Potty Train in One Week or LESS!
Potty training is an all important step towards your kid growing older. Although there are many ways to potty train, I thought I would share with you how we succeeded with my first born. Like every parenting decision I make, I thoroughly thought through what our plan would be when the day came. We did successfully potty train in one week – 5 days! I will break down our method day by day.
First, a little back story…Lily (my daughter) had been expressing interest in the potty for a few months, but one day she woke up and flat out told me she wanted to use the potty like Mommy and Daddy. This day comes at a different age for every child; my daughter was 22 months old and had just welcomed her first sibling two weeks prior. Usually it is not good to introduce potty training at a stressful time in a toddler’s life (like moving or becoming a big sib) but I took her resolve coinciding with my husband’s paternity leave as a sign it was time. Other signs that showed me she was ready are as follows: she disliked her diapers, she told us when she was wet or dirty, and she was often dry waking up in the morning.
She’s trying to tell you she’s almost two
DAY 1 Practice potty, practice patience.
We started by saying goodbye to diapers. I mean it, we ditched the diapers the second we started training. I think continuing to sometimes use diapers is what prolongs the potty training process for lots of kids. The first few nights, we still put diapers on Lily because I was sick of cleaning up messes, but looking back I wouldn’t do that again. I also have the same sentiment about pull-ups. We used a seat insert on our big toilet and a step stool to climb up to it instead of a potty seat.
This way we did not have to wean her from potty seat to big toilet in the future. She had some fun underwear and we made it an exciting endeavor to start wearing them. We spent the first day filling her with liquids and putting her on the potty every 15-20 minutes. If she went, she got ONE chocolate chip (it was the only treat I had in the house and it worked fine) as a reward. Number two was rewarded with two chocolate chips. If she had an accident, we said, “Run to the potty, go to the potty!” as we ran with our little peeing princess to the bathroom. We did not punish her for accidents, we just made it clear she missed out on a treat.DAY 2 A stinking mess.
The first day was all fun and games compared to the second day. The second day will make or break you. The morning of the second day I cleaned up eight accidents with zero successful potty trips. I went through my whole stack of old towels I had set aside to clean up messes. I continued to fill her with liquids, but my husband was gone playing volleyball and I started to lose my nerve. I called him crying and lamented, “She is not getting the hang of it!” He told me, “Maybe she’s not ready, maybe we should go back to diapers.” As soon as he backed down, I bucked up. I said, “I want to stick it out for a little longer.” Boy am I glad I did! Later that night we had a couple successful potty trips and the hardest day I’ve ever had as a parent ended.
DAY 3 Introduce someone new.
Day 3 is when my daughter lost interest in training. We were still celebrating every little tinkle in the potty like it was a magical gift from Heaven. We were still rewarding her with chocolate chip treats. We were still avoiding punishment for accidents so she wouldn’t feel too much pressure or anxiety. But it’s a lot of work for a toddler to get up and go potty, to remember what it feels like when their body signals it’s time, and to stop playing to take care of business. So this day we introduced “Bear in the Big Blue House.” We don’t have cable, so our daughter rarely watches TV. However, I found a full episode of BITBBH on youtube that talked about potty training and put it on for her. She loved getting to watch a show and having someone other than her parents stressing the importance of learning this new skill. If your kid watches TV a lot and this won’t work for you, try introducing someone else (hello Grandma!) to help train when your child loses resolve. It will hopefully liven things up for your tot to hear someone new tell them they should use the potty.
THANK YOU BEAR!
DAY 4 Dry day AND night.
This was the day our daughter started to fully understand her new reality. She had a total of two accidents, and one was during her nap. She tried very hard to listen to her body and get to the potty. This night we ditched the diaper at nighttime. A lot of keeping your kids dry at night is not giving them liquids an hour or two before bed. I pump Lily full of liquids during the day and cut her off after dinner. I never put her to bed without going potty first. We’ve had success this way, with a total of one morning accident ever.
DAY 5 Accident free!
The fifth day we rejoiced our chosen potty training path. Our girl was accident free! This is the day I truly felt she was potty trained. Of course, we’ve had a few accidents since then, but I’ve never felt like I was training again. My daughter fully understands how to use the potty, when it’s time to go potty, and does not rely on diapers at any point during the day. There was regression at times (I’ve read this is quite common) but the most important thing to remember is to encourage success, not discourage accidents. That is the best way to promote your tot using the potty. It takes a LOT of patience and I highly recommend help from at least one other adult. However, at the end of a week, you will have a potty trained toddler! I would rather go through one week of hell than a year of purgatory.
If you liked this post, you will enjoy reading how to prevent toddler tantrums or 5 discipline mistakes.
A month after my son turned 2 he started going on the potty. The only thing he wouldn’t do was poop. So I made a “poop chart” (a piece of paper that says poop chart) and he puts stickers on it every time he poops. Its the little things that make him happy, sometimes for a big poop I’ll give him a piece of candy. But I believe he pretty much potty trained himself. He was ready, and the stickers were just icing on the cake.
That’s great! The same thing happened with my son just this past January. Poop was the only part he didn’t get the hang of right away. We tried incentives just like you and it took a while but it worked!
Hi…my daughter is 3 and a half……she understands where the pee n poop shod go she come to me wen her shorts are wet….I’ve already ditched the diapors…..given rewards wen and I I catch her but hbjust doesn’t ask on her own…..as for poop….she just goes into a corner n then come to me…n says mom I need a change……I’m desperately in need for advice here if anyone has any…..I’m stressed out because I want her to be trained by Summer……thanks……
Tammy,
I’m sorry to hear potty training is not going well! I think the most important thing to remember is that although potty training can be the most frustrating thing in the world, you should try not to be impatient or get upset about accidents. If you keep a positive attitude about it your daughter will be more interested in training. Getting angry or rushing things will only make your child associate shame, anxiety, and stress with going to the bathroom. Encourage your kid to listen to her body – she is definitely old enough to pay attention to the urges that come before poop and pee – so she can gain courage. Try to breath and remember that summer is still a long ways away! Don’t worry, she will end up trained eventually. I hope this bit of advice helps!
Melissa