A week ago today we decided to start potty training. A friend had recommended I try the "3 Day Potty Training" method, so I read the ebook and waited until I could set aside three straight days to hardcore potty training, and went for it. I am proud to say Jace is now offically daytime potty trained. We're still struggling with staying dry overnight, but I think that's coming in the next few days now that Jace has finally mastered emptying his bladder on command... we just have to really work on it this week.
Alot of people asked me to share a little bit of what the method we used focuses on. So I thought sharing some info, and a real accurate picture of how it went for us would help those who are planning on starting potty training soon, and serve as a reminder when I'm doing this again in a few years! Let me be very honest... it was exhausting, and at times very frustrating, but now that it's behind us I'm very glad we chose this cold-turkey method instead of dragging it out over several months.
The 3 day method says to start by throwing away all diapers and pull ups and not ever going back to them. From the moment you commit to putting your kids in underwear, you are commited. No going back! Then, after explaining to your child why you're throwing away the diapers and putting on big boy underwear ("...because you're a big boy now... we use the potty for going pee pee or poo poo now... etc") you start giving them lots of lots of fluids to drink, so that you have plenty of "learning experiences" that day. You need to stay glued to your childs side during the entire three days, playing or doing simple household chores, but no leaving the room unless they are right next to you. The point of this is so that you catch every accident while it's happening, not after.
All throughout the day you constantly remind your child to let you know when it's time to use the potty, even though they may not actually tell you until day three... so be patient. Avoid asking them directly if they "need to go to the bathroom", because this can encourage them to hold it in thinking that it's a bad thing to pee or poop. Everytime you see that they've started going to the bathroom you rush them into the bathroom and put them on the potty chair. The 3 day method is strongly against any negativity during the three days... because saying things like "Oh no!" or "No no! You don't go potty on the floor!" can scare your child away from potty training, and cause a big mess. Instead it focuses on constant positive reinforcement. Saying things like "Your underwear are wet, that's icky... let's put on dry undies. Let's keep this pair dry ok? Let mommy know when you have to go potty, ok? Good job, you're such a big boy! Mommy is so proud of you!" And yes... it gets really hard to stay optimistic and positive when you're cleaning up some "colorful" accidents a couple of days in.
Everytime your child has even the smallest victory you shower them with praise... whether it be the smallest little drip of pee in the potty chair... or keeping their underwear dry for a period of time. I rewarded Jace with stickers on a progress chart that we hung at his level in the bathroom, and that worked really well. When we were really super proud of him, he got a bigger treat like a few M&Ms or even a bowl of frozen yogurt with crushed up candy. Obviously all those victorys were rewarded with lots of clapping and cheering and a few phone calls to grandma to tell her how proud we were of Jace. Jace responded to the praise right away and wanted to continue making us proud. But let's not sugar coat it... the first 2.5 days were really really not looking good. Here's a short day by day progress report below:
Day 1: I woke up Saturday morning and took Jace's wet diaper off, I had him go throw away the diaper and then told him we were going to be throwing away the rest of his diapers too. I had him throw away two packs of diapers and explained to him that he was going to wear undies from now on and use the potty just like mommy and daddy do. He was excited to wear the undies. He didn't have any accidents until close to lunch time when he finally peed on the floor. I was starting to get worried I wasn't giving him enough to drink since he was able to hold it that long. I pushed up his fluids and quickly he was going more often, very few times did we actually make it to the potty chair. I hadn't realized exactly how committed I needed to be to not leaving his side, and doing things like dishes or cooking proved to be impossible unless I wanted to clean up large messes off of the floor and have completely missed out on "learning experiences" since I was missing the accident all together while it was happening. (It happens quickly!) That night I was going out for a friends birthday party and hadn't thought it was going to be an issue since I was going out until his bedtime, but I was wrong! Getting ready while watching him like a hawk was impossible, and he ended up having several "mini-accidents" on the floor that evening. Since he'd never been diaperless for long, he hadn't really realized when he was peeing just a little bit... so all night he would start to pee, then catch himself and stop... and then do it again 10-15 minutes later in a new pair of underwear. He was refusing to release on the potty chair. By the time I left the house for the night I wasn't feeling optimistic at all, and had wished I would have committed more this first day, because it seemed like a waste of a day without many learning experiences since I was missing so many of the little accidents in the act.
Day 2: Jace slept in and didn't wake up until 9:30 am, he was totally dry! I was so excited I thought that this was a little glimmer of hope. Unfortunately that glimmer of hope was stomped on pretty quickly because he refused to go to the bathroom all morning until around 11:30 when he peed all over the carpet in the living room. He held it again until naptime so we had absolutely no learning experiences before nap and I knew he was going to just release all over his bed... which he did. Once he woke up I started pumping him full of liquids and had committed to not leaving his side at all. That afternoon and evening he had about 45 accidents... I'm not kidding. I was constantly washing and drying underwear and at one point we were completely out because he'd peed "just a squirt" in every pair. I knew it was his way of learning how to hold his urine for the first time, but I was starting to get really discouraged as the end of day 2. I went to bed exhausted as soon as he fell asleep.
