Out of the clear blue sky on Sunday, both kids came home from a grocery store outing with daddy and demanded to sit on the potty.
I bought two potties back in May when Rebecca first started telling me when she was going to poop. The kids loved them. They were nuts about them. Just wanted to remove every stitch of clothing and sit on them while watching an entire episode of Sesame Street. Of course, not a drop or speck of anything but dust ever accumulated. And they would get up and trade potties. And fight over the (identical) potties. I decided that I wasn’t ready, and we put the potties away. Every now and then the kids remembered they were there, but I think they just decided it was a nice place to sit while watching TV in the buff. Great.
And then there was Sunday. Unprompted demand. And of all the damn things… there was production! Holy moly, I hardly even knew how to react. Much clapping and fussing and all of that.
And then it happened again. A number of times, as a matter of fact, over the course of the last few days, still completely unprompted by me. One or both of them will announce that they want to poop (or pee) on the potty, down they’ll plop, and frequently there will actually be some pee (not as much on the poop front, but it’s an attempt).
So here’s the question: do I suck it up and go for it? I know this kind of potty interest can wax and wane in toddlers, do I take advantage of an interested period?
I read the 3-Day Potty Training Method, and the rip-off-the-band-aid approach that it advocates (among other smart tips) resonates pretty strongly with me. While I know it’s not nearly so simple as “three days and you’re all done,” I do like the idea of just going all out. I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of months, and have decided I’d really like to do this before they turn 3. But as I have no interest in potty training over the winter (cold = more clothing = indoors = no thank you), my thought was that I’d either have to jump on this soon, or wait until the spring.
I hesitate mostly for my own convenience, truth be told. Because I know that not only will those initial days (in particular) be challenging and frustrating, but that my life and our outings will get significantly more complicated for at least some period of time. Slower to get moving, more care to be taken during long outings, and more crap to haul around (extra clothes, maybe a spare potty in the car, etc.) when I had gotten used to just throwing a diaper or two into my purse.
But, then, I get the sense that there are more challenging times ahead (2.5, anyone?), and that it’s not necessarily that much easier to train an older child. And in the end, I’d rather have this done sooner than later. But does that mean “now”? Yipes! Well, I suppose we have no classes or activities next week… am I ready??
And thanks for the comments on my bath time post, good to know I’m not alone. Rebecca is doing great, Daniel is having a rough time. Finally got his second sticker last night, on night five. Alas.
Having been through this twice recently, I think if you did one potty day at home you would quickly see how things are going to progess. We tried booty camp many many times before the boys were trained. I didn’t post about them all.
The failed times, Alex peed on the floor anywhere from 5 to 12 times between wake up time and naptime. No warning that it was coming, he would just pee and then he would have no reaction.
So I would say, if you want to give it a try, do it but accept that they may or may not be ready. Everything I read said if you’re going to do it, do it while they are still interested in pleasing you. And if you have success with one and not the other, then do one at a time because there are going to be accidents and clean up and mistakes and frustration.
And have I mentioned Nature’s Miracle? You can buy it at pet stores and it gets out any and all poop stains.
.-= LauraC´s last blog ..(Un)Favorite Book Day =-.
I am also going to tell you what people did not explain to me about potty training. You have to think of it as a process not as a milestone. All the books out there claim there is a method to do it and if it doesn’t work you are doing it wrong. But the hard scientific data shows there is generally a multi-month delay between the time a child is pee trained and poop trained. It generally goes in this order:
pee train
nap train
poop train
overnight train
This is all based on studies with thousands of children, not one “expert” who has helped train a couple hundred kids.
So as much as I say my kids are “trained” Alex still wears a nighttime pullup and Nate is a stool holder. He is 50/50 on pooping on potty versus requesting a pullup. And we went on vacation and Alex refused to use the potties there so he went back to diapers for that week. And then the transition to the new room where Alex has an accident every day bc he is so engrossed in playing with his friends.
So you can think of this as the first step in the process. I did have a friend who completely trained a girl in 3 days at age 2, so it is possible. But everyone else I’ve talked to has likened potty training to a long-term process with successes and failures. I personally like clear-cut milestones so this has been a struggle for me.
