Home | one week into potty training

one week into potty training

by Heather

Tuesday October 29th, one week ago, marked our official start of potty training day.  I got as many classes covered for that week as I could so that I’d just be home with Hunter.  Focused and ready for the task ahead.

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My main resource for potty training was the book Toilet Training Without Tantrums (TTWT) by John Rosemond – which came highly recommended by a friend who potty trained her twin boys before they were 2.  They say boys are harder to train early, but I figured, if she could do it with TWO of them, I could do it with one, right?  Sure, I like a challenge. 🙂  Also, I just felt like Hunter was ready, even though he was barely 17 months old.  He’s smart, can communicate, likes to do what he’s told (well… most of the time) and wasn’t afraid of the potty after having it around for a few weeks.

The premiss of TTWT is basically having them naked so that when they pee it’s uncomfortable running down their leg (it never was or has been for Hunter) and you teach them that their pee (and poop) goes in the potty.  The potty isn’t hiding in the bathroom, it’s right where they’re playing so they see it and remember that they do their business there.  And no more diapers at day time.  They’re just gone and no longer a thing.  The book even suggests moving your changing table or anything that will remind the kid of diapers, but I really didn’t have a place to put the changing table, so instead I just threw a blanket over it.

Initially I was totally down for the no diapers thing, but as you’ll read soon, they’re being used.  Also, for naps and bed time he’s in a diaper.

We purchased 2 of these kid pottys from IKEA – one for upstairs, one for downstairs.  They do the job and are not expensive.

Now onto our training!

Beware – lots of pee and poop talk ahead!

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Day 1 -3

The first 3 days were pretty similar.  We’d have some success with him peeing on the potty (while I’d sit with him reading a book – we read tons of books) and lots of unsuccessful attempts where he’d get up after being on the potty for a good 20-30 minutes, then pee a few feet away from it on the floor.  I can’t say it wasn’t a bit frustrating, but I never got mad.  He was learning a new skill, and it takes a while.

I do remember that first hour on Tuesday morning thinking to myself (probably after he peed on the floor a couple times), “why have I gotten myself into this?!”, but I was committed.  No starting, stopping, starting, stopping every few weeks/months – it was go time.

I used an egg timer as a reminder to sit on the potty – when the ‘potty bell’ went off it was time to go potty.  I used increments anywhere from 20-60 minutes, depending on how much water he had been drinking.

By the end of day 3, Thursday evening, I was feeling defeated.  It was tiring, I was exhausted, and it didn’t seem like he was making much progress.  He’d pee on the potty about 50% of the time, and it was definitely mommy directed potty time.

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Day 4

Friday marked the change.  Hooray!  My next door neighbor was going to watch Hunter for about 1.5 hours while I taught a class.  She has a 5 year old boy and 3 year old girl, and Hunter and them love playing together.  She was down with the potty training and didn’t mind him being in the learning stage.  At 11am we walked over, potty in hand, extra undies, shorts and a diaper in case she just didn’t want to deal with him peeing all over her house.  If memory serves me right, he had peed about 30 minutes before going over there, so I figured he would need to go while there.

Hunter’s definitely in a mommy and daddy stage, so he was pretty sad and asked for mommy the whole time I was gone.  Jacob picked him up and was walking in the door as I pulled into the drive way.  We went in, and I was surprised to see him still in the same underwear and shorts I dropped him off in.  Our neighbor tried having him sit on the potty, but he just wouldn’t have it, so he never peed there.  We told him to sit on the potty, so he did, and he unleashed his pee like a waterfall.  So much that he held in for 2 hours!  We were both impressed that he actually held it until he was back home instead of just going in his underwear.

The more impressive part is coming now. 🙂

I had a nurse appointment at our new midwife office later that afternoon.  We decided to put him in a diaper, but brought the potty along in the car and planned to have it use it before or after the appointment, depending on when he went before we left.

During the appointment, Hunter was happily playing with Jacob in the room while I answered a bunch of questions, then out of no where, Hunter says “pee, pee, potty”.  Okay, does it mean he just went or needs to go?  He’d never gone on a big potty before so we didn’t really know how that would go down.  Jacob took him to the restroom, sat him on the potty and he peed right away, without a hesitation.  His diaper was dry too!  He got a lot of praise when they came back into the room + he impressed the nurse. 🙂

Since then he’s been telling us when he needs to pee.  I’d say on average we have one accident a day.  And when it happens, he’ll tell me “pee pee” as he’s doing it.  We just quickly get onto the potty to finish, then I get a towel and he cleans up his mess.

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Over the weekend we ran a lot of errands it seemed, so I took the potty in the car and we happily went in the back.  At the grocery store he’s told me he needed to pee, so we set the cart aside and head to the bathroom.  Even this morning at the library in the middle of story time he said “pee pee” a couple times, so we went and he peed in the potty.  Such a smarty 🙂

Pooping took a couple more days.  He still says either pee pee or potty when he needs to poop, and I definitely have to keep a watchful eye for his crouch, but he’s started letting me know more often when he needs to go.  He’ll wake up from naps and in the morning having gone #2, so the opportunity to go in the potty isn’t as often as with pee.

