Admission: I am a first time mom, and I was actually getting stressed out over potty training. My kid goes to daycare, the kids in his classroom looked like they were potty trained around 3 so I figured that’s when I would start.

It wasn’t until his teacher pulled me aside and politely, but kind of sternly said, “ your son is over 2 and a half, we like to see our kids potty trained or starting to train around 2 and a half. At the time, he was two years 8 months. I felt like I got a scolding.

I was discussing what had happened with my other mom friend, and she said, “My kid’s already potty trained.” Her kid was also 3 months younger than mine.

So I went to google and wanted to do a sanity check. It turns out most kids shows signs of being potty trained around 2 years.

Whoops.

The very next day, I worked out with my husband when we could take off of work and get this kid potty-trained. The weeks leading up to it, we researched the different methods and decided upon a plan.

When it came to our potty-training weekend marathon, it turned out our kid was more than ready. By the end of the first week, he was fully daytime trained (meaning pee and poop), wearing his awesome Paw Patrol underwear. Pull-ups were still used for nap time and bedtime.

It went like this:

Day 1 – At Home – T-shirt only, reminded him every 15 minutes to go potty (we used the toilet with a seat attachment), took him to the potty every hour, 4 out of 5 times was accident. Before bed, he finally peed in the toilet. Gave him a lot water, milk, juice to drink. His snacks were saltier so he would drink more.

Day 2 – At Home – T-shirt only, reminded him every 15 minutes to go potty, took him to the potty basically every hour he was awake, 5 out of 6 times he peed in the potty. Same drinks. Same salty snacks. Still didn’t let us know if he had to go potty at this point

Day 3 – At Home. – T-shirt only, in the morning, we reminded him every 30 minutes to go potty, then took him every hour and a half he was awake. In the afternoon, out of nowhere, he said “I gotta go potty!” and ran to the potty. The angels are singing. Dad picked up and propped him on the potty. Half of it goes on the floor because he didn’t aim it right, the other half made in the potty. Success! (kinda). He got to flush the toilet, wash his hands, and got a potty prize. His sly smile tells me he’s figured this game out. The rest of the afternoon, he tells he has to go potty almost every hour. 3 out of 5 times, he was just kidding us and wanted the prize for just sitting on the potty. We do not give in. He will only get a prize for pee or poop.

Day 4 – At Home – T-shirt and Undies. We got his favorite, the Paw Patrol undies. “Chase and Rubble don’t like to get wet,” I told him. For the first two pees of the morning, Chase and Rubble got wet. The other three pees were in the toilet. For those three toilet pees, one he told us he had to go, the other 2 were part of us telling him to go. Still no poop yet. We might have to something drastic. We got daycare tomorrow. Yikes.

Day 5 – At Daycare – He did not pee at home in the morning. His pull-up from the night before was soaked. We’re doing pull-ups at school. I wanted to see if he would actually use their potty first before sending him in underwear. They sent him to the potty but he did not go. His pull-ups were wet though. Not cool, little man. At pick-up time, I decided to go in their little tiny bathroom with their little tiny toilet with him. “Go pee-pee in the school potty and get a prize, “ I said. I got a three-second trickle out of him. “I’ll take it,” I thought. Gave him a rogue lollipop from my purse. Took him home and switched to undies. He peed in the toilet once, but we needed him to poop. He was irritable. He kept holding his stomach. Drastic times call for drastic measures. It’s been 5 days with no bowel movement. We gave him all the juice in the world AND a child laxative. Held him over the toilet and said “hold on, buddy”. He screamed, “ I want my undies!” No you don’t, kid. You need to make like Elsa and “let it go.” A minute later, he went silent. His face tensed up and he finally… let it go. We all did the potty dance like no other. Like it became a potty rave. Like we should have had glow sticks. After wiping his butt, I turned him around and made sure he got a good look at that caca. “Good job, buddy, caca goes in the toilet.” Told him to flush the toilet and say “bye, bye caca”. Gave his two prizes for that one.

Day 6 – At Daycare – I sent him in underwear under his loose-fitting clothes (so it’s easier for him to pull down his pants). Yep, I did it. His teachers looked at me like,” what?…”. And I’m like “yep….”. Too bad. You said you would work with us with potty training, so work you shall. They have a three strike rule. Three accidents and you’re back in pull-ups. When I went to pick up him, luckily he was in the middle of his third accident. Apparently the first two accidents were “good accidents”. He told his teachers he had to go potty but he didn’t make it to the potty in time. At home, we had no accidents. He told us he had to go three separate times, we made three potty trips, and he got three potty prizes. Win.

Day 7 – At Daycare – He’s wearing underwear and loose-fitting pants. At pick-up time, I’m anxious to see his report when I pick him up. He’s in a different outfit. Oh crap, I thought to myself. What do you know? His teacher said he went to the potty multiple times and the only reason he’s in a different set of clothes is because he didn’t aim quite right one time. Suh-weet. “Good job”, she tells me. “Thank you”, I said. “Where’s my potty prize?” I thought to myself. At home that night, he tells me he has to go “put caca in the toilet”.

Success.

We have been 99% accident-free since. When he starts waking up with dry pull-ups from nap time and bedtime. We will say bye to the pull-ups.
A Day by Day Breakdown of Potty Training Successfully in a Week

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2 Comments on A Day by Day Breakdown of Potty Training Successfully in a Week

  1. Thank you! This post may be one of the most helpful things I’ve run across as a working parent who has a kid in daycare full-time. We only had 3 days with him at home to train and had more accidents than success. I would rather not use Pull-Ups as I don’t think it will be effective for him. However, his daycare insists on using them in the beginning. I’ve got to speak with his teachers/school and get a better understanding. Our mistake is that we didn’t have a good conversation with his teachers about their approach so I was thrown for a loop when I took him back to school. Thanks again for writing this!

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