.-= LauraC´s last blog ..(Un)Favorite Book Day =-.
I say if they’re showing interest, give it a whirl for several days. I, too, am a fan of the cold turkey underpants-only method. Once we went to underpants, no going back to pull-ups except for naps and bedtime. This does, of course, require very carefull monitoring/reminding and lots of extra underpants, but it has worked well for us. I began potty training a few weeks ago. After careful consideration, I decided to focus on only one twin this go around. I’m very glad I did that for sanity-sake. When she goes on the potty, both of my other girls and I cheer a lot and EVERYONE gets treats, so my non-potty training twin is actually getting more excited at the prospect of using the potty (bonus).
On a side note, I potty-trained my 4 year old over a winter and actually liked it better than working on it when the weather was nice (and you want to be outside having fun). We were stuck inside a lot anyway, so it kind of just gave us something to focus on.
Good luck with whatever you decide!!
I agree – go for it. We found/are finding it to be a very “one step forward, two steps back” type process, so you might as well go for it when they seem interested and see where it takes you. Each kid is different. At 3.5 my daughter still can’t/won’t poop in the potty but she is awesome about giving us advance warning about pee and she rarely has accidents. My son is fine with pooping but we have to remind him to use the potty or he gives us 10 second warnings that he has to pee so we often don’t make it in time.
So just see what happens and good luck to you!!
interesting! so much potty talk around blogs lately. maybe we can attribute it to some universe alignment? anyways…
the boys did something similar right at 2. the potties had been out for some time, but right at 2 they suddenly “got it,” and started peeing and even pooping on the pot. brilliant! but it came just as fast as it went, and we were beginning lots of transitions that i just didn’t even bother to go there. i chalked it up to one more step in the preparation train. as you know, full-on training happened right as they turned 2.5. and as i’ve written (in little detail unfortunately), it has been easier than i ever imagined. they are both pooing, peeing and not having any accidents. but like all transitions, i prepared the hell out of them. and i knew they were really ready when i kept them naked for an afternoon with potties in site and they chose to pee in their potty time after time amidst lots of fun and splashing.
i will admit that i probably would have trained sooner, but i was the one who wasn’t ready. i think i was fearful of them failing, and what it really meant to train them. i thought it was going to be exhausting, full of power struggles, tons of accidents, etc. but it wasn’t. it was great. knowing what i know now and what my experience has been, i might have done it sooner!
either way you look at it, you’re in a good place! good luck, whichever way you go.
Liz, this is a very timely post for me to read, as I keep struggling with renewing the potty training effort with Jack. At best, he allows us to put him on the potty and will sit there and read several books without any results. At worst, he will kick and scream when we even mention the potty. Add constantly nursing Derek to the mix, and you can guess that the PT is going nowhere with Jack. And I’m feeling like an extremely incompetent mom who will have the only five-year-old on the block still in diapers. Anyway, I’ll be very interested to hear what you do. Let me tell you that personally, if Jack were showing even 1/4 of the interest that D&R are showing in his potty, I would forge full-steam ahead with the 3-day PT plan. Speaking of which, you are about the 1000000th mom to recommend (or say you’ll try) the 3-Day PT e-book, so I’m very intrigued! I may buy and download it as well. Can’t hurt!
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I have no basis for this (we are a looooong way from potties) but I say GO FOR IT!! I know many mothers you have trained all their kids at around age two (or earlier) and it just worked. Of course, I don’t think parents whose kids do it later are doing it wrong or badly, just that hearing those stories lets me know its possible to do it earlier. And I think when you do it at a younger age, you should go whole hog. Again, no basis, just what my gut says.
And wouldn’t it be nice to spend diaper money on, say, more clotehs for you? Another bella sante visit? Or stuff for the kids – its up to you!
.-= Nicole´s last blog ..Bittersweet =-.
My two cents: Give it a try. What’s the worst that could happen? Going back to sporadic potty interest?
We gave up diapers a while ago, but there are three pairs of poopy panties running through the washer right now. My girls went cold turkey of their own accord, but poop is a constant challenge with Melody.
