Potty Training
I am no expert but here's our experience!
I had no intention of potty training Brooks this soon. I was in no rush and thought if Brooks was ready, we'd maybe do it Conference weekend in April. Well we welcomed in 2019 with Brooks randomly asking me, "Mama, potty training?"
UHM. Where did you learn that? So I explained to him what it was and we'd talk about it every time he brought it up. I've had a mini potty in his bathroom since he was about 18 months old but had no expectations for him to use it- it also doubles as his stool. Since he turned two we'd periodically use it or sit on it when he wanted to go.
He was showing readiness signs for months- being interested in the toilet, waking up from naps dry, having a dry diapers for 2+ hours, being able to pull down his pants, pulling at wet/dirty diapers and Brooks started to HATE having his dirty diapers changed. We talked about it about and he wanted to do it so the last week of February, we went and bought some super cool undies and bought some prizes. We bought this super cool school bus that he picked out (at a 2nd hand store) for a "poop prize" and understood that it was a prize for going poop on the potty. He went home that day and pooped on the potty! The determination! I did save the school bus for when we actually started potty training though.
SUPPLIES I BOUGHT
Cool undies - we bought 20 pairs
Mini toilet or toilet seat - I bought one that did both and is a step stool
Pull ups - for naps and nighttime (more about this below)
Pee pads - as in pet training pee pads, SO HELPFUL to put on the couch or on my lap
Carpet cleaner - for obvious reasons
Flush-able wipes - VERY helpful for going #2
Prizes - the school bus mentioned above and a book (also from a 2nd hand store a.k.a. CHEAP!) I also had some other cool books that I didn't have to purchase
Stickers - for a fun sticker chart
And then I already had candy/treats left over from ALL the holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines day etc...), and lots of clorox wipes!
ACTIVITIES
I prepped some fun easy (and free!) activities that might keep him in the same spot for a little longer than normal = less mess! And no screens so he can pay attention to his body,
Animal Rescue (from Busy Toddler), Sorting Bears, Sensory Bin, Race Cars, Card Slot, Crayon Push, Magnets, then of course coloring and playdough
THE GAME PLAN
So I did what every mom does and scoured the internet for hours consuming everything I possibly could about a topic. I read blogs, vlogs, articles, tips tricks, ALL THE THINGS for a couple nights then put together a game plan of what I thought would work best for Brooks.
The plan was to give him all the salty snacks and juice he wanted, have a timer set, do a sticker chart to work for big prizes and have a small treat for every success. For every miss we'd change and clean it up together. I never wanted him to feel upset or ashamed for an accident (I actually never called it an accident in front of him. I wasn't sure he knew that word, I'd just say we missed) but I did want him to see the consequences that we had to clean it up together.
I picked a week when we didn't have anything going on and could hole up for at least 3 days and decided to give it a go. I was fully prepared to not push it if Brooks reacted differently or was really upset about it.
MONDAY DAY 1
First thing that morning I took care of ME haha! I knew it potentially could be a hard day all about Brooks so we ate breakfast, I did my workout, showered and got ready. Then around 9am we put some undies on, gave him pretzels and juice then set a 10 minute timer. I tried to confine him to his room (less space to clean up) and every 10 minutes we'd run to the potty and try to go. With in an hour we have our first accident (but it happened on the towel in front of the bathroom-easy clean up!) I probably would have caught it too if a church thing hadn't come up that I was trying to resolve. I was surprised it took that long but we changed, cleaned it up, put on a new pair of undies and kept going every 10 minutes.
The second accident I heard it start and said, "OH! Let's go sit on the potty!" He stopped, ran with me and finished in the toilet- yay! After that I kept reminding him to drink some juice and we sat on the potty every 10 minutes until lunch and his nap. We went a couple more times in the potty and we avoided accidents. I put him in a pull up for nap (lucky for Brooks they're Thomas the Train) and it was full when he woke up.
After nap we sat every 10 minutes on the potty. We had one more accident in the kitchen (on the tile, yay!), had dinner and continued every 10 minutes until I put him in a pull up for bed time. He got his first prize from his sticker chart at the end of the day- a new book about construction trucks.
DAY 1 STATS: 28 sits, 3 accidents, 3 pees, 0 poops
I'll be honest I was DRAGGING by dinner. You have to be so attentive, positive, high energy, PATIENT, encouraging, excited ALL DAY. I fell asleep during his nap and took a lot of ibuprofen by dinner. However I will say day 1 was the hardest. You have to dig in, grit and get through it because it slowly got better for us.
