Riding the Potty Train

I think I thoroughly confused Olivia when I told her we were going to potty train. I could just see the wheels turning in her head trying to figure out if I was talking about a long train with cars that looked like toilets or a giant toilet with a train running around the toilet seat track. Ha! Either way we started riding that potty train a week ago. And Olivia has been doing fantastic!  

The idea of potty training has been a daunting one to me. Partly because it's just plain hard, as everyone can agree. And because there are so many opinions out there, which no one can agree on. I don't think there's a tried and true method or time to start that works for everyone. Every child is different and needs to start when they're ready and with an approach that works for them. Likewise, every parent needs to start when they're ready and with an approach that works for them. In fact, I think it has a lot more to do with the trainer than the trainee. As my mom told me, parents are being potty trained just as much as the kids are.

After doing quite a bit of research on the internet I decided that the method that suited me best was to try to potty train in a day. Not that they're fully trained in a day but that most of the teaching and understanding takes place on that first day.

Here is one of the blogs I found particularly useful. I used most of the ideas and added some of my own.

Before we could begin we needed to purchase and set up some things to make the transition easier and even possible. 

Potty Seat

Richard and I didn't want the mess of a little training potty and didn't want one taking up any of our already limited bathroom space. (However, we plan to purchase a portable potty, of sorts, to have in the car. Hopefully one that will fold up nice and small.) What we did buy was a new toilet seat with a smaller potty seat hinged in the middle. It folds up and stays in place with a magnet when not in use.

Just like with her new bed, Richard had Olivia help him put the new seat on the toilet so she would take some ownership and get excited to start using it.

Step Stool

Next, we needed a step stool so she would be able to get up to the toilet by herself. I love the one we got from Target. It's sturdy enough for adults to stand on so we can use it around the house when we don't need it in the bathroom and it has a great handle for Olivia to hold onto when she's getting up and down. It also folds up so we can tuck it out of the way.

Underwear

I bought some normal underwear for day time use and some training pants that are just a little thicker for night. We were also given some pull-ups from our sister-in-law. At first I didn't want to use them because I think they feel just like diapers to the child which confuses them when they're training. But we actually ended up using them over top of the underwear at night and during naps. It's great because she can still feel the wet, uncomfortable feeling but it saves the clean up for me. Once they're gone I think we'll use some rubber pants, the ones you use for the pool.

Visuals

I'm a very visual learner myself and a teacher at heart and I thought it would be helpful for Olivia to have something nearby to show her the steps she needs to do when using the potty and in what order to do them. 

This next one isn't all that necessary but I made it anyway. It's a marker to show how far to unroll the toilet paper before you tear it off. I think it will work better when she's older because right now it's all she can do to just grab a hold and rip some off. And after I took the picture I realized that I need to lower it a bit. But you get the idea.

 

Rewards/Incentives

Our reward system goes as follows. When Olivia uses the potty we give her a skittle (instant reward). Then after she has taken care of business, so to speak, she gets to choose a sticker and place it on a reward chart. Once she has earned 5 stickers she gets to pick a prize (sucker, smarties, bouncy ball, etc.) And then she gets to call a member of our extended family to tell them she went potty. This last one is definitely a reinforcement because she loves to talk on the phone.

Now having done it for a week I would change things up in the future. I would use the skittles and phone call at the beginning and then once we've phased them out I would introduce the sticker chart where she would earn a sticker for being dry the whole day or something like that. But it has still worked well. And the phone call has already been reduced to one per day instead of every time she goes, which is a lot more manageable.

Potty Train

With everything in place we were ready to begin. Here's how our Potty Training day went:

1. We woke up and had breakfast like normal.

2. I told her that I had something cool to show her. I had put a diaper on her stuffed bunny rabbit and showed it to her. I told her that Bunny was a big girl now and wanted to wear underwear. I had her take off the diaper and help me put on the underwear.

3. Bunny used the toilet with the help of a medicine dropper. Then Bunny got to "eat" a skittle.

4. Olivia got so excited and wanted to put on underwear and go potty, too. I got so excited when she actually went!

5. I gave her a skittle and explained the sticker chart.

6. Then she got to call someone.

7. After that I set the timer for 15 minutes and we played for awhile. Then before the timer went off Bunny had an accident on the kitchen floor (using the medicine dropper again). I said "No pee on the floor, pee in the toilet!" Then Olivia and I ran back and forth from the sight of the accident to the bathroom saying the same phrase over and over again about 10 times.

8. Eventually Olivia had an accident of her own. I got her cleaned up and then she helped me clean the spot on the carpet. We washed hands and then ran back and forth 10 times saying "No pee on the floor, pee in the toilet!" When I read this idea on the blog I thought it sounded really weird and I wasn't going to do it. But I'm so glad I did. Of all the ideas I found, this is one that helped her grasp the concept of not having accidents. She says the little phrase, or variations of it, all the time (No pee in underwear, or No pee on Mom--you can imagine why we had to use that one).

9. The rest of the day involved eating snacks, drinking lots of water and juice and maintaining as much of a normal schedule as possible with lunch and nap time.

10. About half way thru the day we abandoned the underwear because she was burning thru them too fast and we enlisted the bare bottom method. This worked great even if it was a little awkward.


The coolest experience happened on Day 2. It was Saturday and Richard and I were folding laundry in our bedroom and discussing the fact that Olivia hadn't used the potty for over an hour. We had found by that second day that reminding her less and letting her take initiative was working a lot better for all of us. But we thought we might need to remind her pretty soon. Then we both suddenly stopped talking and looked at each other when we heard the faint sound of tinkling water. We ran into the bathroom and there was our big girl, kicking her legs and grinning up at us while she was using the potty all by herself! It was in that moment that I knew potty training in a day WORKED!

Way to go, Olivia!

Now, it's only been a little over a week. I'm no expert and I know I didn't do everything right. I could have been a lot more consistent, among other things. But I do think it clicked for her and it happened within the first day or two.

That being said, it hasn't all been kicks and giggles around here. There have been lots of times where Olivia just refuses to go and then has an accident minutes, sometimes seconds, later. She struggles to use the bathroom when we're away from home and if we're outside playing then we can pretty much count on an accident or two because she hates to come in. But that's normal. And as hard as those moments have been, there have also been really good moments through this experience. She wakes up dry in the morning and from naps, something she seldom did before potty training. She has gone whole days without a single accident. And most days she only has one or two.

I have loved seeing her excitement to learn something new and her self esteem emerge as she overcomes the obstacles of this new challenge. And I have especially loved having only one kid in diapers!