I was thinking about doing the 3 day potty training thing for my almost 22 month old son when he turns two. Have any of you ever tired this? Did it work? I potty trained my oldest son at 2 because I was pregnant with my youngest little boy. And I kind of pushed him more than I should have because I didnt want two in diapers. It worked, but it wasn't a pleasant expirience at all for the both of us. He was potty trained in 2 weeks. But it did take him a little longer to get the poo poo thing down. But he had that down within a few months. He is now 4. He never wore pull ups even at night and has never had an accident. What I did worked, but I was wanting to try something different this time around. I'm not pregnant so Im not in as big of a hurry to get this done. I'm just ready to be done with diapers!! At least until we decide we want another baby. Thanks in advance!
YES!
We did it with my son in 3 days at 27 months, and my daughter was done in 1.5 days at 22 months. It is great and was a very positive experience for all of us.
I do home childcare and had a parent approach me with this material about a year and a half ago or so. I have always HATED the toilet training part of my job. I was never on board with making a child sit on the toilet at timed intervals, etc. That just makes ME the trained one.
I was VERY intrigued by it and said lets do it. She was single parenting due to her hubby's deployment at the time..shes an older parent and was always very well read and informed on whatever topics we discussed. I trusted we could honestly discuss this topic as well. Her son had never ever shown any signs of wanting to go here at my house, but it was something she wanted to tackle while dad was gone. He was 28 mos old.
She prepared for her 4 day weekend (we never went into it thinking it was a set 3 days)....she worked from home on a Friday for half the day, then mowed her lawn, ran to the store, and did some cleaning. She planned easy meals like frozen pizza, hot dogs, waffles and lunch meat stuff and made 2 small casseroles she knew he liked.
Saturday morning they tossed all the diapers they owned (they never did pull ups) and began. She said it was like waging a war...and was a rough few days. He came back to my house the next week, in only undies and a tshirt (that he wore for a few weeks..I didn't see him in pants for about a month). But in the first month, in 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week at my house, he had a total of 7 accidents. I NEVER asked him if he needed to go potty (cuz they will always say NO)..and I never made him sit at timed intervals.
Instead you constantly REMIND them "I can help you go potty" "remember to let me know when you need to go", etc. You put the power in their hands..but constantly say it at first..and watch for their cues. This guy would make a whiny noise when he felt it coming...and often would stand right next to me. You have to pay Uber attention to these little things.
Since then I have had 5 kids do this..the first few were at that 27-29 mos age. The last few were younger, closer to 24 mos. The youngest..a girl who just turned 3 last week..was 22 mos. Shes been trained OVER A YEAR! Its great!
I do agree, night training is a different thing for most of these kids, from what parents tell me. But at my house, no one over 24 mos wears diapers or pull ups, at all.
I like many of the ideals...I don't want to be trained, I want them to be trained. I like how it says to leave the potty chair in the bathroom. Drives me crazy when people let their kids pee in the kitchen or living room! Really? I have a motto about "Begining as you mean to go on"...and letting a child go potty in front of the tv is not a part of that.
So for me...and the families I have in care who I have encouraged to try it..it has worked. Within about a week, your child can be daytime trained. It will be messy and a bit of a battle with most kids..but will it be any better in a year and all those diapers later? I think its a fantastic thing!
I tried a similar method. It actually took a week for her to get it, two weeks for me to feel confident that she has mastered it. She was 26 months. Girls are different from boys. 2 sounds young to me from what i've heard about boys, but I also think your approach makes a huge difference. I honestly believe that as long as you believe your child is mentally and physically ready, they can do it in a short time frame, if: you make the decision to do full force and not turn back, and if you DO NOT go back to diapers or use pull ups except while they are sleeping as necessary. If they stay in underwear, they really don't have a choice. To me, it was worth it to live, breath potty training for a week than to deal with it on and off for months. Good Luck!
The book is a really useful and infomative guide to potty training and children's readiness. I think the title is misleading though. I would read it and give it a try but don't think there is anything "wrong" if its doesn't work in 3 days!
Never heard of any child mastering anything new, especially like potty training, in 3 days. I began potty training long before my children were 2 years old and they were potty trained by their second birthday. I stopped using diapers once potty training was in progress and switched to pull ups but rarely did they have accidents. Night time potty training, in my experience, really was up to the child and my role was very little except for ensuring they emptied their bladders at night before bed time and waking them up just before I turned in for the night for one last void for the night. Potty training does NOT have to be as difficult as so many mothers say it is. I firmly believe that ALL new things must be introduced very early on so that it is not foreign to the child once the training officially begins. I trained my children by removing their diaper and clothing from the waist down and put them on the toilet every 30 minutes throughout the day. Once they recognize the urge, you can easily move that time to every hour. It takes patience, persistence (on the parent's part), and a great deal of determination. I hate changing diapers after a certain age so it has always been my goal to potty train early and I have never experienced it as a horrible one. I have 3 children with another on the way and I intend to potty train the 4th child the same way. No diapers after 2 years old.
My SIL used it successfully with her daughter. She sang it's praises, her friends recommended it. ANd since her daughter did train so fast, I thought I'd give it a shot with my daughter. I followed it faithfully when she was 25 months old. It did NOT work...at all. I did think the book has some valuable information. Even after going through potty training once before, I learned a few things. My SIL still insisted it would work. So I waited and tried it again at 27 months. Nope. All it did was cause me a trying three days. Now at 29 months she is getting the hang of it much better, except for night time we are done with diapers. And this SIL who swore by it, has tried it twice now with her two year old and it is not working for her this time either. I think it may work for some. I have seen it with my niece. I have met others who said it works wonders. But kids are individuals and it's not going to work for everyone. If you are interested it's only three days...give it a try. It may be the best thing you ever did. If it doesn't work, at least you have a good introduction on using the potty for your little boy!
I used this method with my son when he was 2 1/2 and he didn't get it. I tried again a few months later and it worked. I think if you make it a positive experience it hopefully will work.
Thank you for posting this...I haven't tried it but it has been recommended to me by many, there's lots of good reviews out there..and I think I'm going to use this method when my son is ready (another 3-4 months from now) so I'm very curious to hear from other moms!!
Worked for us! I have never read the book, so I don't know what age they recommend. Our son was 3 1/3. I potty trained him (day, night, poop) in 3 days.
I think it has everything to do with age. I know people who successfully potty trained 2 and 2 1/2 year olds. My sister and some very close friends or ours recommended waiting until at least 3 years. Their philosophy was, if you wait until they, it's hardly any work at all. We did nothing to prepare him. Then one day we said, ok, no more diapers. It was a messy 3 days, but he did it!
I have to say, we found big improvements by buying The Potty Trainer's downloadable book. And I don't think it's 3 days of training so much as 3 days to get all the fundamental ideas in place.
