Potty training. Two words that absolutely terrified me up until a week ago. But now? I don’t even want to say it was easy because I know it isn’t for so many people, but it was easy.
A little background info before I get into the details:
Gavin is 2.5
My husband took a week off from work so we could have all eyes on Gavin, all the time. I really attribute this as the reason why we were so successful so quickly.
Gavin was showing lots of signs of being ready for a few months before we started potty training. He would let me know before he pooped every time and would get me a diaper and wipes to change him. He would take his own diaper off when it was wet.
We prepped him (per Big Little Feelings) BIG TIME for the week leading up to potty training. We talked incessantly that on Monday we were going to start potty training and diapers were going to go away.
We cleared a full week in our calendar and stayed completely home, except for a few walks to the park (we brought the potty in the wagon). On day 6 I took him to soccer and on day 7 I took him to Target for short trips, and he had zero accidents at either place.
We are not tackling nap/night training yet - this is solely for during his awake hours.
I’m by no means an expert on this topic, but here’s what we did to help Gavin get the hang of using the potty by the beginning of day 3 (loosely based on the methods in the book “Oh Crap” by Jamie Glowacki):
Day 1 (Monday): Zero pants, underwear, or anything on his bottom. We had him wear a shirt and socks just to keep him from getting cold. We had him sit on the potty as much as possible throughout the day and definitely did it before and after activities (right when he woke up, before and after meals, before and after playing outside, etc.), but we also prompted him every 15-20 minutes or so. He had plenty of small pee accidents, but would stop himself pretty quickly after he started to pee and we would rush him to the potty where he would finish. He also pooped on the potty on day 1! We could tell he had to and just encouraged him to stay there until it happened. He definitely had some emotional breakdowns and was extremely overwhelmed at times, but overall it was a great day. He thrives on attention and had plenty of it, so that definitely helped.
Day 2 (Tuesday): Very similar to day 1, with less accidents. Pooped on the potty twice this day! We ventured out to the park today and he used the travel potty while we were out after a tiny accident.
Day 3 (Wednesday): Something must have clicked overnight, because he woke up Wednesday morning and started saying “have to go potty!” Chris and I were both mind-blown. He started wearing shorts or pants today, but no underwear. He had no accidents this day and basically took himself to the potty every time he had to go. We still prompted him, but he did a lot of the work on his own. So, so proud.
Day 4 (Thursday): Same as Wednesday. I went and got my hair done today, and Gavin was with my grandma for a few hours. I was so impressed that he did so great for her!
Day 5 (Friday): Most of the day was the same as Wednesday and Thursday, but he did have one accident. We had family pictures in the afternoon and I think he got a little overwhelmed and had an accident right after our photographer left. Other than that, he did great.
Day 6 (Saturday): Our first big outing to soccer! We learned a lesson the hard way that Gavin is NOT ready for a public restroom. However, he did great while we were gone. We had training underwear on him just in case, but he had no accidents and just went pee right before we left home and right when we got back.
Day 7 (Sunday): Same as Saturday, but with a Target trip instead of soccer.
Pretty painless! I would say that by day 3 he was potty trained since from that point forward accidents were few and far between and he was initiating on his own 90% of the time. Gavin caught on really, really quickly and I am so grateful that he made one thing easy for us in parenting him so far. ;)
Leave any questions or anything you want more details on below!
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