And that’s where we’re at with potty training.  At home he’s naked or in undies (which he swims in – really small underwear is not easily available I found out).  Away from home, I’m putting him in diapers, especially when he’s in child watch since they don’t change clothes or diapers and won’t take him to the potty if he needs to go – they’d come get me while I was in the middle of teaching my class.

My plan for not using diapers out will just depend on him being dry more and more often.  It’ll be interesting to see where he’s at in a few weeks and if we’re still using them outside of the house.

We started training so early because I wanted a good 4 months of time available before baby sister arrived and needed the cloth diapers.  Also, I didn’t want to begin potty training right at the busy time of thanksgiving and christmas.  Thankfully, it only took 4 days for him to ‘get it’.  No we’ll just continue on, hopefully decrease the amount of diapers used outside of the house and soon be accident free!

Let me know if you have any questions about our potty training adventure.  There was a lot to share, so hopefully it wasn’t too scattered. 🙂  My hope is that this can be a helpful resource for those of you venturing into potty training land.  I always like reading about how these kind of things go for others, so hopefully it helps you too!

Heather

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13 comments

Kaitlyn November 5, 2013 - 3:59 pm

I’m impressed! 🙂 I teach 2 and 3 year olds and some of my 3 year olds are still in the potty training process. But, you’re so right: It’s all about the individual child and whether or not he/she is ready. Some kids, especially kids with sensory difficulty, just aren’t ready until later. Also, it’s definitely helpful that you’re able to be home with him and commit that time! Woo hoo!

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Fit Mama November 7, 2013 - 3:50 pm

Yes, I couldn’t imagine being away and then trying to potty train in. I’m definitely a lucky one in that regard!

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Erica November 5, 2013 - 6:19 pm

Good for you! We’re definitely taking a slowww approach. I need to dedicate more time to it!

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Fit Mama November 7, 2013 - 3:50 pm

It helps that we’ve got our little girl on the way to push me!

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Jade November 6, 2013 - 8:31 am

All I can say is wow! My kiddo is at times telling us that he has pooped but those are still rare and in between, and he still doesn’t care if he is wet if he peed out of his diaper by accident. But I still am impressed!

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Fit Mama November 7, 2013 - 3:49 pm

Aww thanks! Hunter never ever told his he pooped before we started this, but I think now that’s he’s having to tell us about when he needs to pee, he’s learning to tell us when he’s feeling like he has to poop (he still calls it pee pee for poop). Although we had our first poop accident yesterday… so it’s not 100% yet 🙂

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Erika November 6, 2013 - 12:39 pm

That’s awesome. How did you know he was ready? I guess I don’t feel like our son is ready yet – he’s 26 months. We talk about it and I ask him if he wants to sit on the potty but he never does and I don’t want to force. I’d like to know he’s really ready and spend less time on it than forcing him into it and dragging it out. I’ll have to check out that book. Thanks for sharing.

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Fit Mama November 6, 2013 - 3:07 pm

It was mostly me deciding he was ready, not really relying on a lot of signs I’d read about (the book helped me with this). My main thing was that he still follows directions pretty well. Also, instead of asking, I’d tell him it was time to sit on the potty. More matter of fact instead of giving him the option to say no (although he still wouldn’t many times when I’d tell him to). Now that he understands going potty, I tend to ask him more now if he needs to go potty, but really he mostly tells us. I’d highly recommend the book!

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Katey November 6, 2013 - 9:29 pm

Good for you! That’ll make life so much easier when your little girl comes. I definitely think a lot of potty training depends on how invested the parent/caregiver is, but a good chunk of it is the child being ready. I nannied twin boys – I potty trained them both at the same time using the same methods. One was potty trained in about a day and never had any accidents after, the other was potty trained in a little over a week, but was still having fairly frequent accidents a year later because he would rather pee in his pants while playing then disrupt play time 🙂

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Fit Mama November 7, 2013 - 3:46 pm

Oh dear, I could see Hunter being like the second one! Every kiddo is definitely different though…it’s interesting to hear how the twins varied. But yes, we are most definitely invested in this!

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[…] those first couple days of potty training I planned for us to stay home.  We barely even went outside, except for a couple trips to the […]

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Hunter: 17 months | Fit Mama Real Food November 20, 2013 - 8:24 am

[…] Potty training is still going well!  We are  3 weeks into it, and still in training mode.  I am not confident enough to allow him to be diaper free at childwatch, since he still pees in it most of the time, but there are times he’s dry the entire time too.  Even when he uses the toilet when I drop him off and pick him up, sometimes he still goes while I’m away.  I feel pretty confident that over time he’ll be dry at the end more often, then one day we’ll give it a try.  I’ll be sure to start it during my 45 minute class, not a 60 minute one. […]

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Kate Bakker July 29, 2018 - 7:28 pm

I started potty training my 17 month old just over a week ago and very similar methods and experience. We do undies out and I take a wet bag and lots of clothes bc I found that switching back and forth seems to confuse him a bit. And no diaper for nap – he has stayed dry so far. He actually mastered the pooping even more so then peeing- he gets distracted easily with people and toys so we are about half and half with what pee makes it to the potty, some days better then others. Jude’s first poop in public was sitting in your van while watching a show on my phone.. in the Walmart grocery pick up parking area ??. I just hope we don’t end up on peopleofwalmart.com

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