Undies or bottomless? Do they sit or stand to pee? Urinal or toilet? Portable potty seat or regular potty with a stool? Should I have daddy show him how???? These were all questions I had going through my head when I first started thinking about potty training a boy for the 1st time! After successfully potty training two girls, I thought I would feel like a seasoned pro. In reality I felt like a newbie all over again. So I ordered a few books on the topic to figure out what approach I wanted to start with. I ended up going with the “Potty Training in 3 Days” method! In this book they share that the golden age for potty training is between 2 1/2 & 3 years old, although some children might be ready sooner!
With baby number 4 due in just a couple of months, I wanted to give it a shot. When Quarantine started in Early March, I figured it was the perfect time. We wouldn’t be leaving the house for anything.. It would be easy I thought… What I didn’t take into consideration was that because our 6 and 8 year old were both home doing online schoolwork I felt like I was being pulled in all directions. I realized that helping each of them with their school work, coming up with activities to keep them happy, while also keeping up with everyday chores had my attention elsewhere. At that time my husband was still going into the office, so it was a lot for me to start potty training. All of this on top of being 6-7 months pregnant had me beat! I basically got to the end of day one, had no success and decided we would revisit it in a couple of months. By the end of that 1st day Easton begged for a diaper and I gave in.
Feeling defeated, but definitely not upset with him, I decided to try again starting May 1st! I set out this POTTY and made a sticker chart for him. This time I started on the weekend when I knew that I would have lots of help from Jon. Day 1 we started him bottom less. No pants and lots of fluids. Our plan was to catch him peeing and then pick him up mid-pee to go onto the portable potty. In this approach you don’t ask your child if they have to go, but wait for them to show a sign. All kids will have something that they do or say right before they go. Our job was to determine what that was. We also told him to tell us when he needed to go and we would help him. I couldn’t believe this time around it was like he knew what to do! He would turn his leg inward almost like he was holding it saying, “Pee-pee.” Instead of going on the plastic potty we set up in the living room, he wanted to run to his bathroom so we followed him. We lifted him up to sit on the big toilet and he went the very 1st time! I think he even surprised himself! We cheered and gave high fives! It was so exciting! We decided that his reward would be 1 skittle for peeing on the potty and 2 skittles for #2 on the potty. On his toilet we have a special kid toilet lid we’ve had for years. You can find it at home depot and its perfect because you don’t have to take it on and off the potty each time. It looks like a regular lid with just a smaller seat attached that you pull down. He wanted nothing to do with the portable plastic kid potty. This actually worked out great because there was no clean up! He loved flushing the regular toilet. We had him sitting down to pee and taught him to aim downward. Sometimes now he will use one finger to hold it down.
When it came to bed time and nap time we told him that we were only putting a diaper on him for bed, but when he wakes up he can wear big boy underwear! He was so HAPPY! We got him super hero underwear as well as Mickey underwear. We explained while putting on the underwear that you want to keep them dry and make sure to tell us when you have to go potty!
Going number #2 was a bit more of a challenge. For 2 whole days he was holding it and not going. This had me worried, but by day 3 he kept holding his bum over his underwear and running to the potty like he had to go. As soon as he would get there, he would turn around and change his mind. He would say, “I’m fine.” Finally, Jon took him to the potty and really encouraged him telling him that, “he could do it!” Sometimes kids just really need that extra reassurance. He DID IT!!!! I was so happy when I heard the news and again Easton was so proud.
All kids are different, even siblings. What works for one child, may not work for another. There is no one way to do something when it comes to parenting. I just want to share what worked for us and maybe it can be helpful for someone in the midst of potty training. I think the main thing is to not give up, and stick with it! It definitely took more than 3 days for us, but I’m so thrilled with his progress! He is waking up every morning with dry diapers and then we swap them out for his big boy underwear! We will keep using our favorite reusable diaper for pool time under his bathing suit just in case we need it! I highly recommend grabbing more than one so you always have a dry one. Just wear, rinse, & repeat! Our little boy is growing up right before our eyes and we are enjoying every milestone!
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Happy potty training!
Stay Well,
JoJo