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Potty Trained in 3 days?!?

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Today marks exactly one week since Cruz last used a diaper! To be honest I am quite shocked!

I wanted to write this blog post for a few reasons… The first one being that I’m going to be potty training another toddler in a few years and it will be nice to come back and look at this post to remember how it worked with Cruz. Secondly I wanted to share my experience in case it helps or gives new ideas to anyone else who follows my blog. And thirdly if anyone reading has any tips for us.. We are only one week into potty training and I can guarantee accidents will happen in the future and we will be presented with new challenges. Feel free to comment below or message me to let me know of anything you think might help us! Thank you!

I’m not writing this blog post to brag or make anyone feel bad that their child is not yet potty trained. Trust me that is not my intention! I fully believe that it will only happen successfully if the child is ready but in my opinion it’s never too early to introduce them to using the potty or to talking about it with them. I’m not an expert as he’s only been out of diapers for one week but I wanted to share our experience up until this point.

Let’s start back at the beginning of our potty training journey. Probably almost a year ago I bought Cruz a small potty from Ikea and started introducing it to him. This potty chair was only $9.99 and has been working great for keeping in the living room. He also enjoys using the “big potty” in the bathroom.

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He never once actually used it to go poop or pee in all those months I had it sitting in our bathroom. I would have him try before or after a bath and he mainly liked to wear it as a hat. I was feeling a little frustrated because many of my friends who are also moms were telling me that their toddlers would use the potty once in a while when they would sit them on it. It’s in his personality to be very stubborn so I had already come to terms that learning to use the potty might be a very long drawn out process.

I bought him a book to help explain that everyone goes potty and would make sure when he was in the bathroom with me I would talk to him about it. Although I was anxious for him to start using the potty I really tried to keep a gentle approach about it. The last thing I wanted was to force him into going on it and causing him to have a potty complex and delay it even more.

When he turned 21 months he started to really hate having his diaper changed. He just did not want to wear diapers anymore and I felt like I was wrestling a crocodile trying to put one on him.

After a month of him fighting me every diaper change I finally just decided last Monday to let him be without one. We were at home and I just let him run around naked. I brought his potty chair out into the living room and told him if he wanted to be diaper free he needed to use the potty to poop or pee in. For the first time ever he sat down on it and went pee!!! His face lit up when I started dancing around the living room clapping my hands and cheering for him! He loved the positive attention that going potty brought him.

I had not researched anything about potty training at that point and wasn’t even sure if he or I were really ready to try to make it happen. Since I knew he would need to poop soon and I wasn’t sure he would make it to the potty I decided to put a diaper on him. While I was in the kitchen preparing our breakfast he had ran into his playroom and started to take off his diaper. Unfortunately, he must have been pooping at the same time. He ran out to me and said “Mommy! Poop!” I saw he had his diaper half on and I was terrified of how much of a mess he had made. Thankfully the mess was only on him and not in the playroom. I told him that if he doesn’t want to poop in his diaper he needs to use the potty. So far that was his first and last poop accident.

I did some research and discovered the 3 day potty training method. I was quite skeptical that in only 3 days a child could potty train but decided to go along with it anyway. Following the plan I continued to let him be naked from the waist down, encouraging him to use his potty and see how it went. It clicked for him right away! I put a diaper on him at nap and bedtime for the first two days until I realized he was waking up dry each time and decided to brave letting him sleep commando! I’m shocked that he’s able to keep dry because he used to be a heavy wetter and soak through his cloth diapers at night. We ended up having to have him wear heavy duty 12 hour disposables!

Definitely read more about the method to learn exactly how to go about doing it but basically during the 3 days you stay home and really focus on potty training and making it fun for the child. You want them to be proud of their accomplishments and not be stressed out. I extended it for us to be a week long process as we didn’t really have plans to be anywhere. I plan to keep him naked from the waist down for the next few months while at home for as long as he needs to become fully comfortable with using the potty freely.

We’ve hit a few bumps along the way… Sometimes he flat out refuses to try to go potty. In those moments rewards work well for him. Gummy bears especially! Other times when I know he needs to poop and I’m trying to leave the house I’ll have him sit on the potty playing educational games on the iPad and that helps relax and distract him enough to be able to go.

Overall, I think we got really lucky that he responded well to the method and hasn’t had any accidents yet besides the first day. *scratch that* This morning he did have an accident and peed his pants while distracted and playing with a friend.

What has really worked for us so far is keeping him naked from the waist down. I’ve found he’s better off not even wearing underwear but just wear loose fitting pants if he must wear something. He loves when we sing “Pee Pee in the potty! Poo Poo in the potty!”, celebratory dances, high fives and giving gentle reminders that he could try to go but never forcing him to. When he does have an accident I tell him “We don’t pee on the floor/pants/etc, we pee in the potty!”.

We haven’t braved the outside world too much yet in our potty training journey. Only taking short trips to the park or to nearby stores in walking distance. I was really impressed that he made it through his first family gathering on thanksgiving without any accidents though! I’ll make a post in the future about his progress and anything else I’ve learned along the way. Happy potty training!

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