Two weeks before Mavrick’s second birthday, I decided I wanted to start potty training. I looked online, and decided to try the 3 day potting training technique in hopes that he will be amongst the success stories, and diaper-free in time to start his new daycare. I knew of a few mothers who attempted this technique. One fully successful, another who will have to attempt it once again, and one whose daughter was fully day trained but not night trained.
My goal was to have Mavrick potty trained before his 2nd birthday. Why? Well, first of all buying disposable diapers for two kids definitely doesn’t help the bank, and we all know I’m in my budget mode. Plus I was told boys have a window for potty training and just recently he started showing signs of readiness, so we decided to do it. We’d been prepping for potty training about 2 weeks beforehand. We started to reduce the amounts of liquids Mavrick drank before bed, started verbalizing that poopy diapers were yucky, introduced him to the potty (even if he had no interest whatsoever), explained to him what mommy was doing on the toilette and telling him that diapers were for babies and that he was a big boy now.
I went ahead and purchased gold star stickers, snacks that Mavrick adores that we will use as rewards and 4 bigger rewards for milestone events (for example when he starts verbalizing pee-pee & poo, when he actually pees and poops in the potty for the first time etc.). We purchased about 20 pairs of toddler underwear, 8 of which are ones that really make him want to wear them because they have Buzz Light Year & Woody and some with Flash McQueen.
We even purchased a plastic mattress cover since the method suggests no diapers, no pull-ups,and just underwear from day 1. I figured mishaps were bound to happen, and I needed to protect my mattress. Also, I’d rather wash the sheets than use pull-ups. I was afraid that if I started using pull-ups, he would simply consider them a diaper.
When I told people I was starting to potty train my son who wasn’t 2 years old yet, they all looked at me like I was nuts; that it was impossible and that boys aren’t potty trained before the 2.5-3 year mark. Even Mr. Sunglasses had a hard time being on board, but we went all out. Was it a success? I won’t spill the beans just yet.
How do you think it went? Were you successful in potty training your toddler the first time around?
Potty training part 7 of 14
1. Best Potties by Guides2. Favorite Potty Training Books by Mrs. Bee
3. Potty Training Accessories by Guides
4. Printable Potty Training Rewards Chart by printables
5. Three-day potty training by parenting
6. It's My Potty and I'll Try if I Want To by mrs. wagon
7. Let the potty training begin by Mrs. Sunglasses
8. Conventional vs Early Potty Training by Mrs. Superhero
9. Charlie is now Prince of the Potty! by Mr. Bee
10. Potty Training Bootcamp by Mrs. Cowgirl
11. Style vs. Practicality: Skinny Jeans and Little Boys by Mrs. Cowgirl
12. Easy Does it with the Potty by Mrs. High Heels
13. Enter the World of Potty Training by Mrs. Checkers
14. Potty training a 22 Month Old by mrs. tictactoe
guest
My son was 2 and four months. six weeks after my second was born and two months after a move. He had the basics naked after two days and by two weeks we were out and about in underwear.
Nights are a whole other ball game. you will get nowhere until his body is ready.
pomelo / 5178 posts
DD was done at 18 months; some people actually asked me if her doctor had ok’ed potty training her that early. Sigh. It’s a potty people, not the freaking Game of Thrones.
I’m so excited to hear about hoe Mavrick did! I bet he aced it.
guest
My LoveBug just turned 2 a couple weeks ago. We’re an extra busy family and rarely home for 3 days straight, so the 3-day method just didn’t seem like an option for us. We bought the potty at about 18 months and did “pretend” potty breaks every so often, but not frequently enough to actually be “training” – just enough to get her used to the idea. Then yesterday out of the blue she said “potty, Mommy!” so we went in and sat on the potty and there it was! She had figured it out all on her own. Her reward was getting to watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, since we usually don’t let her watch TV after daycare. I know we should jump head-first into training her now, but we’re going out of town (9-hour car ride) this weekend and that just sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, so we’ll be going full-force when we get home!
pomegranate / 3414 posts
DD is 29m as of this coming Saturday and we’ve sort of started; we’re more just following her cues at this point because I’m 2 weeks away from delivering LO#2 and we aren’t expecting miracles. We too are going the no pull-up route but did buy some nylon pants to put over the panties since we have carpet in all but the kitchen and I didn’t want to be dealing with a newborn and potty training accidents at the same time. She has started to show interest in the panties so we might give them a try over the weekend just to see what happens. So far our success has been getting her to sit on the potty for longer than 5 seconds but she has yet to actually go while on the potty.
clementine / 878 posts
I just checked out the book “Diaper Free Before Three” from the library, which teaches elimination communication starting at 6 months old. I’m also hoping to have my LO potty trained early.
pomelo / 5178 posts
@Goldilocks1107: I also recommend The Diaper-Free Baby. We did EC with DD starting at 3 months and started with DS at about 8 weeks. It’s been a really good experience for our family!
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
VERY timely post! and everything sounds eerily similar to what our plan is! we are planning to start potty training our 20-month old tomorrow. I took time off work so that we can have four solid days (and labor day weekend is the perfect weekend to do it though we’ll be missing out on some fun events). She starts preschool next wednesday, so hoping we’ll be successfully trained by then. i created a potty training reward chart, bought stickers, and plan to buy cheap little toys that she can choose from a “surprise bag” whenever she achieves a bigger milestone (like after successfully going to the potty 5 times).
We were thinking about using diapers for nap and nighttimes though – do you think that will cause some regression?
blogger / eggplant / 11551 posts
also, did you order and read the e-book on the 3-day potty training site? or did you just follow advice that friends/family gave you? any additional tips appreciated since we’re starting this tomorrow!
persimmon / 1255 posts
I also plan on using the 3-day potty training plan but am going to wait ’til she’s 22 months. We did some quasi-EC training so she’s been going in the potty when prompted since 14 months but hasn’t quite mastered holding her pee and telling us yet
cantaloupe / 6146 posts
I am seriously considering moving to the boonies (even farther boonies than here) and letting LO run naked all the time and when he wants to wear clothes, he won’t get any diapers. Then he’ll self train. Ahhaahahha. No really, I’m already scared to potty train. Ugh.
I hope it went well but my guess is it did not.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
We’re gonna potty train our DD (17 months old) next week! Nervous, but I think she’s ready!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I hope everything goes smoothly for you.
GOLD / pear / 1845 posts
My biggest pet peeve is that whenever you discuss early potty training 90% of people will tell you about how it’s really the parent who’s trained, not the baby.
I say, who care’s who’s trained as long as you don’t have to deal with poopy diapers?
GOLD / pomelo / 5167 posts
@Mrs. High Heels: Yes I had the e-book. And would constantly read it over or look back at it to answer some questions. I’ve also would chat with those who’ve used it… see what worked for them and what didn’t. It was nice. I didn’t feel so alone.
GOLD / pomelo / 5167 posts
@Goldilocks1107: Elimination communication freaks me out. In a cool way. I don’t think I would ever do it.. but i’m tempted to read the book.
squash / 13199 posts
@Honeybee: LOL!!!
guest
Mine is 23 months now and I’m thinking about it. And then thinking about how hard it is to stop everything with a 3-month-old to even change diapers now and then. So we’ll probably put it off a little longer.