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I call it the”Potty Training Boot Camp”. My daughter was 24 months old and I potty trained her in 3 days. It required some serious dedication, hard work, and a lot of faith in the method, but it worked.
How did this all come about? Here’s the story…
I started to train my daughter when she was around 18-19 months by having her sit on the toilet, and encouraging her to go pee pee. It worked, she went pee pee on the potty, but I did not feel like she was actually learning anything. I was simply entertaining her for a little bit until she went potty on the toilet. It was incredibly boring, and it just did not feel right to me. So I stopped, mostly because my family was about to travel on a 14 hour flight overseas and I did not want the added stress of worrying about accidents.
After our long journey I was determined to settle down and potty train my daughter. She had been waking up with a dry diaper for a long time, and that is “supposed” to be a sign she was ready. Instead of jumping right back into training again, I decided to read a book a friend had recommended to me called “3 Day Potty Training“. I was intrigued because I felt clueless about potty training and it seemed like a good idea to do some research. (In case you have not noticed, I like to read up on just about EVERYTHING).
I am so glad I decided to wait because the author says the ideal time to train is 22-24 months. The book also provided me with a step by step explanation on how to potty train my daughter efficiently and effectively. After reading the book I finally felt like I had a good plan. Why? It reminded me of the way I trained my dog to go potty outside.
How I Trained My Puppy
If you have trained a puppy to go to the bathroom outside then you know how to potty train your child. When I trained my puppy, I kept him confined to one room, and if he started to go to the bathroom, I picked him up and placed him outside and let him finish there. I also gave him lots of praise and treats. It didn’t take very long before he caught on, and stopped having accidents. I recall using puppy pads, (for easier clean up), and I kept him confined to a puppy playpen to contain the accidents, but it worked pretty fast.
This was thirteen years ago, so I cannot recall exactly how long it took me to train him, but it did not take very long at all.
3 Day Potty Training
When I read the 3 Day Potty Training book, I knew it would work. It did not require me to sit and wait for her to go potty on the toilet. Instead, I let her have accidents and finish on the toilet every time, even if she did not have anything left. EVERY SINGLE TIME. That is a very important part of the training. It taught her what she needed to do, and how to pay attention to her body. She learned how to recognize when she needed to go. It also made her very uncomfortable if she did not go on the toilet. It reminded me a lot of training a puppy, so why wouldn’t it work? If a puppy can learn why not a toddler? (At least that was how I thought of the situation logically).
There was also praise, lots and lots of praise. When her panties were dry, I praised her. I also reminded her to let me know when she has to go pee, a lot. (This is the one part I felt really silly doing, you are supposed to repeat this very frequently. It gets annoying but it helps the process). When she had an accident, I did not make a big deal. I would say something like, “uh-oh, your panties are not dry anymore”. This is important, do not make a big deal if they have an accident. We all know kids thrive on attention, ANY ATTENTION. You want the main focus to be on their success, not the failure. It can be very challenging sometimes but it is effective. If you lose your cool, it might set you back a bit. Keep Calm and Potty Train On.
You can use whatever reward system you like, but the most important part is the praise, the positive reinforcement. Some parents use M&M’s, some use small gifts. Whatever works for your child. I used small gifts and fancy stickers.
If you started to potty train using a different method, you need to wait a little bit before starting the 3 day method. If your child is not waking up dry, the author has solutions for that in her book. (My daughter was waking up dry pretty early). It is also recommended that you limit drinks for a few hours before bed. (I still nursed my daughter to sleep when she was 24 months and it did not cause any problems).
I cannot give away all the details of the 3 day potty training method in this blog post because there is a lot involved and I did not write the book. If you would like a more detailed description of the protocol, I highly recommend the book – 3 Day Potty Training, (by Lora Jensen)
Here are some things I like about her method:
1. It uses positive feedback and encouragement
2. It involves teaching your child how to know when he/she has to go
3. Accidents are rare after training, (despite the young age).
4. There is no waiting until the child is “ready”, (she says children are ready by 22 months).
5. The child is potty trained in 3 DAYS!! (Fully potty trained, no pull-ups, etc).
6. The author gives her customers support, if you have any questions you can send her a message and she is really good about responding.
The principles that make her program work, (from the book): ” Love, consistency, dedication, positive reinforcement, patience, and focus. When implemented correctly, your child will be able to communicate with you when he or she needs to go.”
