There comes a time in parenting when you hit a glorious moment – not buying diapers for your child anymore!
When I knew we were getting close to that potty training milestone, I started thinking about what I wanted potty training to look like – or even better, what I didn’t want it to look like.
I didn’t want to be cleaning up pee and poop from my floors. I didn’t want to chase around a half-naked child every waking second for three days. I didn’t want to rely on a timer. I didn’t want to think we had made it to only have to turn around and potty train again, and again…and again.
These were all stories I had heard from different people along my motherhood journey and they did not sound appealing to me at all.
I wanted one and done. Quite literally, I wanted to potty train for ONE DAY and be done.
You might think I’m crazy, but IT WORKED and we only had TWO accidents. I call that a major win.
I saw another mom say somewhere that moms of kids who potty train in one day are probably also moms that always have a clean house, grow organic food in the backyard, and wake up at 5 am to work out.
I can assure you – I do none of these (but I wish I did!) and my child STILL potty trained in ONE DAY. Guess what? Your kid can too!
How Do I Know If My Child Is Ready For Potty Training?
Let’s start by saying this – YOU know when your child is ready. Every child is different. It doesn’t matter what your friends or your mother or your sister or your grandma say. If you believe your child is ready, then go for it!
There are lots of different signs you can look for that can tell you your child might be ready to potty train.
For my child, there were a few things I took note of. She would grab at her diaper when she would pee, she would hide when she pooped (this is an extremely common sign!), she stayed dry during naps for a couple of weeks, and she was using potty words in the correct context (“flush”, “pee”, “poop”, “potty”).
Other things you can look for are:
- Following simple directions
- Willingness to sit on the potty
- Recognition of the potty sensation
- Staying dry for longer periods
It is up to you how many “signs” you want to see before you decide to start potty training. In my opinion, the more signs they’re showing, the more chance you have at being successful the first time around. I know some people start potty training just because they want their kid out of diapers at a certain age and it inevitably fails because the child wasn’t ready.
Are YOU Ready to Potty Train?
I think the next big question you have to ask yourself after evaluating whether your child is ready to start potty training is are YOU ready to start potty training?
It is a commitment on your end to start that journey. Luckily, our potty training “journey” was very short and straightforward, but that still meant being prepared for other circumstances.
Now when you’re out at the store you have to be prepared to drop what you’re doing and dash to the bathroom! That was a hard realization the first time it happened to us.
Are you ready for long car rides?
There are questions you have to ask yourself and situations you have to think about when deciding if you’re ready as the parent to potty train your child.
HOW WE POTTY TRAINED OUR CHILD IN ONE DAY
Let’s get to it!
Let me preface this list by being completely transparent:
We still used diapers at night in the beginning, but literally for only a couple of weeks.
I did this for a couple of reasons. One, we had a pack of overnight diapers that I didn’t want to go to waste and it was about a two-week supply that was left. I made sure my daughter knew she could only wear a diaper at night for that many days and then they were gone forever. This point has a lot to do with the second item on my list! She watched them dwindle away each night and knew that when they were gone, they were gone.
Secondly, I enjoyed my sleep (when I could get it – I was big and pregnant at this point), and wasn’t up for changing wet sheets and pajamas in the middle of the night. I knew that could still happen when the overnights were gone, but thought if we had the hang of potty training by that time, that no diaper at night shouldn’t be a big deal (and it wasn’t).
So, let’s get into how I potty trained my child in ONE DAY!
1. WE WAITED
Sorry if you were looking for a post that would tell you how to potty train your child before two. I realize this point might lose some people – and that’s okay! Also, I truly understand how badly you want to stop buying diapers. Again, you and your child both have to be ready and if your child is ready before two and you want to try it, then more power to ya!
For us, it just wasn’t feasible. We were pregnant with our second child shortly after our daughter turned one, and were given a CHD diagnosis during that pregnancy. Our heart warrior would be born three months before our daughter turned two and we knew our lives were going to be turned upside down (and he ended up being in the CVICU for 103 days). We knew that was a terrible time to try to do something that major with her.
Then when the most devastating event happened, we were not emotionally or mentally ready to potty train either. We knew the loss would affect her in some way, and forcing her to potty train during that time would be unfair to both her and us.
Aside from life being crazy, I wanted to be sure she understood that we were leaving diapers in the past and would be peeing and pooping in the potty from now on, and I believed age played a big factor in that.
I knew moms that tried to potty train their child at 18 months and had to keep putting a hold on it because it just wasn’t working. There was no way I was going to start and stop and start and stop with potty training.
I can’t remember the exact age, but I know she was a new three year old when she potty trained. Way past 18 months!
2. WE TALKED ABOUT EVERYTHING POTTY A LOT
There are so many things to say here!
Before our daughter even knew we were going to potty train, we talked about things related to it.
If she was pulling on her diaper, I would ask her if she was peeing. If she responded with “yes” I would casually say something like, “One day soon we’ll have to try that in the potty!”.
When I would change her diaper I would show her the blue line and tell her that that meant she had went pee in her diaper and again casually mention that she should try to get her pee in the potty instead. This led to her informing us sometimes that her diaper had a blue line!
For weeks leading up to potty training (probably a whole month), I would ask her if she wanted to sit on the potty. If she didn’t want to, I didn’t push the issue at all and just would respond with “Okay, really soon we’re going to start using the potty instead of our diapers okay?”. If she wanted to, great!
When we were on the last box of diapers I SHOWED her the box of diapers and told her that really soon we were going to start using the potty and that when the diapers were gone I couldn’t buy anymore. Every diaper change (or at least once a day), I would remind her that when the diapers were gone we would be using the potty instead.
