Hello! You’re probably here because you think it may be time to start potty training your kid. Let me start off by saying, this…
Your child will potty train.
I remember the feeling I had before potty training Elia. In my mind there was absolutely no way she could ever learn how to do this in 3 days and what I found was, the reason she wasn’t potty trained had nothing to do with her…
It was me!
Before I go into telling you how we went about potty training Elia, it’s important to know that potty training comes down to 3 very important secrets to potty training and here they are:
Secret #1 – YOU have to be ready for potty training.
Hard truth, most of the time, if your child is 2-3 years old, they are ready. Obviously this age will vary from kid to kid, but if your child is telling you that he/she is going poop, most likely, they have enough control over their bodily functions to learn where to put said poop. If you’re not ready yet, it’s ok! Being ready for potty training means moving on to the next phase of childhood with your kid and taking on a few days of craziness (and maybe some accidents).
Secret #2 – YOU have to be consistent
Notice a pattern starting here? Potty training really isn’t about your toddler, it’s about you. When it comes to training, don’t start and stop. It’s confusing for them and you just have to be dedicated to the cause. Pick a time to start and don’t ever go back. Throw out every single diaper in the house if that helps you.
Secret #3- Candy and Rewards are your BFF
Listen, most “experts” will tell you not to do this, but lucky for you, I’m not an expert. If you want to get this done fast, quick (and clean), find something small your child loves and USE IT.
There are tons and tons of books out there telling you how to do this. I bought one, read 2 pages and then realized that this can’t be rocket science. You don’t need to read a novel to teach your kid to go the bathroom. You just need to do it.
So without further ado, here is how we trained my daughter, Elia. I can’t promise this will work for every kid, but it worked really well and Elia is currently completely dry during naps and overnight for over 3 months now.
Our Potty Training Story
It was almost 2019 which meant that my daughter would be 2.5 in less than a month. My husband and I always planned to have her potty trained by that time and I was always putting it off. I had every excuse in the book (including “she’s not ready”), but ultimately, when January 1st approached, I kicked it into high gear and was determined to hit my goal and ditch those diapers.
Leading up to potty training, I let Elia know we were going to start soon by telling her for 2 weeks that we were going to say “bye bye” to her diapers. We had the potty out and let her try and go when she wanted to. She didn’t use it much, but was comfortable with it and we’d like her sit there for as long as she wanted.
Day 1
Let your kid go completely bottom free, hunker down (stay home) and pick a prize!
Being bottom free makes it SO much easier for them to go to the potty. I also found that when you have something covering their bum (like a pull-up or underwear), it feels safe and they feel like they can just pee. You may have at least one accident (I suggest towels everywhere), but for us, after one full accident and one little dribble, it never happened again.
As for the prize, we did M&Ms. Every time Elia went to the potty and successfully peed or pooped, she got to pick an M&M. We told her at the beginning of the day that this was how it was going to go. I don’t think she really understood until she made her first pee pee and we made SUCH a big deal about it and she got to pick her candy. At this age, all they wanna do is make you happy so the bigger deal you make, the better it’s going to go.
By the end of Day 1, Elia was trying to peeing every 10 minutes in the potty (because she wanted an M&M). She actually peed so many times that I was worried she had a UTI (she didn’t). That smart little bug had figured out that if she drank water, she’d pee more. Our toddlers are smarter than we think…
At the end of the day, I decided to try a pair of absorbent underwear and she peed in them very quickly. That’s when I realized that she needed an extra day of bear bum.
That night, we put a pull-up on her and knew that she would 100% pee herself over night which is totally fine. She peed herself over night. It was fine.
Day 2
This day is really a repeat of Day 1. We went bottom-less and just kind let her play with no pants on. It takes some time for them to understand and so it’s important to stay consistent.
Day 3
Our final day started very similar, but by the end of the day, we felt confident enough to put a pull-up on her.
I wasn’t about to go back to the underwear because I was worried she’d pee herself. We still stayed in the house, but I was adamant about asking her to go potty every 15 minutes or so. By this point, there was no way she was going in her pull-up. She wanted that M&M so bad and I think by this point, she had realized that it was more comfortable to pee/poop in the potty.
The Next Few Weeks
For the next 2 weeks, Elia wore pull-ups every single day and I carried around a bag of m&ms with me. As the days went on, she stopped asking for the candy every single time. And a lot of the times, if she did ask for candy, I would just say, “not now”.
She had one accident in that next 2 week period (actually at the airport). We made a REALLY big deal about it, but didn’t yell or scream and acted very disappointed. I reminded her that you never ever ever pee your underwear and for for the next hour, she told every single person in the terminal, “you don’t ever pee your underwear. Only go on the potty”.
It was hilarious.
From that moment on, Elia actually never peed during a nap or bedtime. I think having that random accident really helped cement things for her (and luckily she had on a pull-up) so it was no harm no foul.
Right around the two week mark, we decided to switch over to underwear and I wish I had done it sooner. The best way to do it is to take them with you and let them pick out their favorite characters. Elia went right for the Frozen ones. We told her she could have them, but it was very mean to pee on Elsa, Anna and Sven and she promised she wouldn’t.
To this day, she never has!
Materials to Get Started
Here are the two potty we used. This one is great for just getting started and this one is great after a few months.
If you think you child will use the “over the seat” with ladder right away, go for it! In hindsight, I wish I had tried that because transitioning them from the little potty over to that one is sort of like retraining. Not as bad, but still a transition.
When you’re out and about, you NEED this travel potty seat. It’s the only way we can get Elia to go potty in a public place. It comes with a little carrying case and fits right in your bag. MUST GET IT!
I hope this helps you! Please share with any parents who might be in need.
Love always,
Erica
