3 Day Potty Training Success
Let me start by saying I was the 3 day potty training's #1 critic up until two weeks ago. I thought the idea was insane and unrealistic. Then my middle child, the difficult one, turned three years old and had zero interest in going potty. I have a daughter that is just 17 months younger and I was done with having two kids in diapers.
With no motivation on his end I started strategizing. I'd heard about the 3 day potty training idea from some family who had tried it but I still wasn't sold. I started my own research. A lot of what you find on the internet is stuff you have to pay for: books, watches and other such fluff. I'm not into fluff so I took what I had heard and created my own plan.
Here it is!
Preparation
Nothing. Really, nothing. The only preparation I did was to tell my 3 year old as I was putting him to bed that he was going to start using the big boy potty tomorrow. To which responded, 'No, no potty.'
Day 1
The second he woke up the next morning, I reminded him that he was using the big boy potty today and that we needed to say goodbye to his diapers. After some convincing, he took his diaper off, we walked to the trash together and threw it away and said bye-bye to his diapers. He hasn't worn one since. Not even at bed time. At this point you have two choices, let your child go commando for the next three days or put underwear on them. I used a combination of both but would start with underwear from the beginning if I did it again.
The idea is to set a timer (on your phone, your stove or any other time you choose) and to take your child to the potty every time the timer goes off. To make it through the day we started with a 15 minute timer, which is what was recommended to me. We then moved to a 20 minute timer; that seemed to fit us a little bit better. I used this app on my iPhone (you can also get it on android here) and my son LOVED it. Each time his timer would go off I would play the potty time song and he loved it. Careful, it's a catchy tune. I still sing it.
The first day he had a few accidents. The key to this method is not shaming your child or embarrassing them for having an accident. I did include my son in cleaning up the mess and that seemed to help too. Also, with the potty time app, you can call Rachel (the singer in the songs) for successes and accidents. My son thought that was the coolest thing. After he would go potty he'd want to call Rachel and tell her. I was surprised how much this motivated him. Plus each time he did successfully use the potty he got some M&M's. (If you don't have some type of reward on hand you may want to add that to your preparation).
Basically every 20 minutes ALL.DAY.LONG. we stopped what we were doing and tried to go potty. I started the day with him wearing a big t-shirt and no underwear then thought he might like having underwear on. I messed up on the combination part because once he tried to go and forgot he had underwear on, sat on the potty and peed in his underwear. He was pretty sad about it. When I do it with my next child I will start off with underwear so they get used to taking them on and off. Totally up to you!
By the end of day 1 my son even stopped what he was doing and ran to the potty all by himself. He got extra M&M's for doing it on his own. Plus I was so proud!
Then came BEDTIME...dun dun dun. I was terrified to put him to bed in underwear. I was tempted to put a pull-up on but didn't want to confuse him since we already said bye-bye to his diapers. I made sure he used the potty right before bed and cut him off from any liquids before 7pm. I'd been told to wake him up once in the middle of the night to go but I wasn't about to wake him up so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
Day 2
Woke up to dry underwear!! It was like Christmas morning!!!!! I was so excited which made my son excited!
Day 2 was the worst day of it all!!! We started over with the 20 minute timer, the potty time app and lots of M&M's but it was just hard. My son complained about going almost every time the timer went off...which is a lot of complaining in one day. But we stuck it out. I'm pretty sure I was rewarded with more M&M's on this day than he was.
Despite the challenge he had only two accidents on this day. We followed the same bedtime routine and hoped for the best.
Day 3
Again, we woke up to dry underwear!! I was in shock...I thought for sure we would've had way more accident than this.
We started our routine right away...every 20 minutes sitting on the potty. I did something on day 3 that probably isn't the best idea but it worked for us. I had a funeral to attend and didn't want to miss it so I called my sister to watch the kids while I went. I detailed our scheduled to her and hoped she would follow it. She did awesome, thanks Melissa!! Surprisingly he did his first poop on the potty while I was gone and didn't have a single accident.
It's been smooth sailing ever since!
We have had one night time accident in two weeks because he ate way too much watermelon before bed but have had no other accidents. Going out and about hasn't been challenging at all. He actually enjoys going potty anywhere he is.
It's like a miracle!!!
Like I said in the beginning I was 100% skeptical of potty training this way. I am so glad I took the plunge. I will definitely try this with my daughter when its her turn but for now I am thankful to have only one child in diapers.