After I read this book I was so excited to train my daughter. I shared my excitement with a few people and I was laughed at, no one thought it would work. They thought it was a gimmick, but it really wasn’t. I was successful, my daughter was completely out of diapers in 3 days.
3 DAYS!!!
My daughter very rarely had accidents after she was trained, which was something many people warned me about. In fact, I knew so many kids who were trained at age 3 + who had many accidents. The age really is not the main issue. Night time was a breeze, I simply had to make sure my daughter went to the bathroom before she went to sleep. We made it part of our routine.
(I do think that if a child has any constipation issues, then that should be addressed before attempting the 3 day method. Regularity was never an issue with my daughter).
Tips for Success
Before I got started I read the e-book cover to cover two times. (O.K. maybe it was 3, I was a little nervous). The book is not long and very easy to read. I read it repeatedly because I wanted to be confident, (on day 1 we were expected to throw out any diapers, so I wanted to make sure I was ready for this. Really, there was no turning back).
Supplies –
Visqueen (plastic sheeting) this I purchased to lay down on top of our carpet. The 3 Day Potty Training method involved allowing for accidents in the beginning and it was too cold to play outside. If you have hardwood floor or tiles, (or a powerful steam cleaner), then you will not need this.
Coconut water – my kids drink mostly water, but I switched it up a little to encourage my daughter to drink more. The more a child has to go, the more opportunities to make it to the toilet and succeed. You can use juice too, the point is to give your child a lot of liquid.
Fruit – my kids LOVE fruit and during the 3 day potty training boot camp, it helps them go, (pee and poop). Training my daughter to go “pee pee in the potty” was faster than easier than number 2. However she was still trained in 3 days.
A lot of underwear – I think I purchased 24 pairs of panties. You will go through them pretty quickly and you don’t want to have to do laundry during “Potty Training Bootcamp”, if you can avoid it.
Baby Changing Pads – just for nap time and bedtime during training. I did not really need them but during training I didn’t want the mess.
Travel Potty – I bought this mostly for long drives, and it did come in handy. I used it up at our cabin too.
Potty Training Seat – We chose to use the insert instead of the kids potty. Either one will work, it is a matter of personal choice. This Potty Toilet Seat would be more convenient than the one I used because I had to help my daughter get up on the toilet seat for a while because she was so young, I like the attached ladder.
Be Prepared
I got caught up on my chores and did a little bit of meal prep/grocery shopping. You do not want to have to run to the store during training. If you want to succeed, you need to stay home and be ready to swoop your child to the bathroom right away. (It is helicopter parenting on steroids). You need to be with your child ALL DAY, no distractions. Put the laundry aside or do it while your child is sleeping.
So here is a brief synopsis of my experience…
Day 1
In the morning we started the day normally. But after breakfast was done, I had my daughter throw out her diapers. I made a big deal out of it. (Of course I was very nervous because there was literally no turning back at this point). The Living Room was covered with Visqueen to protect the carpet. (I did this the night before). We sat and played with some toys, and I kept giving her lots of water and coconut water. I kept reminding her to tell mommy when she needs to go poopy or pee pee on the potty. I also praised her for keeping her panties dry. (I did not ASK HER, I just reminded her, constantly. I am sure I sounded like a broken record, lol, but it is necessary). It took a while before her first accident, at least an hour, maybe a little more. I went into the kitchen to get something and when she stood up to follow me she went pee, and it formed a big puddle around her. It was pretty icky too because she slipped on it. She was fine, but it was messy. It surprised her too, since it was her first time out of diapers. I swooped her to the toilet and congratulated her on going pee pee in the potty. (I had to rinse/clean her in the tub and change her clothes too). This was how the morning went, she kept having accidents, and of course I started to wonder if I had made a horrible mistake by throwing out those diapers. But I kept following the protocol, I kept swooping her to the toilet.
Nap time was actually fine, she did not have any accidents while she was sleeping. I did hide a pad under the sheets, just in case.
By the afternoon something awesome happened, she stopped having accidents. She would “spot” her underwear a little bit, but she was catching herself in the act and CONTROLLING IT. It was remarkable, and at this point I was doing the happy dance because I felt like she was really done with diapers.
But it was not over yet, she still did not go poop. I was feeding her a lot of fruit but she did not poop at all on Day 1. (This was unusual for her, she was usually very regular). I guess I could have looked at that as a positive, since she had control over it, but I wanted her to go in the toilet. So that was my only concern at that point.
