I read 3 potty training books, watched endless potty dancing videos by Huggies, made sticker charts, tried bribing them with treats, prizes, and money, and tried 3 different times over the span of the last year only to find ourselves back in diapers and pull-up each time.
Although my son is 5, he still slept in pull-ups and had issues with #2. My daughter was about to turn 3 years old, but kept saying she was scared after a few failed attempts in the past. I decided enough was enough.I wanted both kids day and night potty trained and I was going to do it if it killed me. And I did it in 5 days! Yep, 5 days later both kids were fully potty trained. To be completely honest it got much easier by day 3, but by day 5 I officially was able to call them both fully potty trained.
Want to know what i did? Of course you do. Here is a mix of what I learned from the books I read mixed with what I wanted to do. ;)
What you need to do before you start:-Have you child pick out a new potty seat.It doesn't matter if you already have one, if you child did not pick it out recently in preparation to start potty training it's not going to work.Odds are if they pick it, they will be excited to sit on it.
-Make a potty chart.
I took a scrap book page, drew a line down the middle and putt "potty" on one side and "stinks" on the other. The kids get to put a sticker on the side of what they do. (My daughter's chart shown below.)We are almost 3 weeks in and I'm still using the same chart. At this point she forgets to ask for stickers and prizes for #2. I figure a few more weeks and I'll just take it down.
This for sure beats putting up a new chart and keeping this sticker/prize/treat cycle up for months and months.
Day one: Don't get dressed moms and dads, you will get peed on, pooped on, and have to change clothes (and their clothes) many times. About 1/2 way through the day something magical happened....it clicked!
Each time my daughter had to go she would leak a bit in her pants, but make it to the toilet.
Day two: Back to the drawing board. The 1st half of the day it was like day one never happened. Pee all over my floor and saying "I don't like it" to the toilet.
Then again around lunch it clicked again. The rest of the day again with the leaking, but again with the making it to the bathroom each time.Day three: Leaking each time still, but making it the toilet and telling me when she had to go.
Day four: Telling me each time and no leaking. #2 starting in her pants, but finishing in the toilet.
Day five: Telling me each time and no leaking and no accidents.
Since then, sure there have been a oops or a leak, but even during car rides both kids just tell me when they have to go.
Do not use pull-ups! This tells your kids they have a diaper like material on and it's ok to wet the bed.
Use the potty right before bed. (For my kids this is 7:00pm)
Wake the kids up and put them on the toilet before you go to bed. I generally do this between 10 and 11:00pm.
For the first week or two you need to do an early morning pee too. I set my alarm for 4 or 5:00am and would again wake the kids up, let them go, and they would go right back to bed.
It feels mean at first to wake them up twice a night to go, but this teaches them that it's OK to get out of bed and use the bathroom.
Now almost a month in I only put them on the toilet before I go to bed, they are now able to hold it until they wake up and I even heard my son get up and go the other night at 4:00am. SCORE! ;)I must warn you this method works but is SO HARD ON YOU! lol
I didn't sleep for a week and cleaning up messes day after day plus the no sleep takes it toll on the entire household.I wanted to quit so bad by day three but I didn't. And now I have two fully potty trained kids.
In the end it was totally worth it.
Just be ready and expect it to be hard. Then be happy if it's much easier for you children then it was for mine. ;)
Good luck!
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