I remember the day we ran out of diapers. I went to grab one and realized we didn’t have any more – I don’t know how I didn’t make that realization the day before that the next day would be official potty training! I just looked at my daughter and she said, “No more diapers?”. It was a very easy connection for her to make that she was moving on to using the potty.
When I showed her that last box of diapers I also started to really hype up the fact that she could start wearing big girl underwear, which brings me to my next point.
3. WE LET HER PICK OUT HER BIG GIRL UNDIES
I don’t want to sound too dramatic here, but seriously MAKE A BIG DEAL ABOUT THE UNDERWEAR. Make it seem so awesome, cool, impressive – whatever – that they get to wear big kid underwear.
When we were getting close to running out of diapers I took her to the store and I let her pick out whichever underwear she wanted – and she loved it and was excited.
There’s not much else I can add to this point – just HYPE IT UP, okay?
4. WE USED A (SUPER SIMPLE) POTTY CHART
If the fact that I didn’t realize we had run out of diapers doesn’t tell you already, I wasn’t prepared that the day we started potty training would be the day. So needless to say, we didn’t have a cutsie little potty chart hung on the fridge when she woke up that morning.
I was not about to offer my child an M&M every time she peed on the potty (I know this will get some eye rolls) because I didn’t want her thinking she was getting a treat every time she went. I wanted her to realize this is just what we do – we use the potty. BUT – I didn’t want to be completely boring.
We went very simple. A pee column and a poop column. Every time she peed in the potty she put a sticker in that column. Every time she pooped she put a sticker in that column. We said after twenty stickers in the pee column and five stickers in the poop column that we would go get ice cream.
It took her about nine days to get there, and I think we caved after four poop stickers.
I like that a chart is visual for little kids, plus our daughter (and a lot of little kids) loves stickers, so it was a fun way for her to keep track.
WHAT THE PROCESS ACTUALLY LOOKED LIKE
We started the first day by showing her her potty chart and explaining to her how to use it. Every time she would pee or poop in the potty we would make a big deal about the fact that she would get to go put a sticker on her chart and say she was one sticker closer to getting ice cream. Keep reminding them of the bigger reward at the end if you have something you’ve agreed on!
I know some methods of potty training have you sit your child on the potty every thirty minutes for a set amount of time (unless something happens before that set time is up). Since we waited so long to potty train, and I knew how my toddler acted leading up to needing to potty, I didn’t force her to sit on the potty. I never set an alarm on my phone but would ask her if she needed to go potty at least once every hour. If she said she didn’t need to I didn’t force her to, and I would remind her to tell me if she needed to go potty multiple times each hour.
Don’t get me wrong, there were times when I had to physically pick her up and take her away from what she was doing and sit her on the potty. She would be so wrapped up in play that she wouldn’t want to stop, so I had to make that decision for her. Again though, it was easy for me to tell that she had to go.
We did keep a potty chair in the middle of the living room for about the first week just in case she couldn’t make it to the bathroom. We tried to keep the use of the potty chair to a minimum, but she did end up preferring it so that was a couple-day battle of getting rid of it!
That was it!
In the time it took her to fill her potty chart up with stickers, we only had two pee accidents and that was only on the first day. It was so painless.
The only issue we ran into was one poop incident. It’s very common for kids to be afraid or resistant to poop on the potty – hence the hiding while they poop in their diaper. Our daughter would typically hide behind our recliner. I knew if I couldn’t find her that she was probably hiding somewhere trying to poop.
During that “week” of potty training she pooped on the potty once and then went on strike. It had been a few days and I knew her belly was hurting. I literally told her I would put a diaper on her for her to go poop so her belly wouldn’t hurt anymore but that we were back to no diapers for good after that (we put one of the overnights on her). Somehow, that worked for her and she never “needed” a diaper for pooping again. I know this is a way bigger hurdle for some though!
A FEW OTHER THINGS
I would suggest avoiding pull-ups at all costs if possible. The only reason we even owned pull-ups was to slide one on her after swim class because it was easier than putting on a real diaper. If your child knows they can potty in a pull up then that’s just another diaper to them.
Maybe you’re wanting to have your child wear them at night – which I totally understand – but maybe try putting underwear on first and the pull-up OVER the underwear. Then when they “wet the bed” at night it will wake them up because they will feel the wet, but you won’t have pee sheets to clean up, just wet underwear that can wait until the following day.
As I stated in the beginning, we did have diapers on her overnight for a couple weeks just until we ran out of her overnight diapers that I didn’t want to go to waste. This actually worked really well for us because the last six or seven nights she woke up with a completely dry diaper in the morning, so when we switched to underwear at night she was confident.
Keep diapers out of sight out of mind. If it gives you peace of mind, then keep a few extra diapers on hand somewhere, but you at least want your child to see that there are no more diapers. We literally had NO regular diapers left in the house in her size. For me, there was no going back.
We kept a potty chair in the living room for a couple of weeks so that if she couldn’t make it to the bathroom she would be able to make it to the potty chair. It didn’t take her long to decide she only wanted to use the potty chair so the potty chair was quickly taken away (just hidden) and she had no other option but to use the real toilet.
Make the real toilet easily accessible for them! Put a stool in front of the toilet and you’ll probably want a child seat on the toilet seat so they don’t feel like they’re going to fall in. We want them comfortable and safe on the potty so that they are confident!
It is also best to start potty training when you don’t have any pressing plans. That first outing without a diaper is a real nail-biter. You don’t want to be out in public with your child while they are still potty training – but you will have to rip the bandaid and just go for it as far as taking them out for the first time without a diaper.
Remember, start when your child AND you are ready! I hope your potty training journey is as pain-free as ours was and you get to be diaper-free in ONE DAY!