers 2% of the known strains of Pc. A newer version of the vaccine, Prevnar 13, was formulated to cover a new strain, 19A, which was resistant to some antibiotics. As the vaccine is reformulated and distributed, new strains crop up and older ones die out, so Pc will never be completely eradicated. 

~The Pc vaccine is made by using the sugars that coat the outside of the bacteria and are added to the vaccine solution along with diphtheria toxoid pieces and aluminum. The vaccine does not contain full or living Pc bacteria, so there is no chance of infection by Pc from the vaccine. 

Potentially Harmful Ingredients

• The Prevnar 13 contains 125 micrograms of aluminum. Toxic effects of aluminum can occur if too many aluminum containing vaccines are given at one time. In the book, Dr. Sears includes an alternate vaccine schedule which you can find here, on another page of this blog that I copied out of the book. 

Common Side Effects

• Local redness, swelling and pain at injection site (50% of kids), 80% of kids report fussiness or irritability, moderate to high fever (5%). Severe reactions are reported in 8% of test infants. Severe allergic reactions or seizure occurred in less than 1%. Post market surveillance reveals that the vaccine can also cause rash at injection site, lymph node swelling in the injected limb, anaphylactic shock, angioneurotic edema (severe swelling) and apnea (a period of not breathing). 

Dr. Sears' Summary: "Pc infections can be very bad or only minor irritations. The problem is, you don't know until you're stuck with one. The Pc germ is a fairly common resident in day cares, schools, and check out lines at the grocery store. Unless you are a housebound agoraphobic or a stay at home mom who never, ever takes her baby out, you and your kids will encounter the germ. The Pc vaccine offers a "get out of jail free" card, so to speak. Overall, I'd call this a fairly important vaccine."

Vaccines: HIB

   I was inspired to write this series of posts after reading The Vaccine Book by my Dr. Sears. All information in these posts is basically a summary of the information written in the book.

     Vaccines are such a hot topic. Some families vaccinate religiously, some adamantly refuse to, and both sides have excellent and (most of the time) well researched arguments. As a mother, I knew I wanted to have my children vaccinated but I wan't exactly sure why. I realized I didn't even know what diseases we vaccinate for, what ingredients were controversial and what the possible side effects were. I realized that without knowing it, I was leery of certain vaccines that I didn't see as absolutely necessary; I had never had a flu shot and I elected to opt out of the trendy new HPV vaccines that came out when I was a teenager. For some reason they made me nervous.
     The point of these posts is to present a little more information about vaccines, diseases they hope to prevent, and their potential side effects. Working as an ER nurse, I am used to breaking down tons of information and presenting it to patients into small, workable chunks that make sense and they will remember. I hope this is what I have done here. 

HIB: Haemophilus Influenzae Type B
>Given at 2, 4, 6 and 15 months of age. 

HIB is a bacteria exclusive to infants and the elderly that is passed like the common cold. The HIB bacteria can cause:
          Meningitis- an infection of the lining of the brain
          Blood Infections
          Bone Infections
          Epiglottitis- an infection of the epiglottis in the throat than can obstruct breathing
          Pneumonia- an infection causing fluid to build up in the lungs

Signs and symptoms of infection with HIB:
Mild infections caused by HIB present like a cold. A fever that does not resolve on it's own after a few days would prompt a trip to the pediatrician, who would treat with antibiotics if symptoms of ear or sinus infection, bronchitis or possible pneumonia are present. Usually the antibiotics will treat the illness without ever being discovered as HIB. 
Moderate infections begin like a mild infection does, but the child will also appear lethargic, may have labored breathing and will "look sick" enough to call for a chest X-ray, blood work and oral antibiotics.  The blood cultures are positive for HIB (that take 48 hours to result), and the parents of the child will be called to have the child come to the hospital for several days of IV antibiotics.
Severe infections with HIB will present with meningitis symptoms, severe pneumonia symptoms or epiglottitis which the treating doctor will immediately recognize. The child would be immediately admitted to the hospital for several days of IV antibiotics and possibly respiratory support via endotracheal intubation in an intensive care unit. Most children with severe HIB infections recover, but slowly, and about 25% will have permanent effects such as hearing loss, learning difficulty or nerve injury. Fatality is 5%. 

~Before the HIB vaccine in the 80's, incidence of HIB infections per year in the US was about 20,000 cases. Now there are only about 25 per year, but remember, these are only the more serious cases that are evident enough to call for blood work and be positively diagnosed and treated as HIB. 

~The HIB vaccine is made by using the sugars that coat the outside of the bacteria and are added to the vaccine solution. The vaccine does not contain full or living HIB bacteria, so there is no chance of infection by HIB from the vaccine. 

Potentially Harmful Ingredients

• Two brands of HIB vaccine, ActHIB and Hiberix, contain formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, in very tiny amounts (less than 0.5 micrograms). 
• The PedVaxHIB brand contains 225 micrograms of aluminum. Toxic effects of aluminum can occur if too many aluminum containing vaccines are given at one time. In the book, Dr. Sears includes an alternate vaccine schedule which you can find here, on another page of this blog that I copied out of the book. 

Common Side Effects

• Local redness, swelling and pain at injection site (25% of kids), moderate to high fever (5%). There are no known severe reactions. Post market surveillance reveals that the vaccine can also cause swollen lymph nodes, sterile abscess at injection site, swelling of injected limb, allergic reaction, seizures, a shock-like reaction, sleepiness, apnea (a period of no breathing) hives and rash. 

Dr. Sears' Summary: "HIB is a bad bug. Fortunately, it is also a rare bug, so rare that I have not seen a single case in my practice. Ongoing use of this vaccine in our country helps keep it away. The HIB vaccine is one of the safest we have. The ingredients aren't too strange and the known side effects are uncommon. Since the disease is so rare, HIB isn't the most critical vaccine. But its definitely high on the list."