If you have any questions about this method or want more details on anything feel free to email me or comment below. I'll be happy to answer.
Here's to hoping you can give your son or daughter one of these:
Until next time!
With no motivation on his end I started strategizing. I'd heard about the 3 day potty training idea from some family who had tried it but I still wasn't sold. I started my own research. A lot of what you find on the internet is stuff you have to pay for: books, watches and other such fluff. I'm not into fluff so I took what I had heard and created my own plan.
Here it is!
Preparation
Nothing. Really, nothing. The only preparation I did was to tell my 3 year old as I was putting him to bed that he was going to start using the big boy potty tomorrow. To which responded, 'No, no potty.'
Day 1
The second he woke up the next morning, I reminded him that he was using the big boy potty today and that we needed to say goodbye to his diapers. After some convincing, he took his diaper off, we walked to the trash together and threw it away and said bye-bye to his diapers. He hasn't worn one since. Not even at bed time. At this point you have two choices, let your child go commando for the next three days or put underwear on them. I used a combination of both but would start with underwear from the beginning if I did it again.
The idea is to set a timer (on your phone, your stove or any other time you choose) and to take your child to the potty every time the timer goes off. To make it through the day we started with a 15 minute timer, which is what was recommended to me. We then moved to a 20 minute timer; that seemed to fit us a little bit better. I used this app on my iPhone (you can also get it on android here) and my son LOVED it. Each time his timer would go off I would play the potty time song and he loved it. Careful, it's a catchy tune. I still sing it.
The first day he had a few accidents. The key to this method is not shaming your child or embarrassing them for having an accident. I did include my son in cleaning up the mess and that seemed to help too. Also, with the potty time app, you can call Rachel (the singer in the songs) for successes and accidents. My son thought that was the coolest thing. After he would go potty he'd want to call Rachel and tell her. I was surprised how much this motivated him. Plus each time he did successfully use the potty he got some M&M's. (If you don't have some type of reward on hand you may want to add that to your preparation).
Basically every 20 minutes ALL.DAY.LONG. we stopped what we were doing and tried to go potty. I started the day with him wearing a big t-shirt and no underwear then thought he might like having underwear on. I messed up on the combination part because once he tried to go and forgot he had underwear on, sat on the potty and peed in his underwear. He was pretty sad about it. When I do it with my next child I will start off with underwear so they get used to taking them on and off. Totally up to you!
By the end of day 1 my son even stopped what he was doing and ran to the potty all by himself. He got extra M&M's for doing it on his own. Plus I was so proud!
Then came BEDTIME...dun dun dun. I was terrified to put him to bed in underwear. I was tempted to put a pull-up on but didn't want to confuse him since we already said bye-bye to his diapers. I made sure he used the potty right before bed and cut him off from any liquids before 7pm. I'd been told to wake him up once in the middle of the night to go but I wasn't about to wake him up so I just crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.
Day 2
Woke up to dry underwear!! It was like Christmas morning!!!!! I was so excited which made my son excited!
Day 2 was the worst day of it all!!! We started over with the 20 minute timer, the potty time app and lots of M&M's but it was just hard. My son complained about going almost every time the timer went off...which is a lot of complaining in one day. But we stuck it out. I'm pretty sure I was rewarded with more M&M's on this day than he was.
Despite the challenge he had only two accidents on this day. We followed the same bedtime routine and hoped for the best.
Day 3
Again, we woke up to dry underwear!! I was in shock...I thought for sure we would've had way more accident than this.
We started our routine right away...every 20 minutes sitting on the potty. I did something on day 3 that probably isn't the best idea but it worked for us. I had a funeral to attend and didn't want to miss it so I called my sister to watch the kids while I went. I detailed our scheduled to her and hoped she would follow it. She did awesome, thanks Melissa!! Surprisingly he did his first poop on the potty while I was gone and didn't have a single accident.
It's been smooth sailing ever since!
We have had one night time accident in two weeks because he ate way too much watermelon before bed but have had no other accidents. Going out and about hasn't been challenging at all. He actually enjoys going potty anywhere he is.
It's like a miracle!!!
Like I said in the beginning I was 100% skeptical of potty training this way. I am so glad I took the plunge. I will definitely try this with my daughter when its her turn but for now I am thankful to have only one child in diapers.
If you have any questions about this method or want more details on anything feel free to email me or comment below. I'll be happy to answer.
Here's to hoping you can give your son or daughter one of these:
Until next time!
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