TUESDAY DAY 2
I didn't feel as much of a need to keep him in one spot and I was less anxious about him peeing everywhere or maybe I just accepted my fate? HA! We set our timer for 15 minutes, gave him some juice and we were off. Brooks also decided that because Daniel Tiger sits on the big potty, he wanted to as well, so that's what we did! He had an accident in the morning but also had a lot of successes too. He was going ham on the juice so he had a lot of opportunities to learn. Right before lunch he barely started to go (I'm talking 2 drops here) caught himself, told me and we ran to the bathroom and he made it! Such a win!
He woke up from his nap with a dry pull up which was surprising to me, but hey I'll take it! He had one more accident in the afternoon (carpet this time, but we cleaned it up together) and kept trying to sit every 15 minutes. A couple of times Brooks wouldn't want to sit and I would coerce, pick him up and dance with him to the bathroom to make him laugh, just anything to "force" him to sit without it being a negative experience. I straight up bribed him a couple times, especially when that juice cup was empty and he hadn't gone yet.
He filled up his sticker chart and got 2 more big prizes- new SkippyJon Jones books. I didn't buy these, I already had them. Brooks has learned to be very good with soft paged reading books so I got these ones down for him too as prizes,
DAY 2 STATS: 29 sits, 2.5 accidents, 14 pees, 0 poops
I wasn't as burnt out as day 1. Every 15 minutes didn't wear me out like every 10 did. I still needed a brownie sundae during nap time to make it through but it was much more doable. We even had a little TV time and he did good. I avoided any TV so far because he does get to watch it, he really zones out. I wanted him to be aware and paying attention to his body.
WEDNESDAY DAY 3
The big goal for today was poop. He's a poop-most-days kind of kid and it had been at least 4 days so I knew it was time. I also think he might have woken up from overnight in a dry pull up? It was hard for me to tell but I can dream HA!
This day I backed off on the juice and wanted to kind of have a more normal day. Our timer started at every 20 minutes then it kinda went to every 30 minutes and I kind of wanted to see if he knew when he needed to go. I worked out, showered and got ready all while he was in underwear. He watches a show while I shower and I totally put a pee pad under him on the couch but he stayed dry! We had an accident free morning and he only went on the potty!
After lunch is when his biological clock kicks in for number two so I was preparing my lunch (he already ate) and watching him like a hawk trying to remind him, "Let me know if you need to go..." I sit down, take one bite of my lunch and hear his tiny feet on the bathroom floor. I run to the bathroom and he's got his undies down and he's getting on toilet BY HIMSELF AH!!! I read a book to him (he likes to read while he poops, like when he was in diapers he'd grab books, go behind his chair and do his business) and he did it! We celebrated BIG. He got a sticker on his chart, a sucker and his poop prize - the School Bus.
He spent the next hour playing with the bus and hysterically laughing at it - such a win! After his nap he went to the bathroom, with some reminding from me but no timers and was accident free until bed time!
DAY THREE STATS: 10 sits, 0 accidents, 5 pees, 1 poop
I had much less anxiety this day and I felt he had good control of his bowels that I wasn't afraid for him to sit on the couch or on me. My heart was so happy to see him celebrate his successes and love his new school bus so much!
DAY 4-7
Day 4 we had some friends come over and play to see how he did with some distraction. I gently tried to remind him to pay attention to his body even though he was playing. Every day was different after that but there was one day where he had 8 accidents in one morning! could have been day 5? Huge regression and I was so confused and frustrated. Does he not get it, does he not want to do it anymore? He took a GIANT nap that day and everything went back to normal afterward. I think he was just as tired as I was. He was learning a new skill all week which required more effort and skill and he was just burnt out too. But like I said when he woke up from his nap everything went back to normal. Day 5 we even went out to Chick Fil A for dinner and he stayed dry, that was our first outing. Success! I even took him into the potty to sit and try just to experience it.
We also had our first day at church. In our nursery they have this cute mini bathroom which is so perfect. Dan took him to the bathroom before, he didn't go but he was in a pull up so we weren't worried and we kind of assumed he'd just go in his pull-up? But his nursery leader pulled me in because he was showing signs of holding it and having to go. I went in and took him to the bathroom, he went and his pull up was dry- we were so proud of him!
