I had planned to write about my trials in potty training my 2-year-old, but honestly…there weren’t any. (Another tick for my parenting-is-easier-than-you-think list.)
As my daughter’s second birthday approached we started considering getting her out of diapers. Bean seemed ready—she was interested in the potty and wanted to sit on it constantly. Plus, we were getting pretty tired of washing cloth diapers. (Stupid environment!)
We asked a couple with a toilet-trained 18-month-old what they had done. They referenced some book about a one-week method. A book? Who has time to read a book? A week? We’re supposed to take vacation days for this? No thanks.
Instead, I Googled “fast potty-training methods” and found that parents had success with different variations on a three-day method. I’m sure there’s a book, but I just followed advice from a BabyCenter post (with slight modifications). We planned it on a long holiday weekend and hunkered down to spend three days in close proximity to the toilet.
The Plan
Naked from the waist down for three days. Stay indoors completely on the first day. Do a short outing (less than 1 hour) on day two and a slightly longer outing (~2 hours) on day three. (Pack many changes of clothing and wipes.) Be encouraging, don’t freak out, make it fun. Reward with exuberant praise, a potty dance, and stickers. Keep doing diapers at nighttime (we’ll deal with that later).
Day One
Almost total disaster. One measley half-pee in the potty. Everything else on the floor. But we stayed positive and praised the heck out of that half-pee!
Day Two
It started to sink in. Bean was suddenly peeing in the potty about 50% of the time. Still some accidents—including a huge number-two on a bench. But we were chill and brushed it off with “That’s okay. Next time tell Mommy and Daddy when you have to poop, okay?” Our brief outing to the playground down the street wasn’t so successful. Went through two pairs of pants. Much screaming when we had to leave after exhausting our clean clothing supply.
Day Three
Even better than day two—only one accident all day. We cheated and went out to dinner to celebrate (bringing lots of clothing changes and a “piddle pad”—i.e. a flat cloth diaper). After three trips to the toilet at the restaurant (new potties are fun!), Bean peed while sitting directly on my lap. Still, a mostly successful day.
The Test: A Diaper-Free Week at Daycare
The ECE at daycare looked fairly concerned when informed her Bean was done with diapers. We left it with “Well, we’ll see how it goes…”. Well, it went great! For the whole first week her only accidents were twice at naptime and once when she didn’t make it to the toilet fast enough. The staff were impressed with our little potty pro, and so were we.
***
It’s been more than a month since we started toilet training and it’s as though Bean has used the toilet all her life. She tells us when she needs to go, and we rarely have an accident. One recent “oops” was my fault—I didn’t believe she really had to go ten minutes after going. I was proven wrong…all over the dining room floor.
We also didn’t use the little plastic training potty for more than a couple of days. (Note to parents: don’t buy an expensive one.) She has preferred the big toilet since day three. In fact, she wants to try every single toilet she discovers—seriously, I could write the potty guide to Toronto.
Potty Training Tips from a Pro Someone Who Has Done it Once
- Time it right. I think we did toilet training exactly in the sweet spot where my daughter was interested in the potty and easily swayed by praise (and stickers) and not particularly adept at “talking back”—so, when we said she had to try to pee before leaving the house, for example, she didn’t argue (much).
- Be a broken record. We asked Bean about 100 times a day if she needed to pee at first. Now we’re down to maybe five times a day.
- Watch for signs. Noticing signs that she needed to use the toilet was pretty simple: the signs tended to be holding herself and dancing around. Didn’t take a genius to figure out!
- Go nuts with praise. We did silly dances, sang songs, jumped up and down, and awarded many stickers for each successful go on the toilet—no matter how small.
- Be cool. Poop on the rug? No biggie. We’ll just wash it out and get it in the toilet next time. We were (okay I was) terrified of my child feeling ashamed of having an accident, so I did my best to really brush it off. (Big Bird said it best—love this song!) Because ultimately…
- It’s about the long-term success—not about getting there fastest or being perfect after a week, a month, or six months. My goal was to make it a natural part of life and a positive experience for Bean. So far, so good. It’s a work in progress. Isn’t everything?
PHOTO: ERIN PEACOCK/FLICKR CC
