I mentioned recently that we managed to successfully potty train Jackson. It was an undertaking that I was pretty terrified of before we got started, but it ended up being so much easier than I expected it to be! We’ve still got a few little obstacles to get over before I can say we’re totally finished, but I’m pretty confident in saying we have a potty trained kid on our hands.

We didn’t follow a specific technique or strategy. We decided to do it kind of last minute, so there wasn’t a ton of forethought or research into what we were going to do. I have a bit of experience with potty training from my days working in a preschool class for kids with disabilities, so I felt like we had enough of a base to go off of.

So, how’d we do it?

I’d say our biggest key was purchasing a super special toy that Jackson could play with only when he was successful at using the potty. He’s obsessed with garbage trucks, so we let him pick out a really fun one that would be his reward for successful potty trips (you can see more about the gear we used on this post). Honestly, for us this was the #1 factor in getting him potty trained as quickly as we did. He wanted that truck so bad and it killed him to have it sitting right in front of him all day long and knowing that he could only have it if he peed in the potty. It was a giant motivator for him, and I think potty training would have taken us a long longer if we hadn’t bought it!

As far as our actual strategy, we pretty much just put him in underwear and told him to let us know if he needed to go potty. We tried forcing him to sit every 15-30 minutes at first, but he hated it and it was pretty awful for all of us. We eventually decided that he’d figure it out, so we just asked him regularly if he needed to go and let him kind of lead the way. It took about two days for him to get the hang of it, but as soon as he did it was like a switch flipped and he just got it. After that first time earning his garbage truck, he couldn’t get enough of using the potty! When he did have an accident, we talked about how he needs to let us know if he needs to pee, and we had him clean up the mess himself. We helped if we needed to, but we were pretty hands-off and let him know that if he peed on the floor he’d have to clean it up. It was a helpful way to reinforce the fact that accidents are no fun, and it was a good way to teach him that you’ll be away from your toys longer if you have an accident than if you just speak up when you need to go.

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We still have the (very) occasional accident, but it’s usually just when he’s in a new or unfamiliar place and gets busy playing. We’re still working on being successful with BMs regularly – he’s gone a few times, but he usually ends up pooping during naptime or bedtime when we still have him in a diaper. He wants to be in underwear for naps, but he still pees almost every time so we’re having him wear a diaper for now. We’re not in any rush to get him out of diapers for sleeping times, I’m thinking it’ll be one of those things that just happens when it happens.

The biggest roadblock we’re still dealing with at this point is that he won’t use a public restroom – we have to keep his mini potty chair in the car at all times and rush out to the parking lot if he needs to pee while we’re out and about. It’s not fun, but we don’t have a better solution and we don’t want to traumatize him by forcing him to use a public restroom (plus, I tried it one time and I’m pretty sure the entire restaurant thought I was torturing my child so I won’t be doing that again). I’m open to suggestions on how to handle getting him to switch over! I think the actual bathrooms themselves freak him out, not just the toilets, so it makes it extra hard!

How was potty training for you? I’ll admit, I was way more scared of it than I needed to be!