My Adventures with 2-day Potty Training

Sorry to my non-parent readers out there--this has been a big part of my life lately, and it needed to be blogged.

I started potty training Jacen at 11 months old. I started just by sitting him on the potty when he got up in the morning and when he went to bed at night. When he got used to that routine, we added nap time, then later after meal times. We eventually got to the point that, by bringing to the potty on a regular schedule, he would only use one diaper the whole day.

Then May cam around, Ethan graduated, started studying for the Bar, and any normalcy in our schedule fell apart. Unfortunately, so did potty training. This, I believe, was more my fault than Jacen's. He was still willing to go whenever he was put on the potty, but there were many days I simply didn't remember, or didn't have time to do so. By the time I got my act together and got back on schedule in mid July, Jacen went on strike. He was still very happy to sit on the potty, but would not go on the potty, no matter how long we sat there.

Recently, I started a new nanny job. Jacen comes with me to the family's house and plays with the kids during the day, mainly the 3-year-old, Selma. Selma is recently potty trained and is very willing to show off to anyone who will watch. She quickly discovered a very willing audience in Jacen. Early this past week he decided that he needed to sit on the potty whenever Selma did. I decided that this was a sign that he was ready to hit potty training hard.

Potty training is complicated when you aren't at home most of the time, and have 2 other kids to take care of. So when I realized that I had all of Friday and Saturday off of work, I decided to try 2-day potty training. I really have never believed strongly in quick potty training methods, but when your kid is ready, you try whatever you can.

So Friday we put Jacen in underwear. Just like that, no more diapers. I showed him how to check if his pants were wet or dry, and told him that we wanted to keep his pants dry. I make this sound simple, but it was at least 45 minutes of repeating myself over and over until he followed instructions and responded every time he was asked. Then I had him check his pants every 15 minutes the whole day and sit on the potty every hour. I also pushed liquids all day, and let him carry around a cup of juice or water the whole time. When I read about this method it seemed too simple to work.

We got through Friday with only 3 accidents. I was so impressed.

Saturday we kept up the same method, only with out the extra liquids. By 10:30 in the morning he had already had 3 accidents. He knew it wasn't going well and was clearly getting frustrated. So I put him in a diaper for the last half hour, put him down for an early nap at 11, and gave it a break. After naptime he was much better. He still had an accident in the first hour, and was so frustrated with himself that he had a tantrum like I have never seen before. To lessen the stress a little bit, we decided to get him out of the house. We put a pull-up on him, and went to the mall. Even though we were out of the house, we kept up our method, asking every 15 minutes if he was wet or dry, and taking a tour through the family restroom every hour. He kept his pull-up dry until he fell asleep in the car on the way home.

So today we put underwear on him again. This morning we had a breakthrough--he started saying "uh-oh" when he needed to go potty. So now he had a way to communicate with us when he needed to go. He wore a pull-up to church today, but I was told by the nursery workers that he went on the potty with the rest of the "big kids" in the nursery. And after nap he wore underwear again, and kept them dry the whole time. We were accident free today! I never thought it was possible three days later.

So did it work? Is he potty trained? That depends on how you define it. Is he capable of getting to the potty on his own with no help and staying dry all day? Not by a long shot. Do I feel confidant putting him in underwear knowing that with my help getting to the potty on time accidents will be minimal? Absolutely. I also really think the method needed that third day of intensive training to solidify it. But the fact that he is as comfortable using a public restroom and going with the help of a nursery worker who he doesn't know, not just Mommy, is huge. And I would much rather run to the potty every hour than change poopy diapers.