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Success after IF
Early Potty Training Mommas - Need Advice
Next weekend I am taking the plunge, two days of no diapers (except night time possibly) or pullups, just undies and maybe plastic diaper covers at nap time. DD just turned 2. Since around 18 months we had the potty available and she would sit on it in the morning and nightime and during the day if she felt like it. For awhile we had really good success with her going on it but lately that has stopped. She can sit on that potty for 10 minutes willingly and then get up and go pee in her diaper or undies. She knows what pee pee and poo poo is and she tells us after she goes and sometimes right before she goes.
Here is my plan, please critique and/or offer suggestions! I am going to give it two days and if she does well I will potentially take Monday off to continue it before we go back to daycare. I know that daycare won't push too hard if they don't see that she has it down. She is the youngest in her class and therefore not a top priority with potty training....But if we have sucess I will put her in undies for school with several changes of clothing! 
Starting Saturday morning we'll take the diaper off and go straight to undies. Every 30 minutes we'll sit on the pot and I'll encourage. In order to keep her from getting tired of it we'll only sit for 2 minutes (thoughts, longer or shorter?). Once she is off we'll set the time and be back in 30 minutes. I don't plan for her and I to go anywhere Saturday or Sunday. I am going to dress her in a t-shirt and undies only. Nap time I was thinking of lining her bed with towels and putting her in undies. The only hiccup is bedtime. I highly doubt she can go all night without peeing her pants. For rewards when she does pee or poop I have mini m&m's which we have tried before and I was thinking of adding jelly beans to the mix, too.
I am also looking for advice on how to react when she does pee or poop in her undies. Obviously I won't yell, but is stern the right take, or diappointment or should I just act like nothing happened and tell her we'll try again next time.
Thanks in advance! I am nervous but promising myself that if she doesn't take to it in those two days that we'll back off an try again in a month or so.
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Re: Early Potty Training Mommas - Need Advice
Hi...I am not an expert at all but I can say what we did. My son was 2.5 when we decided to give it a try. Same with you, he had some success with sitting on the potty but nothing consistent and he was still in diapers all day.
One morning I put him in underwear after I took off his nightime diaper. And away we went....it wasn't easy for us partly because he just wasn't that interested. But I tried to watch him to see if he needed to pee. (If he was walking funny or wiggling his butt). That worked much better than setting a timer for us. The first few times he started to pee in his undies, I just scooped him up and put him on the potty...even if we could just catch the last dribbles. He didn't poo for a couple of days because he didn't want to poo in his undies and was freaked out by doing it in the potty (he had done it before but developed a fear of it for some reason)...So I gave him lots of fluids and when he finally did go I whooped it up big time! We gave jelly beans as a reward and he LOVED that...and mini eggs when I sensed he needed a change in treat. He had never had either of those things before and he clearly loved both.
It took me about 2 weeks to say we were potty trained. That he actually got the jist of it and we could go places and not worry. I still bring our potty in the car with us because he doesn't like peeing in public washrooms.
If you can get it done in two days...you rock!
I really really tried to just say "oh well, accidents happen. We'll try again next time!" if he had an accident. Now that he has been trained for a few months, it drove me nuts when he peed his pants...but I was hoping it was just a phase...and he is back to not having accidents. There are definitely highs and lows when you potty train.
I think it might be easier with my daughter than it was with my son.
Also, once we decided to train we got rid of all of his diapers and bought pull-ups which we call "nightime undies". So he never had the option of asking for a diaper. I told him that the Easter Bunny took his diapers and left behind the jelly beans and mini eggs.
It sucks to have to worry about your kid peeing his/her pants when you are out...but it's just part of the process. I really felt like letting him wear diapers sometimes would confuse him. It might have caused me more anxiety, but I stuck with it.
