3 Day Potty Training Method
With my first, I had no clue what to do for potty training-was literally clueless. And I was still working and didn't have a lot of time to figure it out or research it. Insert my awesome teacher friend Angie! She handed me this manual after school one day and swore by it. I took her at her word and decided this is what I would do. (Mostly because I didn't feel like looking up a bunch of other ways-and 3 days sounded nice)
The basics of the method are you say good-bye to diapers and you put them in underwear-yes even for naps and bedtime. You give them lots to drink during the day so that there is plenty of opportunity for mistakes and learning. You cut them off a few hours before bedtime. You can give a little treat each time they do make it to the potty and you make a huge deal if they go number 2. (TMI) The other component is you don't make them go every 15 minutes-you just say to them often-"tell me if you have to pee!"
With Ev, we followed it to a tee. It took about 7 days in all actuality, but we have never looked back and have never had to buy one pull up. Score! Has he had accidents over the last two years? Oh yeah, he is normal. but overall, it worked like a charm for him.
Fast forward to last week with my little girl. For some reason, I just didn't think there was any way the method was really going to work again. Not sure why I was feeling that way, either lack of confidence or lack of energy. So, the first day, we took away the diapers, said good-bye and put on underwear. We went through about 7 pairs from 4pm-6pm. No joke. We went to community group. She went through about 3 pairs in the first 20 minutes-but.........one small victory, that our sweet babysitters were so excited about. They didn't know where Alea went and they found her going pee on the potty! Go Alea! But like I was saying earlier, I wasn't really trusting the method so I put a diaper on her that night. Talk about confusing the poor child! But we slept through the night which is what I desired. Unfortunately that led me back to square one the next day and I think we went through about 14 pairs of underwear during her waking hours. And here comes the kicker!
At night I put her diaper on to go to bed and went to set up my garage sale with some friends. They heard Alea so I walk into our laundry room-well, just like she had been trained all day, she went to go on the potty with number 2 instead of just going in her diaper. But just my luck, she pretty much missed then dragged it all the way down the stairs-it was on her legs, feet, everywhere. To the bath we went. Seriously gross. And that's when it hit me how confused she was and how that was my fault. So off came the diaper and we haven't had one on since. The next day she only had 3 accidents and the following day no accidents. She is seriously rocking it. (one little side story-it is definitely different with girls though, we were at the park and there was no where to go so I took her behind the tree and let her go there-big mistake-my hubby took her to the Burger King playplace and since there is no potty in that room, she thought she could just go right there, so down came her pants in the playplace and there she went-glad I wasn't there and my hubs had to deal with that one! ha! Guess I need to go over a few more rules with her still...)
Anyways, what is the point of this post? There are a few. One is just to let you mommas know of a great method that has worked for me-maybe it will work for you! 2nd is to just encourage you if you are about to embark on this task-give yourself grace and your child grace. It is a HUGE change in their lives and we can't expect them to just figure it out the first time. 3rd, pray. At first, as usual, I thought I had it handled on my own. Nope, turns out I need God even for this. He cares about these seemingly little things-what an awesome God. Lastly, is to show how completely crazy and imperfect our life is-I think so many people think we have it all together because we are going to the mission field, but we still have all the messy days just like everyone else.
What potty training misadventures have you had? Or am I the only one whose child goes potty in a restaurant playplace? HAHA!
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| My potty trained little girl! |
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