Day 2
She still had good control, no accidents, only “spotting”. Lots of games, books, and positive reinforcement when she went on the potty. I did stay a little closer to the toilet, so maybe that helped her succeed. Still no “poop” on the potty and I started to get a little frustrated. Then I decided to give her a nice warm bath. After a few minutes in the warm tub she told me she had to poop, and actually made it to the toilet. (No poop in the tub). Yay, one step closer to success.
Nap time and bed time was fine, no accidents. (I still put a pad under the sheets just in case, since she was still in training).
Day 3
Not very eventful, she was fully trained. I still followed the method for the FULL 3 DAYS, but I would say she was mostly trained by Day 1. It was tempting to get complacent at this point, but I followed the directions in the book, I did not get off track. That was the hardest part, the repetitiveness of the program, but thankfully it was only three days. Training her to poop on the potty took a little bit longer, but I attributed that to frequency, (she had to go pee more than poop in one day, so more chances to try). She did go poop in the potty on the third day.
So that was my experience, in a nut shell.
Many people warned me that accidents would be a problem because I trained her so young. Accidents were not an issue with her. She had one accident a few weeks after she was trained, but only because I let her fall asleep in the car and did not wake her before bed. We were at a friends place for dinner and she drank a lot of water close to bed time and I did not wake her and have her go to the bathroom and I should have. (We were also not home, we were traveling). So essentially it was my fault, not hers. The book warns against this so I messed up. There was one other time when we were visiting family and she had a small accident because she was distracted. But really that was it, no accidents in the car, no bed wetting. The 3 Day Potty Training method worked very well for us.
Misconceptions about Potty Training
(Disclaimer – these are misconceptions I read about in the book. I have only trained one child, so my experience is not extensive. So please do not shoot the messenger. I only share this information because I think a lot of moms wait to potty train because they think they have to).
1. You need to wait until they are ready
I hear this a lot, and I would have believed this was true if I had not read this book. Lora Jensen says if a child can communicate with you and the child is 22-24 months than the child is ready to be trained. She says this repeatedly in the book, so I guess this is something that comes up a lot. She has a lot more experience with potty training than me, (she has helped over 3000 families potty train), so I trust her opinion on this. Of course there are a lot of different ways to potty train a child, and if you wait until a child is old enough, it might be easier. It really depends on your situation. Diapers are expensive and training a child sooner than later was something that interested me. This book showed me how to make it work.
2. You should wait until a child shows interest in the toilet
My oldest daughter never showed an interest in the toilet and I have heard stories of kids playing with the toilet out of curiosity, not because they wanted to be trained. Kids are curious and they like to explore. I will say my youngest daughter expressed interest in sitting on the potty and even pooped in a few times long before she turned 24 months. However, I decided to wait until she was closer to the “ideal age”.
So that is a summary of my experience with potty training. It was a lot faster and easier than I ever envisioned potty training would be. Don’t get me wrong, it was intense, and those 3 days were pretty long. (I had some serious cabin fever by the end of it). But I really loved the fact that the training was over with quickly.
I highly recommend this book, it really was a life saver for me. There are a few different potty training books I have seen advertised, but I can only attest to the quality and effectiveness of the book I read and used. Again, I did not come up with this method, all I did was follow the very detailed instructions of Lora Jensen. Her book was very informative, and she also answered a few of my questions through a help desk on her website. If you want to be able to send her questions, then I think you need to purchase the ebook from her website: https://www.3daypottytraining.com. It is more expensive than the version available on Amazon, but you also get one on one help from a potty training expert, Lora Jensen. If you think that you will need the support then it is worth the extra money. (I bought the ebook from her website).
(Edit – I attempted to train Addie using the same method when she was almost 26 months old. She did very well and was almost fully trained, but I did not have the same level of confidence that she would be accident free, as I did with Lily. Though Addie did not have any accidents during nap-time or at night, she still had a few during the day. I am not sure what went wrong, but it did feel very rushed as I decided to potty train right before Christmas.
I decided to put potty training on hold for a month or two. I still think the method is a great method because it trains the child properly and it also shows the parent if the child is reading his or her body signals before needing to use the bathroom. Either Addie was not ready to be trained or she is very stubborn. I am pretty sure she is just stubborn and will need more incentives than Lily did, but only time will tell.)
What method did you use for potty training? What did you like about it?
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