You sound like you are on the right track. When DS just turned 2 years old. We encouraged him to sit on potty every 20 min- 30 min. In the beginning IF he did sit, then we gave him a single m&m. Once he actually peed in the potty, then he would only get a piece of candy for peeing in potty and no longer for just sitting on the potty. Every time he pooped in undies, I would have him watch were poop goes and I would put it in the toilet out of undies. I would say "ewww, poop don't go in undies, it goes in the potty" He caught on quick. We didn't punish him for accidents, just didn't give him his reward (believe me he was wanting the treat).
About 10 days later he really caught on and would tell us when he had to go every time. I was grocery shopping and he said "pee!". I raced to the bathroom and put him on toilet. After 3 seconds he jumped off toilet and said"candy". I told him no candy because he didn't use potty, I then asked "do you want a piece of candy?". He shook head yes, I then said "then you need to pee". He was standing at that point, looked at his penis and peed all over the bathroom floor and his pants. I thought the lady washing he hands was going to crack up. So I learned early to be very specific! Every kid learns differently, just keep it simple and basic and be patient.Good Luck!
Ummm....with all due respect, I would say this is a great JUMPSTART to potty training....however expecting her to hold it at either nap or night is very unrealistic, as is having a potty trained 2 year old in 2 days. She's only 2!!! I dont think its remotely an option to expect her to stay dry during sleep. That being said, your actual plan of every 30 min for 2-3 days sounds good.
C has been trained in underwear full time since 21 months with the exception of nap and night.We had a potty in every room. First three days potty every 30, on for 2 min (or one round of twinkle twinkle) barebottom. Huge basket of reinforcers. tattoos, stickers, dried fruit, cheerios, etc. Day 3-6 Barebottom, he pretty much got the hang of it. started going on his own. I literally said MAMAAAAA PP every time bec since they are so young they need to be trained to tell you as well. Week two...underwear, week three underwear and pants and pratice in public with a pullup, week 4 underwear full time.Potties were cut down to bathroom only and of course one in car.
Never got reprimanded or told firmly if he had an accident, id just sit him on potty and say this is where we make pp etc.
I dont think 2-3 days is a realistic amount of time for training unfortunately. I think they might get the idea, but day care will have to really take on where you left off for this to be effective. I also think you have to be consistent, so if you start and she doesnt get it in two days, you have to keep going. Good luck
I think focusing on it for a couple of days isn't a bad idea at all. Since you said you have been introducing the potty to her for awhile...this will give you a gauge as to whether she is ready to really train. If nothing else, you will figure out if she needs to wait. It's worth a shot.
Good luck!
I took me about 7-10 days training at 19/20 months.
We did what you're describing - yank the diapers and go straight to underwear with plastic pants over. We spent a LOT of time outside to minimize clean up for me.
I would recommend introducing the hard core training by having a favorite stuffed animal pee and poop on the potty (yellow food dye and melted hershey bar) and then rewarding and praising the animal. This introduces the rewards system and has the kiddos begging to use the potty. A lot of times training goes better if it's their idea, KWIM?
As much as humanly possible make this FUN. Games, songs, books, etc. We sang all kinds of silly songs that we made up, had the characters on the underwear on their back sides talk to them and ask them not to pee or poop on them, etc.
As for accidents? That's what they are and should be treated as such. No chastising, just reminders that pee and poop go in the potty. We watched the Elmo potty training DVD that had a cute song called "accidents happen" and we sang that a lot. Making it something they fear or are embarrassed about isn't the way to go IMO.
Another vote for doing day time training first leaving on pull ups or diapers for naps and overnights. One thing at a time - especially this young. Bladder control while sleeping is different from while awake and may not develop until they're older. Mine were both underwear at 20 months but didn't overnight train for a while after that (my oldest at 4 and my youngest at 2.5).
AND... most important you need to make sure that the daycare is going to follow thru. It's a lot of work but it can be done. I'd hate to see all of your hard work undone because daycare just isn't on board.
It can be done at this age.
Be prepared to do a whole load of laundry each night and have a fun bottle of wine waiting for you after bed time.
GL!!
Total score: 6 pregnancies, 5 losses, 2 amazing blessings that I'm thankful for every single day.