I know that sounds ridiculous... one day? It's true! Lucas will be 3 years old next month (can I even call him a toddler anymore?). I have been trying to potty train him since he turned 2. I've tried putting him in underwear, in Pull-Ups, letting him run around naked (
inside, of course), setting a timer every hour (...and 45 minutes...and 30 minutes...).
"Lucas, do you need to go pee on the potty?"
"No... oh... Mommy, I peed!"
(Here comes the frustration... trying not to get upset with him... No use... after 2 changes of underwear, I'm done... here come the Pull-Ups again...)
I remember pinning a blog post about 6 months ago about how another woman potty-trained her kids in a day (
I can't find that pin now... and I've tried Googling... was that you? Let me know, and I'll link back to you!). She said she set aside one day, where she devoted her entire attention to that child. All the other siblings went to the grandparents' house for the day. She pushed salty snacks, sweet snacks, and sugary drinks on her daughter
constantly. Every 15 minutes, she sat her daughter on the potty. If she peed or pooped, the little girl could pick a family member's picture off of a board. They would call that person to inform them of the good news...
repeat... This woman said that within that day, each of her children were potty trained. Although there were occasional accidents over the next week or so, that was that!
Update: I found the pin!
I'm thinking to myself, "Yeah... that might work for your kids..." Still, I pinned it and kept it in the back of my mind. I mean, seriously? You push the kid to drink constantly? Whenever I've attempted potty training, I've only given Lucas a tiny amount of liquid. He'll just wet his pants if I give him more, right?
Somehow, last Monday, I ran into an
interview with Wendy Sweeney, a woman nicknamed "The Potty Whisperer" (
check it out... there's a video of the interview and her training methods). Her "Booty Camp" is one day long. She gives the kids lots of salty snacks and junk food, making them thirsty. When they're thirsty, she gives them soda and other sugary drinks... they taste great, but don't quench their thirst... so they drink more... and they pee (
don't worry... she doesn't condone this diet on a regular basis... just for the one day intesive training). She tells the kids at the beginning of the "camp" and repeatedly throughout the day, "It is your job to know when you have to pee and to take yourself to the potty. I am not going to remind you or tell you to go. That is your job. If you pee in your pants or on the floor, you will help clean it up." She says she doesn't mean to sound mean. She's just telling them what is expected of them.
Soooo....
That night, Lucas and I said, "Bye-Bye," to all of his diapers... his Pull-Ups, his Overnights, and his swim diapers. Lucas asked me, "Mommy, are they saying
{in falsetto}, 'Lucas! Don't use us!'?" "Yep, Bud. They sure are." I showed him the diaper organizer in his room... all empty!
...I wasn't brave enough. I put all the diapers in a box in my closet (my lack of faith in this). Tuesday morning, we woke up, I put him in underwear, and I told him every so often to go to the potty. He fought me every time. Never made a mess... but just didn't seem to care if he was dirty.
Wednesday...
I bit the bullet. I knew telling him to go (or even asking him if he needed to) wasn't working (
I mean, I've tried it enough in the past year...). Elimination communication
(read more about that here) works off of the fact that babies are born with a natural aversion to soiling themselves. Super-absorbent diapers desensitize the child to that feeling. Eventually they lose all realization that they even
need to go. Sweeney's method is to re-teach that child what it feels like to
need to go. This, in itself, is the hardest part of the potty-training.
We started off the day with me giving Lucas Sweeney's spiel above. It was so hard not to ask him or tell him to go to the bathroom. I prayed a
lot! ("God, please help me to trust Lucas and to help him learn what his body needs"). I desperately wanted to get those diapers back out of my closet. The only thing keeping me from doing this were:
- Lucas will never learn to recognize the need to go if I don't let him, and
- He would lose faith and trust in me when he realized diapers weren't actually going bye-bye.
After a fairly decent breakfast of eggs, bacon, and fruit, I pulled out all the salty snacks I had (he didn't seem to care that it was pretzels, Triscuits, and salty almonds... I learned the hard way not offer dried fruit on that buffet... dried fruit=lots of poop). I just kept alternating orange juice and chocolate milk all day.
After
many accidents in the morning, Lucas finally caught on to what it felt like just before he peed.
I had no idea I would have to teach a little boy how to physically "hold it in"...
I was so exhausted by the end of the day.
Lucas now knew that he had to pee (
I consider this potty-trained!). Thursday we worked on knowing when to go soon enough (this seemed to mostly be procrastination... Kid just wanted to play, not pee). We had promised Lucas a big boy bike (complete with training wheels) if he peed and pooped only in the potty. When he got off of the couch (
by himself!) Thursday afternoon while watching a movie to go pee (
by himself!), we considered potty-training done! (How amazing is that?!)
The only "accidents" Luc has had since then are related to not being able to get to the potty fast enough!!! I can't believe this might have happened sooner had I just been a little more patient and
allowed him to get dirty a few times...
Bye-Bye, Diapers!!!!
or buy her training DVD on Amazon...
I hope this helps other frustrated (and clueless) moms! What methods have you used to potty-train your kids?
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