I have had several people ask me about my potty training method recently. I'm taking this as a sign that there might be other moms out there struggling with this right now too. So I thought I would post my little secret method for potty training. It's not really a secret because I tell everyone about it, but I feel like it's my secret mom weapon to the awfulness that potty training can be. A neighborhood friend shared this with me right before I potty trained Kaylee. I am forever indebted to her!!! I have done it this way with all 3 of my kids and am planning on doing this for the very last time when this new baby of ours is ready. I seriously swear by this method! :) So if you are in need of this info. read on and pass it on to whoever else might need it. It might sound a little over the top, but it works. Keep in mind that you have to follow all of the rules to get the very best results.
Potty Training in a Day
Supplies to get
Lot’s of candy, snacks, kool aid, juice, sweet and salty things
Underwear (heavy ones for first couple of days and normal ones)
Plastic cover pants for naps and at night
An apron for you to wear with pockets to put treats in (instant rewards for going in potty)
Potty seat for toilet, stool and portable potty chair (so they can decide which to use)
Poster board (you need to make a calling chart, something where he can see to choose who to call when he goes potty, photos helpful)
Baby wet doll
Something to clean the “oopsies” up with
Very IMPORTANT rules not to break
It should be just you and the child you are potty training ALL day- no interruptions (yes that means farming your other children out)
Take your phone off the hook, and put a note up on your front door that says “Potty training in progress, please come back later.”
Tell everyone the day before you start not to call or come over.
How it Works
Start your day like normal, feed him a good breakfast since it will pretty much be junk the rest of the day. After breakfast, as soon as everyone is out of the house, start by playing with the baby wet doll. Say “Look she has big girl (big boy) underwear on! You can wear big boy underwear too! Let’s go put yours on! When he puts his on, have him wear just his underwear and a shirt all day, no shorts or pants. Then go back to playing with the doll again. All of the sudden the doll goes pee, pee on the potty! “Oh my gosh! Did you hear that!? We are so proud of her! She gets to have a special treat!” Make sure that you have your apron on with “special” treats, ones that are only when he goes in the potty, not for snack time. Give the doll a treat and say, “You can have a special treat if you go pee, pee in the potty too.” Have him sit on the potty too and try right then. If he does then get SO EXCITED, he gets a special treat and then gets to choose someone’s picture from the calling chart and tell about going potty on the big boy potty.
This is pretty much what your day consists of: go to the kitchen, start pumping him full of snacks (sweet and salty) and juice and water. Lots of liquid and food to keep him drinking. Set the timer for 15 minutes. In that first 15 minutes, start to play with the doll again and this time have the baby have an accident. When the baby has an accident run with her from the spot of the accident to the potty saying “No pee, pee on the floor pee, pee on the potty!”, really fast 10 times back and forth, each time saying that and pulling her panties down and setting her on the potty. Do that same thing with him when he has an accident. He might start to laugh and think it’s a joke, but don’t give up, before you know it he’ll be saying it too. Make sure and do that every time he has an accident, even if you really don’t feel like it anymore. It’s a really important step in teaching this to them. When he isn’t eating, or running back and forth to the potty, stick to reading books or playing cars or some kind of game. No T.V. or movies. They get too involved in that and lose interest in the day. Stick to activities that can be easily interrupted. Don’t let him go outside, he’ll lose all interest! Eat a normal lunch and put him down for a nap at a normal time. As far as your day goes, the main things are eating lots of things to make him drink, potty every 15 minutes, and running back and forth when there is an accident.
Tips and Suggestions
Stay overly excited!
Try not to get frustrated… you can do anything for a day and it’s completely worth it!
As far as the buzzer goes, sometimes it seems like they go a couple of minutes before the timer goes off. If that happens adjust your time and remember to follow your instincts! If he hasn’t gone for a whole 15 minute interval and he has had tons to drink, don’t set it for another 15 minutes, take him every 5 or however often you think you need to catch him on the potty.
It seems like after lunch or nap time they start to lose interest a little. Save some tricks for when that happens. Make up a potty game or song. Instead of a timer on a microwave use one that rings or sounds different. If he gets tired of the real potty put out the portable one. Brainstorm about some things like that.
When he has an accident make sure and say “EWWW! Pee, pee is so stinky! Yuck! We don’t like to clean up accidents!” not “You stink!, Your pee smells so bad! Or Your Gross!”
Make sure and have some kind of plastic cover over the mattress in between the sheet in case he has an accident at night time.
Don’t go back to diapers, not even pull- ups at night. Once you start it just keep going, he’ll get the hang of it. He has to know that he’s a big boy and they don’t use diapers anymore.
So you train him in a day and then you have to reinforce it for about a week. Don’t expect him to all of a sudden go potty all by himself. You probably won’t want to leave the house unless it’s a very quick errand and take a change of underpants with you just incase for about 4 days. (Keep the change of clothes with you for longer than that) Always have him go potty right before you leave the house. You will probably have to ask him every 15 minutes for the next couple of days if he has to go potty and if he says no you might need to be a little persistent and just get him there to “try” every so often. It’s a busy, tiring week (you might even wish he was still in diapers), but it’s all worth it when you can tell he finally gets it! Don’t forget to have him stop drinking water about an hour before bed and don’t let him go to sleep with his sippy cup until he doesn’t have any accidents at night anymore. Make sure he goes right before bed and tell him to come wake you up if he has to go in the night. If he throws a fit about going to bed with out his sippy cup, just tell him that you don’t want him to pee the bed and when he wakes up in the morning he can drink as much as he wants too!
GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!
On another note...this has been the highlight of the week at our house.
Drew learned to ride his bike with out training wheels this week! Casey took them off one afternoon and there he went down the street. There was no teaching or prodding or tears or anything else. Just smiles. Look at that proud face!
I think this was his motivation...
Now he can happily keep up with his brother.
