I’m so happy to report that my little Brian is POTTY TRAINED! I honestly never thought the day would come and I am so proud of him (and of myself to be honest) for sticking it out these past couple weeks and saying farewell to diapers, though it does mean he is getting older and that makes me sort of sad.
Brian and I made the decision to gut it out with the whole 3-day bootcamp thing over Presidents Day Weekend. The temperatures were ridiculously low so we decided it was the perfect opportunity to stay in the house and let Brian run around sans diapers, ALL DAY. I bought a little potty from the baby store and kept it around us wherever we were in the house. I asked him if he had to use the potty about every half hour and if he did a little tinkle in the potty we made a HUGE deal and gave him candy (jelly beans) and stickers to put on his “potty chart” which was just a piece of paper we taped up on the wall at his height with Brian’s Potty Chart written on the top. I also bought him “big boy underpants” and we wore those on and off throughout the day. I found naked to be a little more effective as there is nothing there to catch anything that might slip out.
*Note, for a while we have been talking about the potty and showing him how it works. We also bought a bunch of potty books starting when he was around two to introduce him to the idea.
On Sunday he started getting that when he got the feeling of having to pee he should either tell us or go on his potty and we also started taking him to the toilet. He was getting annoyed with me asking every half hour and started saying “no more potty” and “I want diapers” so I laid off a bit but did not put the diapers back on. Brian read that sometimes little boys like to stand up like their dads and go pee so he started wanting to do that. All through the day we did this and every time he did something we made a huge song and dance with the candy and sticker chart.
On Monday we were pretty good. Brian was keen on using the potty for pee, but poo was a different story. For a while he had been hiding when he needed to go #2, like going to another room or in a corner where he could be “alone” so going in front of us in the potty was strange for him and took some time to get used to. I was watching him like a hawk and know his warning signs so would follow him and catch him either right before or even sometimes mid-poo and get that potty right under him. For poo we made an even huger deal cheering him on, giving him lots of candy and lots of stickers, singing “Brian did a poo-pee, Brian did a poo-pee” as we marched across the house and waving our arms in the air like lunatics.
*Note we did, and still do put diapers on him for bed and nap-time. I’ll tackle that when he starts waking up dry, for now he still wakes up very wet so I’m hoping as time goes on with no diapers during the day, he’ll want less and less to do with them at night.
By Tuesday he was borderline potty-trained. Pooping was still something I had to really watch for and errands were definitely risky but I didn’t want to go the pull-up route. I drop him at an in-home daycare run by a lady who lives across the street (talk about convenience) twice per week and she literally laughed at me when I dropped him off with underpants on. She insisted he wear pull-ups so I grudgingly agreed but guess what? He used the toilet all day and had no accidents! She was very impressed with my little guy and so was I!
At this point (a little over two weeks after the 3-day no diaper bootcamp) we are fully potty-trained! He uses the toilet himself, goes in, pulls down his pants, lifts the seat, aims into the toilet and all, all my himself. He also goes in for #2 and calls for me when he’s done to help clean him up. We’ve had very few, I’d say less than 5 accidents since we finished up that weekend and I’m so happy that we did it when we did, and that it’s OVER. It takes commitment and some serious patience to stay put for however many days you think your child needs at home before heading out without diapers, but you’ll be so happy when you don’t have to change gross human-size dirty diapers anymore.
Quick Takeaway
- Stay home for minimum of three days with no diapers on during the day
- Buy “Big Boy or Girl” underpants and use those after day 1
- buy candy in bulk and give them a piece or multiple (we’re not really sticklers about that kind of stuff so I bought jelly beans and gave him a reasonable amount for pee and more for poo)
- make a sticker chart if you think he/she will enjoy that
- watch them closely and basically chase them around with the potty the first couple days
- introduce them to the toilet to see if they prefer that
- stick it out. Once you start, do your best not to go back to diapers unless you really think he/she isn’t ready
- Once you’re ready to leave the house, always ask them to use potty first
- Buy some books about potty-training and read them frequently
- Make pooping and peeing exciting and fun, encourage them to watch you and flush toilet, wash hands, etc…
GOOD STUFF!! Sorry to all those who I disgusted with this potty talk, back to adult topics on Monday 🙂