Summer is the Best Time for Potty Training - I Did it in One Week!

It's true, I potty trained my son, then 3 in one week last summer. And while I can say it was quite possibly the longest week of my life, I did it, and I will tell you how. Last summer was an arm-length list of firsts for us. Most notably it was his first year of soccer, and his first time out of diapers. Unfortunately for me, both of these firsts coincided with each other. My most vivid recollection of his soccer days was the day we went "sans pullup" for the first time, at soccer practice. I will never forget the panic and anxiety I felt every long minute of that one hour practice, wondering if the fateful accident was going to ensue. It didn't, and that evening marked the first of many dry nights for us. I will tell you how I did it.

The first thing I will say is that potty training is best started in the summer. The reason for this is to make your life easier, and ultimately your child's. In the summer, less clothes are worn, and the logic to that is plain and simple. The fewer physical obstacles you have to work with on this journey, the happier EVERYONE will be. And of course you will have less laundry. Yes, I am not going to pretend that you won't get through this without accidents. Because you will, don't try not to you will only make your own life more miserable. Give in to the accidents, accept it. It's going to happen. Doing this job in the summer though will make it a little bit easier. If you are looking for some additional tips on how to make potty training easier, here is a great article that offers some things I had never considered.

My son was what all of the textbooks called "the resistant child" when it came to potty training. He was all about letting Mommy do everything for him, and had no desires what so ever to take things into his own hands. Of course he showed all of the signs of readiness, but he just wasn't emotionally ready to let go of the pullup and start behaving like an independent big boy. The signs of readiness are the first things you are going to read about when you start thinking about potty-training. That is beyond the scope of this article, but you can find some great tips here on signs of readiness.

Knowing I was dealing with a resistant child, I went into potty training armed with books, texts, magazines, anything I could get my hands on to make this easier for me. I even signed up for an online potty training course believe it or not. It soon began to dawn on me that we were not going to fit into any textbook model and I was going to have to figure this out on my own. And that's when I developed the one week plan. At the time I had no idea it would only take a week, but I went into it optimistic. Again, this was a long week with daily laundry and daily tears. But we both survived. And no, he won't be going to college in pull-ups which is what I had convinced myself was going to be the outcome on many occasions.

Day 1 - Introduction to the potty. We went to the store, bought the big boy underwear, and went home and began the practice. This involved going on the potty every 30 minutes on the dot. Day 1 we stayed in pull-ups as it was just about getting down the basics. The rule was that he stayed there until he went potty. It didn't matter if it took him 30 minutes (and often it did) but he would go, and go right back on. I also pumped him with fluids as much as I could to ensure he would actually need to go. Day 1 we also initiated the sticker program. So I made a chart out of his favorite toy (Thomas the Tank) and he got rewards for different things every time he went. One for pee, one for poop, one for wiping, one for hand washing, you get the picture. Each sticker represented a different element. So for one trip to the potty, he could feasibly get 5 or 6 stickers. The point is to reward each excellent activity. He was told that when the week was full of stickers, he would get a new train. He didn't' care about the stickers at first, didn't care about the potty, and didn't care about much. Day 1 was spent crying a lot, and he did too sometimes.

Day 2 - we continued with the sticker program, and he was getting more used to it. We continued with the 30 minutes rule and plenty of drinks. At this point he was only wearing a pull up in the house as it just made things easier for all of us. He started to enjoy the sticker program, but still at this point was not asking to go. However, he had several successful sits and these made up for the tantrums that still ensued.

Day 3 - Ok, this was the toughest one, and if you get past this hurdle, you will survive. I promise. Today we did away with the pull-ups, cold turkey. You just have to do it. And you will spend all day at the washing machine, but it has to get done. The consensus is that they don't like the feeling of being wet. Ever the resistant child my son did not care if he was or not. All morning and all afternoon we spent changing our clothes, underwear, everything over and over. And we maintained the 30 minute rule, but he was starting to fight back as he realized there was no end to this. And this was the day that we had the fateful soccer trip. As I said, he held it in the whole time, and was so happy to get home and go potty. We had a big hoopla at this point, celebrated with stickers and his favorite cartoon before bed. At this point, I could see things were looking up. He went to bed with underwear, and yes, we had laundry, but he worked this out over the next few days.

Day 4 - We had our first bowel movement on the potty. I think he spent over an hour on there, but he finally did it. I don't know who was more proud, me or him. But he was finally getting it, and he was succeeding. Day 4 also we had a dry night in bed.

Day 5 - bit of a relapse at night time, but the day was overall very successful. We may have been down to 1 or 2 laundry loads at this point.

By the time Day 7 arrived, he was fully trained. I still needed to ask him to go, but he grew out of that even soon enough. He loved the sticker program, and into the 3^rd or 4^th week of stickers he started asking to go. On day 7 we had our potty party, where he got a cake, we sang a potty song, and he got his potty reward present. Having his efforts reinforced like this really hit home for him, and the next weeks of summer flew by.

If you have a resistant child, all I can say is, I'm sorry. I've been there. Try some of these tips, and you can also check out some other creative ideas. While I am no expert and can only share my experiences, one thing I can promise you is that no matter how dark it feels, your child will not be going to college in pull-ups.