Remember when I announced I was going to potty train in one day? Well, I did it!
Here’s the video update –>
Click HERE if you are reading via email!
So, here’s the honest truth for those of you who don’t want to watch the video or want a little more information…
How I did it:
We started at 9 am. My oldest son took care of the other kids, and I locked myself and Creed in the master bedroom that has an attached bathroom because I did not want to hang out in the bathroom all day. (call me crazy)
I gathered all the little boy underwear I could find in the house. I had snacks and homemade lemonade for him. And I had my notes on how to do this thing!
It took WAY longer than I expected for him to go potty for the first time. It was 1½ hours before he finally had to go to the bathroom! He had been practicing getting on and off the toilet and washing hands and pulling off and on his pants and underwear, but when it came to that first time of going, not a chance was he going to get on the toilet.
We had been practicing every 15 minutes and rewarding him when he was dry with a treat. And yes, FINALLY, he did realize he had to go, and he was willing to get on the toilet and go! WOOT!
Something I forgot to mention in the video is that every time he went potty, we texted Daddy. Creed loves to text emojis to daddy, so this was a real treat for him! He also got it into his head that he was in a competition and had to win the potty wars. Boys are so funny – but hey, whatever works, right?!
After he had initiated going to the bathroom and actually went 3-4 times, we left the bedroom. This was around 1:30 pm. We had been in the bedroom a little over 4 hours.
Now, here’s where I deviated greatly from the book and the blog post I read.
I still asked if he needed to go potty. I still checked to see if he was dry. I still took him to the bathroom periodically because if I didn’t do these things, he had accidents. I also bribed him to go a couple of time with treats – which he quickly responded to. I decided we had to do what worked for us (and for him), not be uber-militant about the program.
So, the moment of truth…
Can you potty train in one day?
Um…not really. At least not literally – all done – no more accidents – kind of potty training. (at least not in my world!)
BUT…it was WAY more successful than ANYTHING else I had tried up to this point. Short answer – I’m pleased!
He still has very minor accidents. He still struggles to actually poo in the toilet. He still wants to change his underwear every time he goes, but we are getting there. I can handle this.
If you’re looking for the book, here it is:
rebecca says
congrats!
all of my last 3 boys in a row struggled with going poo in the potty. boy thing?? not sure!
Even though we had basic training quite successful in a week it still took them about a month to get the poop thing (or longer!).
oh well they all eventually get there!
I may have to look into this one day method a bit more for the next one (next year). she is quite the feisty little one!
Samantha Hatcher says
Something tells me I’m going to need this for Samuel. He is pretty stubborn and opinionated. Thanks for letting us know how it went and being honest about it.
Phyllis at All Things Beautiful says
I potty trained three of my five kids in this way. I wouldn’t do it any other way. And yes, it took us maybe 2 or 3 days, but they were truly potty trained at the end of those couple days and it was a happy experience for everyone. Great book!
Stephanie says
In my experience with six kids, you do the training in one day, but accidents do happen. I deviated from the book a couple times and created a little dependence on me that made the accidents last longer. So, on subsequent children, I followed the book (relaxed though, no need to be militant), and even stopped the intensity of training (still continued the dialogue for the step we were on) so we could recoup then picked up training again the next day. The two times I had to do it this way, it was absolutely worth it. Creating the independence and confidence in them that they can do it is really the goal. I saw it as dealing with all the stress of potty training crammed into just a day! It is so worth it!
Nola says
I’ve trained 3. I waited until they wanted to train except for my second child since she was nearing 3. We did discuss the idea though with all of them and read books, had the potty out, etc. so I guess that was sort of training. But it wasn’t more stress than that. I know it might sound shocking but this is how we did it. The first two barely had any accidents and those they had were only for a very short time (less than 2 weeks). They went from wet at night to dry and no issues. My third child I wasn’t even thinking of training her yet. She was 24 months old. She got an impitego infection and so I was giving her some air in her diaper area and she trained. I don’t know why she did it so easily. However she ended up having occasional accidents for about a year. I wonder if having them trained earlier means more accidents. I don’t know. I can’t claim to be any sort of expert since I’ve only had 3 kids at this point. I don’t really know if I did it right or wrong but it worked for us and it all worked out in the end! 🙂 I hope it works out nicely for you in the timing you desire!
Nola says
Oh and with child #2 who was almost 3, we told her we needed the diapers and change table for the new baby (and we did, since we use cloth) and that made sense to her. For some reason, it worked. She is very strong willed but this worked for us. I still don’t know why!
Linda S says
Hip HIp Hooray! Sounds like success to me! I’ll join you in confession — I used “potty treats” beyond the first day, and I’m sure with more than one child those little prompts and questions continued for some time. But you are exactly right when you say you have to tweak a system and use it in a way that works for you.
This reminds me that I need to share this book with my daughter who has a little boy ready and another baby on the way. Thanks for sharing your experience with us all – it’s helpful to hear how other moms get through this often daunting milestone.
Amy says
Thanks for all your tidbits of advice too, Linda! 🙂
Kelly says
I personally think potty treats are a good lesson in the reality of life for kids. They are a reward for conquering something that needs to be done, but that the child isn’t super excited to do (i.e learning to go potty in the toilet for kids, or as an adult needing to lose weight and rewarding yourself with a new outfit, etc). It’s at the parents discretion to stop the treats and then the child has to learn that they have to obey, have a good attitude when something good comes to an end, and they still have to continue in a task, even when not fun and games anymore. I’m not sure if I explained that well but that’s my 2 cents