If you are struggling with stress, frustration or anxiety over potty training your child or bedwetting, you are not alone. I am hoping that by sharing my story I can help you find the encouragement you need to put your mind at ease.

Here is my story.

I thought potty training my son was going to be the death of me! I read all the books, did all the research, spoke to his pediatrician and thought I was prepared for this new challenge.

When he was 18 months old we bought a potty chair. I introduced it to him and let him explore it on his own. As the books I had read suggested, I looked for signs that he was ready to begin learning how to use the potty.

Showing discomfort in a soiled diaper. Asking to have his diaper changed. Telling me immediately after soiling his diaper. Demonstrating the ability to stay dry for longer periods of time.

He never showed any of these signs. When it came time for his two year old check-up I spoke to his pediatrician about the lack of progress. His doctor assured me that everything was fine and that it would happen when my son was ready.

For the next year, I tried everything that was suggested to me: sticker charts, rewards, books, music, videos, you name it. If somebody told me it worked for them, I tried it.

Finally, on my birthday and just two weeks before my son's third birthday, he went pee in the potty for the very first time. We celebrated this huge accomplishment with lots of hugs and kisses, clapping and silly dancing which my son loved. Then I realized that this was just the beginning. We still had a long way to go before we could say that he was officially potty trained.

Very slowly, over the course of the next year I was able to get my son fully trained to go pee in the potty. Bowel movements, however, were quite a different thing. Much to my surprise, I learned that my son is prone to constipation. Unfortunately, I found this out the hard way. He never exhibited any recognizable signs of constipation. This constipation seriously complicated matters. What began to happen was a vicious cycle. My son began to find bowel movements painful as a result of the constipation. In order to try to avoid the pain he would hold the bowel movements back. In holding them back he was allowing them to grow bigger, making them more painful to get out. Despite my best efforts, the cycle continued.

After a phone call to the pediatrician's office I promptly put my son on a low sugar, high fiber diet. I took him off of juice altogether because of it's high sugar content and allowed him to drink only water and milk. I pushed raisons, fresh fruit and vegetables and rid the house of sugary snacks. I also gave him teaspoons of mineral oil to help lubricate things and make bowel movements easier for him. By the time his 4 year old checkup came around, we hadn't made much progress.

After an examination by his pediatrician, we learned that my son had actually enlarged the end of his colon to three times it's normal size. The effect of this was that his stool would have to grow to three times it's normal size before his body would even sense that it was there.

We left the doctor's office with strict orders. He was to drink an 8 oz. glass of Citrucel every morning. He was to take 1-2 teaspoons of mineral oil every night and he was to sit on the potty for at least 10 minutes after every single meal to try to train his body to eliminate. He was to stay on this regimen for three months, at which point we would follow up with his doctor.

That three month period was awful! He hated the Citrucel no matter how I tried to make it more appealing to him and the trips to the potty were a constant battle. There were more tears, frustration, negotiations and tension in that three months than there have been in my whole life, but finally we made some progress.

The road has not been completely smooth since then, though. After yet another discussion with his pediatrician about his inability to stay dry at night we learned that his constipation probably plays a big role in his bedwetting. If there is stool putting pressure on his bladder he will not be able to control his bladder while sleeping. That and the fact that it could be genetic. As a child, I, too, was a bedwetter.

Fast forward three years. My son is now seven years old and a very happy and healthy first-grader. He has his bowel movements under control and very rarely do we have to remind him to use the bathroom. Now our only issue is bedwetting.

After nine months of washing bed sheets every single day I decided to do some more research about solutions for bedwetting and I found a moisture sensing alarm made by a company called Sleep Dry. There is a sensor that is clipped to the underpants and a wire that connects the sensor to an alarm that gets clipped to the collar or neck opening of pajamas. The idea being that the alarm would shock the body into stopping the elimination process and it is loud enough for the parent to hear. The parent gets the child out of bed, brings him to the bathroom to urinate and puts the child back to bed. It works similarly to the theory of Pavlov's dogs - training the brain to recognize the sensation of a full bladder. I decided to give it a try.

The first night the alarm scared him so badly that it took a few weeks for me to convince him to wear it again. When he finally agreed, he wore it every night for three months and it worked like a charm. Before the end of that three month period he was actually sleeping the whole night through without ever setting off the alarm. In the morning he was as dry as a bone. One night he asked if he could try sleeping without his alarm and I agreed. Things went well for a while, but then he slipped back into bedwetting.

I suggested reverting back to the alarm but he feels very strongly against it (he has always had a fear of loud noises). I am trying to be patient with him, but I am also working to convince him that the alarm is the best way to go. For now, though, we are relying on Good NIghts Underpants and he is actually starting to have some dry mornings all on his own.

He had his first sleepover not too long ago and we came up with a plan to keep the Good Nights discreet. The plan worked and the sleepover was a success.

Right now the only thing that I am concentrating on is making sure that he does not feel inferior or ashamed in any way. I am putting faith in his doctor's advice that everything will come together in due time when his body is ready.

I wish I had some answers to offer you if you are struggling to potty train your child. I don't. The right answer is going to be different for each child. I wanted to share my story with you simply so that you would know that you are not alone and that there is nothing wrong with your child. Focus on being there to provide love and encouragement for your child and remember that this, too, shall pass.