I took him on small errands and made sure he tried right before and right after we went. Quick trip to the library, small errand at walmart, playing at a friends, when I felt brave we did a costco trip. When I could, I'd almost always take him into the bathroom there and have him try so that 1. He would know there are bathrooms almost everywhere and 2. So he wouldn't be afraid of an unfamiliar toilet.
DAYS 8-14
Now I do want to say it wasn't all perfect from here on out- poop was very hit or miss. He had gone twice before with little issue but the third and fourth time were hard. He's still learning how to control those muscles and was battling the worst bum rash he's ever had (so bizarre). Some ended up in his pull up, some in his underwear and some in his toilet. By the 5th time it was still kind of hard but he gets it all on the toilet.
Naps and night time he's still in pull ups and sometimes he wakes up dry. I've read overnight dryness is more of a developmental thing at this age so I'm not pushing it but I do cut off the liquids after dinner to try to help.
On day 15 Dad taught him how to stand up and pee and he is ALL over that! He's actually even better at it when he stands, which floored me. It's also easier when we're out and about. So yeah, there's that!
I'm writing this last portion on day 16 and I'm almost in unbelief like- did we do it? Is he potty trained? There's no loud voice congratulating you and handing you a prize so it's hard to know but our accidents are becoming very infrequent and I've ran out of jelly beans for pee prizes so- WE DID IT!.
One Month Later
Brooks is fully potty trained and everyday I'm still surprised but so proud that he did it! Accidents have happened in the last month but they're rare. Brooks is now obsessed with seeing all the new toilets where ever we go which at times can be challenging but I will take that over dirty diapers! We slowly tapered off (or ran out) of stickers for his chart and jelly beans for every time he went, he still gets a dumdum sucker for #2 because why not! I remind him to try before we go somewhere and when we get home. He loved watching the Daniel Tiger Potty Training episode (Season 2 Episode 1 - it's on Amazon Prime) and that helped encourage him.
So there's our experience, we did it! Good luck to all you parents out there!
I had no intention of potty training Brooks this soon. I was in no rush and thought if Brooks was ready, we'd maybe do it Conference weekend in April. Well we welcomed in 2019 with Brooks randomly asking me, "Mama, potty training?"
UHM. Where did you learn that? So I explained to him what it was and we'd talk about it every time he brought it up. I've had a mini potty in his bathroom since he was about 18 months old but had no expectations for him to use it- it also doubles as his stool. Since he turned two we'd periodically use it or sit on it when he wanted to go.
He was showing readiness signs for months- being interested in the toilet, waking up from naps dry, having a dry diapers for 2+ hours, being able to pull down his pants, pulling at wet/dirty diapers and Brooks started to HATE having his dirty diapers changed. We talked about it about and he wanted to do it so the last week of February, we went and bought some super cool undies and bought some prizes. We bought this super cool school bus that he picked out (at a 2nd hand store) for a "poop prize" and understood that it was a prize for going poop on the potty. He went home that day and pooped on the potty! The determination! I did save the school bus for when we actually started potty training though.
SUPPLIES I BOUGHT
Cool undies - we bought 20 pairs
Mini toilet or toilet seat - I bought one that did both and is a step stool
Pull ups - for naps and nighttime (more about this below)
Pee pads - as in pet training pee pads, SO HELPFUL to put on the couch or on my lap
Carpet cleaner - for obvious reasons
Flush-able wipes - VERY helpful for going #2
Prizes - the school bus mentioned above and a book (also from a 2nd hand store a.k.a. CHEAP!) I also had some other cool books that I didn't have to purchase
Stickers - for a fun sticker chart
And then I already had candy/treats left over from ALL the holidays (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines day etc...), and lots of clorox wipes!
ACTIVITIES
I prepped some fun easy (and free!) activities that might keep him in the same spot for a little longer than normal = less mess! And no screens so he can pay attention to his body,
Animal Rescue (from Busy Toddler), Sorting Bears, Sensory Bin, Race Cars, Card Slot, Crayon Push, Magnets, then of course coloring and playdough
THE GAME PLAN
So I did what every mom does and scoured the internet for hours consuming everything I possibly could about a topic. I read blogs, vlogs, articles, tips tricks, ALL THE THINGS for a couple nights then put together a game plan of what I thought would work best for Brooks.