Laura’s words of wisdom are good ones. This is the first step. Whatever happens this time around, you’ll have taken one step towards potty training.
.-= Sadia´s last blog ..Potty progress =-.
If they’re requesting it, why not give it a shot? If you try it for a week and it’s hell and they really haven’t made much progress (although it sounds like they already have!), leave it for later. Emilia is 2 yrs 9 mo and we just recently completed phase 1, the pee training, as one person put it. The potty had been in our house for over a year, but we never pushed it; I just asked when it looked like my daughter had to go, and sometimes she’d sit on it (with relative success), and sometimes she’d respond “No thank you.” Around 2.5 it started to become very obvious when she was “going,” but I didn’t want to do anything about it because we added a new baby to the family at that time…enough change for all of us. But then about a month ago I decided the band-aid approach was needed. We went to Target and let her pick out some underwear, then we just put her in it and asked over and over and over if she had to go to the bathroom. We made a big deal about the new underwear and about how she didn’t want to get pee pee on them. Then when she peed, we did the “potty dance” (complete with song; I’m sure you can invent one more original than mine). We also created a sticker chart; when she completed a row she got to go out for ice cream with mom or dad. I will admit, we pretty much just stayed home those first few days and I put the potty in the middle of the living room (yes, in front of the TV). The first few days she had some success, but also some accidents. But after a few days, she stopped having accidents. She usually only pees about once or twice in the AM and once in the PM; she wears a diaper during nap and night (don’t start with pull-ups during sleep times until they’re getting enough out during wake times to not completely fill the pull-up) and almost always poops in it. But she’s very good about telling me, “I feel pee pee!” However, because we have a little one at home, we’re currently not leaving the house for much more than 3 hour stints, which is convenient because she can easily hold it that long and so mostly just goes at home. But I am constantly aware when we’re out of the house where the nearest bathroom is; and I also carry a whole second set of clothes for her just in case.
Okay, enough from me. It’s all just very fresh in my mind, I guess. Good luck with whatever you do!
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Finally catching up, so sorry for the late comment. I would say if they are interested and have been having success, do it. We mainly followed the 3-day method and I would say by the end of day 2 we were done with accidents. Sure, we’ve had some setbacks (he had an incident with an automatic flusher and now tries to hold it when we’re out in public which has led to two accidents and several shortened trips to the park when I don’t feel like arguing about peeing in the restroom vs getting home so he can pee), but overall, it was great.
He actually handled it so well (granted he’s a year older and only a singleton) that he requested no pull-ups at night by the third night. We had some wet beds, but now we wake him up when we go to bed and most times he’ll pee then. This has also led him to be more conscious of the overnight feeling, I believe, and he’ll wake up before wetting the bed in the morning. Means a few earlier than the hubby and I would like wake-ups on some days, but considering the alternative, we’re sucking it up.
The part of the 3-day method that worked best for peanut was the idea of letting him be in control. The fact that we were repeating “let mommy know when you have to peepee/poo” as opposed to “do you have to pee?” really made all the difference.
And if it doesn’t work, they just aren’t ready. Give it a few days before deciding it’s not working, but don’t feel bad if it doesn’t. They’re still young and have plenty of time. Good luck!
Oh, and definitely carry a second set of clothes (including socks) with you JUST IN CASE (we haven’t stopped that) and we use the Potette Plus travel potty for on the go. It has great bags to dispose of “waste” and it folds up great (in it’s own little bag) fitting in either the diaper bag or the stroller without adding too much extra weight to the gear we’re already hauling around. It’s been a lifesaver (especially now that we’ve regressed about public potties) and lives in my trunk for easy grab and go.
Okay…that’s enough from me!
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I am also going through the potty training thing with my toddler. Some days there is interest and cooperation, other days there is a lot of sitting and no results (no “pee pee” or “boo boo”). I feel like I’m at a crossroad – should I give it up and re-try in 2 to 3 months or should I continue to try, increasing intensity and frequency each week?
I have linked some great potty training articles at oh-moma.blogspot.com
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