Hello! Okay, I am a potty training master! he he I have two kids, and had the first one potty trained in 5 days, and the second in 3 days. Here's the trick....eat, drink, and breathe potty training until they're done. Do it when you have atleast 3 days to devote to staying home and doing nothing but potty training. This is what I mean...
On day one, put their potty chair in the livingroom and surround it by books, coloring books and crayons, and whatever else your child may be interested in that you can play with to keep them sitting there. Put on their favorite cartooon/movie, and have them sit there until they go. The first step to potty training is to catch them in the act. Now, the way that I potty train takes a TON of patience, so make sure YOU are ready to potty train before you start, because once you start, you have to stick with it. There are times that first day and maybe even the second day where you'll sit there for a couple of hours before they'll go pee, no joke. But as long as you're watching tv with them and playing with them, trust me, they won't care. Both of my kids loved it because they got total attention from me and got to play with whatever they could as long as they could play while they sat there. I even had a tray for eating that I put in their laps and we sat and played play doh together.
If it takes a while for them to go pee that first morning, feed them their cereal while they're sitting there so they don't have to get up until after they go potty. Once they finally go potty, get up and act nuts basically, totally excited about it. Have a sticker chart made up out of posterboard and decorate it with whatever they love, my son loves letters and numbers, so I put those all around the outside. Then, let them choose a sticker and put it on the chart. I even went as far as putting the sticker chart up high, so they got to stand on the counter to put a sticker on it, that way it was even cooler to them.
AFter that, set your timer on the microwave for one hour and when it goes off, have them sit again until they go. In the meantime, put underwear on them, you can double or triple them up since they're used to wearing a thick diaper, and put thick pants on them like corduroys or thick sweats. Then, here's the trick, put a couple of pairs of really thick socks or even slippers on him so that when he has accidents, you're not constantly cleaning your carpet, it will soak up into his clothes. When he has an accident, explain to him how it feels gross, doesn't it and how he should go potty in the potty chair so that doesn't happen, then take off wet clothes and sit him in the potty chair until he goes again, explaining to him that "this is where we go potty".
Cut off juice one hour before bedtime starting that night.
Do the same the second day, and also pay extra attention to what he does before he poops, so you can start to catch him and set him on the potty before he goes. I went to Dollar General and bought super cheap underwear so I could just cut the sides and throw them away, instead of having to clean up and wash out underwear after poopy accidents.
The first 3 days are really hard and take a lot of patience, but stick with it! By the middle of the second day, my son started telling me sometimes when he had to go potty, the third day was the worst day because I had him running around with only a shirt on, so he was spraying my house at times (my shampooer basically sat in the livingroom all that day, ready for the next accident). I had him run around with no pants because as soon as I'd put underwear on him, he'd poop, so I kept them off and he wouldn't go poop with nothing on. It took him a few tries of taking him to the potty every 5 minutes, but finally, he couldn't hold it any longer and he pooped in the potty on the 3rd day. I had a surprise bag for when he pooped that was full of toys from the dollar store that he got to choose from whenever he pooped.
The fourth day, he woke up, went potty as soon as I set him on the potty, which during the second day had moved back into the bathroom, and from then on, he would tell me when he had to go. I still took him periodically though just to make sure he wouldn't go in his pants. After one week, I took away pullups at night and haven't bought any since. As long as you cut off that juice at night, you shouldn't have any problems. My son has only wet his bed one time in 5 months, and it was on a night when I wasn't here, so I have no idea what my husband did with the juice cut off.
If you have any questions or anything, just ask! My email is ____@____.com
This works! Just hang in there! All of my friends do it this way, after I told them how fast they can do it! I hear of people trying for 8 months! That's crazy! You have to just train them, it's just like when you train your new puppy, you do it and do it and do it until they're trained, you don't wait and say "oh, they're not ready, let's just wait" you just keep at it until they're broke. Same concept with kids. You start it and stick with it nonstop until they're potty trained. You can do it! And just constantly tell yourself that if you just hang in there, it will only take a matter of days and then you'll be done!
Julie