The plan was to give him all the salty snacks and juice he wanted, have a timer set, do a sticker chart to work for big prizes and have a small treat for every success. For every miss we'd change and clean it up together. I never wanted him to feel upset or ashamed for an accident (I actually never called it an accident in front of him. I wasn't sure he knew that word, I'd just say we missed) but I did want him to see the consequences that we had to clean it up together.
Towels from his room to the bathroom came in handy a lot for dribbles. The pee pad under that little potty was also so helpful!
I picked a week when we didn't have anything going on and could hole up for at least 3 days and decided to give it a go. I was fully prepared to not push it if Brooks reacted differently or was really upset about it.
Bucket and shout for dirty laundry, towels and carpet cleaner for accidents. Extra underwear, clorox, baby wipes and hand santizer.
MONDAY DAY 1
First thing that morning I took care of ME haha! I knew it potentially could be a hard day all about Brooks so we ate breakfast, I did my workout, showered and got ready. Then around 9am we put some undies on, gave him pretzels and juice then set a 10 minute timer. I tried to confine him to his room (less space to clean up) and every 10 minutes we'd run to the potty and try to go. With in an hour we have our first accident (but it happened on the towel in front of the bathroom-easy clean up!) I probably would have caught it too if a church thing hadn't come up that I was trying to resolve. I was surprised it took that long but we changed, cleaned it up, put on a new pair of undies and kept going every 10 minutes.
The second accident I heard it start and said, "OH! Let's go sit on the potty!" He stopped, ran with me and finished in the toilet- yay! After that I kept reminding him to drink some juice and we sat on the potty every 10 minutes until lunch and his nap. We went a couple more times in the potty and we avoided accidents. I put him in a pull up for nap (lucky for Brooks they're Thomas the Train) and it was full when he woke up.
After nap we sat every 10 minutes on the potty. We had one more accident in the kitchen (on the tile, yay!), had dinner and continued every 10 minutes until I put him in a pull up for bed time. He got his first prize from his sticker chart at the end of the day- a new book about construction trucks.
DAY 1 STATS: 28 sits, 3 accidents, 3 pees, 0 poops
I'll be honest I was DRAGGING by dinner. You have to be so attentive, positive, high energy, PATIENT, encouraging, excited ALL DAY. I fell asleep during his nap and took a lot of ibuprofen by dinner. However I will say day 1 was the hardest. You have to dig in, grit and get through it because it slowly got better for us.
TUESDAY DAY 2
I didn't feel as much of a need to keep him in one spot and I was less anxious about him peeing everywhere or maybe I just accepted my fate? HA! We set our timer for 15 minutes, gave him some juice and we were off. Brooks also decided that because Daniel Tiger sits on the big potty, he wanted to as well, so that's what we did! He had an accident in the morning but also had a lot of successes too. He was going ham on the juice so he had a lot of opportunities to learn. Right before lunch he barely started to go (I'm talking 2 drops here) caught himself, told me and we ran to the bathroom and he made it! Such a win!
He woke up from his nap with a dry pull up which was surprising to me, but hey I'll take it! He had one more accident in the afternoon (carpet this time, but we cleaned it up together) and kept trying to sit every 15 minutes. A couple of times Brooks wouldn't want to sit and I would coerce, pick him up and dance with him to the bathroom to make him laugh, just anything to "force" him to sit without it being a negative experience. I straight up bribed him a couple times, especially when that juice cup was empty and he hadn't gone yet.
He filled up his sticker chart and got 2 more big prizes- new SkippyJon Jones books. I didn't buy these, I already had them. Brooks has learned to be very good with soft paged reading books so I got these ones down for him too as prizes,
DAY 2 STATS: 29 sits, 2.5 accidents, 14 pees, 0 poops
I wasn't as burnt out as day 1. Every 15 minutes didn't wear me out like every 10 did. I still needed a brownie sundae during nap time to make it through but it was much more doable. We even had a little TV time and he did good. I avoided any TV so far because he does get to watch it, he really zones out. I wanted him to be aware and paying attention to his body.
WEDNESDAY DAY 3
The big goal for today was poop. He's a poop-most-days kind of kid and it had been at least 4 days so I knew it was time. I also think he might have woken up from overnight in a dry pull up? It was hard for me to tell but I can dream HA!