Day 3: Jace woke up sopping wet. The morning was slow again, he never really showed any signs of needing to go to the bathroom, finally he told me he had to go but ran into his bedroom thinking he was being funny... I ran after him but it was too late, he'd peed on the floor. Later on he went on the potty, but just a little bit. He had a huge change throughout the day, and had mastered holding in his pee, instead of having a bunch of mini accidents like the day before. The only thing he hadn't caught on too was how to fully release his bladder. I decided to not let him nap at his usual time and keep plugging through and pushing fluids. He was doing way better and communicating that he had to go. I was a little concerned at first that he was holding it for 4 hours or more at a time, but then I realized that I was the same way as a kid and he just has a strong bladder. He skipped his nap that day and it was totally worth it when by dinner time he had only had the one minor accident in his bedroom, and had been communicating that he needed to go potty and actually sitting on the potty chair without fighting it. Just before bedtime, he had a really big victory when he pretty much peed on command. I suggested that he empty his bladder before bedtime and he asked if "daddy go too?" so Tate went in with him and Jace emptied his entire bladder in his potty chair. I almost cried when he did that. After three days of exhaustion I finally felt like it had clicked and he "got it" that he needed to hold it in between bathroom trips and push it out and release during bathroom breaks. I went to bed sooo happy that night.
 |
| Showing off his progress chart at the end of Day 3 |
Day 4: I woke up optimistic after Jace had showed that he understood potty training. Unfortunately I had caught some sort of virus and had been up all night with a sore throat, meaning I was more exhausted and less patient than normal. So when Jace had an accident on the floor at 11 am I felt totally defeated. I think it was a combination of it being "day 4" of "three day potty training" and feeling sick. I knew the first day I wasn't as committed as I should have been so thinking he'd be fully trained by day three was a little unrealistic. We kept plugging away, but Jace hit a bit of regression and decided to test his limits all day. I knew it was normal for a toddler to test boundaries when they're going through a change, but I definitely lost my patience on day 4. I felt defeated, exhausted and hopeless. Jace was refusing to use his potty chair and pushing his boundaries all day. I considered giving up, but finally he used his potty chair that evening and I almost started crying out of joy. The regression ended before bedtime and we were back on track.
 |
| Fighting to get down during his regression period on day 4... |
Day 5: Jace slept in, but we heard him start yelling "potty! potty!" from his bedroom so we went running, he was crouched over in his room pooping and peeing on his carpet. BUT, if you look at the silver lining... he had climbed out of bed and taken off his pants and underwear first meaning his sheets and clothing were totally clean and dry. That's progress people! haha... The rest of the day he held it for 4 hours at a time and told us when he had to go. He had one more minor accident that day, but the rest of the day he was doing great and we even went out and ran errands and he came home dry.
Day 6: Thanksgiving. Jace woke up wet. He used to potty really well all day. The only accident he had was when Tate was at the gym and I was putting the turkey in the oven (aka he wasn't being watched all that closely) he came to me and said "Mommy, I poo-pooed on the floor. Come see... I sorry, I tried." I couldn't even be upset because he was so sweet about it and I couldn't really blame him... even longtime potty trained kids sometimes don't realize how fast it's really coming. :) He was accident free the rest of the day.
Day 7: Jace woke up wet again. He had been sleeping 12-13 hours a night, so I knew it was just a matter of me changing my expectations and teaching him to wake up at night to go to the bathroom, because I can't even hold my bladder that long... how could I expect that his little bladder would be able to?? Since Jace had learned his bodies signals so well in the last few days I started asking him to "try" to go to the bathroom before naptime or leaving the house. (Which is discouraged the first three days so that they learn their bodys signals on their own instead of thinking the potty chair is a place to sit and sit and sit... and sit until something happens.) It was black friday, so Jace Tate and I headed out shopping. We went to store after store after store and Jace was staying dry. Finally in our fifth store he told me he had to go potty and I rushed him into the public bathroom a little scared to see if he'd be scared of the big toilet. I set him on it facing the bowl and he immediately released and started peeing... and then he pooped. At this point he had totally mastered "pushing" and clearing himself out at the appropriate times. I was so impressed that he wasn't weirded out by the public bathroom. He stayed clean and dry the rest of the day through shopping and dinner. When we got home he emptied out again before bed.
Day 8: Today. Jace woke up wet... but otherwise has been using the potty chair every 3-4 hours and communicating beforehand. The funny thing I think is that he actually gets excited to use his potty chair now. He rushed to it and sits down and will immediately start pushing out his pee or poop. Since it's Saturday, it marks a week since we started potty training, and I would 100% say he's potty trained now, which I never would have believed a week ago. It was extremely extremely hard the first few days, but that may have been because he really wasn't showing signs of interest in potty training, so maybe it's easier if you have that head start.
All in all, I'm happy we decided to potty train when we did. We'll be going on a long road trip to MN for the holidays, but we won't be putting diapers on Jace for that. It's going to be challenging if he's not fully nighttime trained and we're staying at other people's homes while we're back. Out of respect for their bedding we'll have to put a diaper on him overnight! But otherwise, we're going to stick it out... long road trips and all. He's proven that he's old enough and physically able to, so at this point any small accidents are just normal and to be expected.
***I don't pretend to be an expert on Lora Jensen's 3-day potty training method, I'm just a mom of a child who it worked for and thought I would share some info with my friends who may read this blog. For more info on her method check out her website at 3daypottytraining.com.***
No comments:
Post a Comment