Now, for those of you who might be curious for what we did, here's the nitty gritty. As some of you may know, potty training did not go very well with Katelyn. It took FOREVER. Close to a year for her to finally stop using a pull-up and let me know when she needed to go all of the time. She did great at first, but consistency was the problem. I would try to make her wear underwear, and some days were great and then others she would pee 3 times on the carpet, I would get frustrated and go back to pull-ups. So, when I had a couple of friends tell me that they had been pretty successful with the 1 or 3 day potty training, and after some internet research, I decided that was the route I was going to take for Brooke. The idea of it is that you completely transition to underwear. No more diapers and no pull-ups (although we are still using pull-ups at nap & bed time only).
These were the three main resources I used (found all of them through Pinterest):
http://yourmodernfamily.com/potty-training-in-three-days-2/
http://www.themoesfamilyintexas.blogspot.com/search/label/Potty%20Training
http://happyhouseof5.com/2012/09/potty-training-in-our-happy-house.html
We did use the kids toilet seat ring that sits on the toilet for Brooklyn and not a kid's toilet. We had to use the little toilet for Katelyn because she was scared to death and would not even get close to the big toilet. I prefer the toilet seat toppers because they are so much less work and I also was concerned that Brooklyn would try to empty it out herself and we would have pee all over the bathroom floor (which did happen with Katelyn, at least once).
As for seeing if she was ready or not - I honestly just decided it was time. Most of the above links suggested that if the parents decide it is going to work, then they didn't necessarily wait for cues from the kids. She is closing in on 2 1/2 and I didn't want her to reach the point where she is too stubborn to try it. We started telling her a couple weeks before that she would start being a big girl soon and using the toilet, wearing big girl underwear, etc. She was pretty excited by the time we started.
So, here is what we did (and I'm not an expert, but this is what seemed to work for us).
Day 1:
I had Katelyn go to my parents. Kyle took her there in the morning and picked her up after work. This was huge as I would have been completely overwhelmed trying to keep Katelyn busy while running back and forth to the toilet.
I put Brooklyn on the toilet right away when she woke up, even though she had never before actually used the toilet. I put underwear on her then and she wore just underwear and a t-shirt all day. I made plans to pretty much camp out in the kitchen, which has tile, all day so that I wouldn't be stressed about cleaning pee out of the carpet. The day started off a little rough. She didn't go to the bathroom the first several times that set her on the toilet and I was worried that she wouldn't get the idea.
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| We brought the toys into the kitchen. |
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| We brought the kid table into the kitchen too. |
I started pumping her with salty snacks (pretzels, fish crackers, etc.) and giving her capri-sun (a huge treat in our house) shortly after 8 AM. She had one small accident, and then after drinking the capri-sun had a large accident which totally freaked her out. After each accident I did what the 2nd link above did (that was the website I used most). I did not have wetting doll, but after each accident we ran back and forth about 3-5 times between the accident sight and the toilet and said 'No pee pee on the floor (run to the toilet), pee pee in the toilet'. It sounds dumb, but I think this is what actually stuck for her. I had my timer set for either 15 or 20 minute intervals, but after the 2nd accident, she ran to me before the timer went off and told me she needed to go potty. And she did!
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| She loves the 'juice.' |
She had one more small accident after that, but the rest of the day, she was accident free! By lunch time, she had downed 3 capri-suns, gone potty 5 times on the toilet and only had 3 accidents. After lunch time and a nap, she actually went potty another 13 times on the toilet before bed! Now, this might not be normal, but she never actually went when I set her on the toilet at the timed intervals, but instead told me (or started wiggling or whining) when she had to go. She also had MANY false alarms. At times were were going to the toilet 3 times in 15 minutes. I was super glad that I didn't have Katelyn at home. I was so happy it appeared to be working!
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| I laid out towels all the way from the kitchen to the bathroom, haha. |
For the first day, she got 1 M&M and 1 sticker for her sticker sheet each time she went on the toilet. We also called a couple people the first couple times she went. This all had her really excited and I think was part of the reason there were so many false alarms.
Day 2:
I had read that you need to have at least 3 days at home with no plans before you venture out into the real world. So we hung out at home. My plan was to just have a normal food/drink day and not pump her full of liquids on Day 2. Brooklyn started off the day by wetting her pants twice. I was pretty discouraged, between that and having Katelyn around again, it was a difficult morning. (Katelyn isn't a difficult kid, she just likes attention, as all 3 year-olds do, and putting Brooklyn on the toilet constantly and being in the same room as Brooklyn all the time gets a little difficult.) However, after the initial crankiness and accidents, we had a much better day and stayed dry except for an accident just before dinner.
Day 3:
Pretty much the same plan as day 2. However, she didn't have any accidents! Yeah! I think we are on our way to declaring her potty trained.
Day 4:
We went to a birthday party at the park for a friend and Brookie did great! Another day with no accidents, even with going out of the house a few times.
In General:
I did ask her constantly if she needs to go to the bathroom and make her sit on the toilet before meals, bath, bed, etc. The timer didn't seem to help her a ton as she didn't really go to the bathroom on command. However, I do anticipate setting the timer for a few weeks just to remind myself to ask her if she needs to go.
She is still sleeping wet, and I don't feel like cleaning sheet all the time, so I am going to try to wean her off the pull-ups when she is sleeping dry more consistently.
The above posts don't really mention #2 as this has been an issue for Brookie for a while. We are going to have to take a while to see how that progresses on the toilet. Currently, she tries to go while in the pull-up for nap/bed.
I really suggest reading the above links. They are much more detailed. I adapted some from each for our approach.
Update:
It has now been two weeks since we started potty training. Overall, things are great! There have been a few accidents, but so far, all at home, and none when running errands or anything (although I make sure we aren't gone for too long). Brooklyn started sleeping dry, so we made the switch to underwear at night and nap. She has wet a few times at night, but overall, still going very well.
Wow, this got long, I hope it wasn't too boring for you.
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