This day I backed off on the juice and wanted to kind of have a more normal day. Our timer started at every 20 minutes then it kinda went to every 30 minutes and I kind of wanted to see if he knew when he needed to go. I worked out, showered and got ready all while he was in underwear. He watches a show while I shower and I totally put a pee pad under him on the couch but he stayed dry! We had an accident free morning and he only went on the potty!
After lunch is when his biological clock kicks in for number two so I was preparing my lunch (he already ate) and watching him like a hawk trying to remind him, "Let me know if you need to go..." I sit down, take one bite of my lunch and hear his tiny feet on the bathroom floor. I run to the bathroom and he's got his undies down and he's getting on toilet BY HIMSELF AH!!! I read a book to him (he likes to read while he poops, like when he was in diapers he'd grab books, go behind his chair and do his business) and he did it! We celebrated BIG. He got a sticker on his chart, a sucker and his poop prize - the School Bus.
He spent the next hour playing with the bus and hysterically laughing at it - such a win! After his nap he went to the bathroom, with some reminding from me but no timers and was accident free until bed time!
No he didn't poop THAT many times, he just started putting them everywhere and I didn't care.
DAY THREE STATS: 10 sits, 0 accidents, 5 pees, 1 poop
I had much less anxiety this day and I felt he had good control of his bowels that I wasn't afraid for him to sit on the couch or on me. My heart was so happy to see him celebrate his successes and love his new school bus so much!
DAY 4-7
Day 4 we had some friends come over and play to see how he did with some distraction. I gently tried to remind him to pay attention to his body even though he was playing. Every day was different after that but there was one day where he had 8 accidents in one morning! could have been day 5? Huge regression and I was so confused and frustrated. Does he not get it, does he not want to do it anymore? He took a GIANT nap that day and everything went back to normal afterward. I think he was just as tired as I was. He was learning a new skill all week which required more effort and skill and he was just burnt out too. But like I said when he woke up from his nap everything went back to normal. Day 5 we even went out to Chick Fil A for dinner and he stayed dry, that was our first outing. Success! I even took him into the potty to sit and try just to experience it.
We also had our first day at church. In our nursery they have this cute mini bathroom which is so perfect. Dan took him to the bathroom before, he didn't go but he was in a pull up so we weren't worried and we kind of assumed he'd just go in his pull-up? But his nursery leader pulled me in because he was showing signs of holding it and having to go. I went in and took him to the bathroom, he went and his pull up was dry- we were so proud of him!
I took him on small errands and made sure he tried right before and right after we went. Quick trip to the library, small errand at walmart, playing at a friends, when I felt brave we did a costco trip. When I could, I'd almost always take him into the bathroom there and have him try so that 1. He would know there are bathrooms almost everywhere and 2. So he wouldn't be afraid of an unfamiliar toilet.
DAYS 8-14
Now I do want to say it wasn't all perfect from here on out- poop was very hit or miss. He had gone twice before with little issue but the third and fourth time were hard. He's still learning how to control those muscles and was battling the worst bum rash he's ever had (so bizarre). Some ended up in his pull up, some in his underwear and some in his toilet. By the 5th time it was still kind of hard but he gets it all on the toilet.
Naps and night time he's still in pull ups and sometimes he wakes up dry. I've read overnight dryness is more of a developmental thing at this age so I'm not pushing it but I do cut off the liquids after dinner to try to help.
On day 15 Dad taught him how to stand up and pee and he is ALL over that! He's actually even better at it when he stands, which floored me. It's also easier when we're out and about. So yeah, there's that!
I'm writing this last portion on day 16 and I'm almost in unbelief like- did we do it? Is he potty trained? There's no loud voice congratulating you and handing you a prize so it's hard to know but our accidents are becoming very infrequent and I've ran out of jelly beans for pee prizes so- WE DID IT!.
One Month Later
Brooks is fully potty trained and everyday I'm still surprised but so proud that he did it! Accidents have happened in the last month but they're rare. Brooks is now obsessed with seeing all the new toilets where ever we go which at times can be challenging but I will take that over dirty diapers! We slowly tapered off (or ran out) of stickers for his chart and jelly beans for every time he went, he still gets a dumdum sucker for #2 because why not! I remind him to try before we go somewhere and when we get home. He loved watching the Daniel Tiger Potty Training episode (Season 2 Episode 1 - it's on Amazon Prime) and that helped encourage him.
So there's our experience, we did it! Good luck to all you parents out there!
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