OK, it's been 6 days since that first tentative pee in the potty, and I've decided I really like the method I used this time; however, I have a couple of BUTs to add.
It's called 3 Day Potty Training and is put out by Lora Jensen. You can download her ebook, which gives the details of the process, for $24. If you do this, she is also available 24/7 for online mentoring: questions, concerns, etc. Usually if you email her with a question, she will reply within 24 hours. I haven't been able to personally take advantage of this perk, since the ebook was given to me by a good friend (Thanks, Jessi!).
If you visit the website, you will automatically begin receiving daily emails from Lora Jensen, containing tips on potty training in general. You can request not to receive these if you don't want them.
What I like about this method is that while it requires great patience and involves a lot of "accidents" the first day, it is relatively low stress. I used "Potty Training in Less Than a Day" (Dr. Phil recommends it now) with Rachel, and while it worked pretty well, it stressed me out b/c it involves taking the child from 10 different rooms to the bathroom every time they have an accident, having them pull down their wet pants, sit on the potty, then pull them up again and go on to the next room, where you repeat the process. Rachel hated this and fought me on it the whole time, and Zekers flatly refused to do it. I know some people who swear by this method; I just personally didn't care for it.
The 3-day method requires that you focus exclusively on the child being potty trained for 3 days - no housework, no going online, no messing with other children. The main point is that you need to catch them in the act of peeing/pooping as often as possible, and rush them to the toilet, where they can finish going. This teaches them to identify the sensation and associate it with the potty, not a diaper. The key is consistency, and this basically requires keeping the child by your side every minute of the day. When they have an accident, you react to it and tell them how yucky it is, especially with poop, but you never use punitive words, such as "Bad girl" or "No, no!" It uses a lot of positive reinforcement instead.
Another key is getting rid of all diapers/pull-ups, and going cold-turkey. LJ calls them "crutches" and encourages that they be thrown away. I, being the tightwad that I am, couldn't bring myself to do it; but I did load them all into a box and put them in a far corner of the attic! Even if I wasn't having another baby, I'd at least be able to give them to someone else who needed them, instead of just dumping $35 down the drain.
I found that Day 1 was much more intense than Day 2, and by Day 3, I didn't have to spend nearly as much time focusing on Karis. In fact, it was Sunday, so we just went about our normal Sunday routine and she did pretty well. The first day is the really critical one and after that I felt a lot more free to do things around the house and not have her beside me constantly.
Anyway, the major BUT I have to add is that, having potty trained 3 children now, experience has taught me that no matter what method you use, it will not work perfectly as described. No method actually tells you this - in fact, they all make the claim that your days of cleaning up accidents are over if you perfectly follow their guidelines. WRONG. All 3 of my kids have been the same way: they take steps forward and steps back. The day you gleefully gush to someone that they've gone 2 days without an accident, they will poop in their pants at McDonald's. The 3-day method got us about 90% of the way there in 3 days, and the next three days have been a steady improvement overall. On day 4 I was very close to shredding the ebook and putting her back in diapers, but she did MUCH better on day 5, and today we drove 45 minutes to a park/farm, stayed about 3 hours, and drove back, all without incident.
All this to say, to moms about to plunge into the dreaded potty training process, It is very likely that even after your child "gets it", and seems to be trained, you will have a very bad day or 2, but this doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong!
With Karis, we've been following Lora Jensen's recommendation: we wake her every night before we go to bed and have her go potty, and she usually wakes up dry in the morning. We don't always follow her guideline to not give karis anything to drink 2-3 hours before bed, basically because I'm not going to deny my child a drink if she gets thirsty! So waking her up to pee has been a good solution.
Oh, I'm such a nerd! I can't help myself - I just have to add that although I liked the method, the ebook could use a good editor! OK, I said it.
Sorry for the long, boring post. I hope maybe it will be helpful to someone.
5 comments:
Wow! you have 3 potty trained now! I have a question for you, since you've done it 3 times. I did the potty training in less than a day with Esther, and I did really like that method. it was stressful the first day, but by the 3rd day she was pretty much good to go. After 6 days, she really hasn't had any accidents. Anyway, I try not to give her much to drink after 7PM, she can only have water, which she doesn't like that much. She still will wake me up 2-3 times a night to go potty. So, the method you used, said to wake them up when you go to bed? sometimes she wakes up by then and sometimes she gets up for the first time at 1AM, then 5AM. Anyway, did any of your kids do that?
Hannah
Oh man, that would be so great if Karis would wake us up to go potty at night!! None of our kids have ever done that - they just wet the bed for a while and then started holding it till morning!
Actually, the method recommends waking the child up one hour after they go to bed and then again one hour before they normally get up, to go potty. We thoght it made more sense, though, to just wait until we went to bed, and then not mess with waking her up in the morning. it's worked every night but one. I guess it's worth a try with Esther. Actually, the goal is to show your child that she can and should gget up in the night to go potty, so all you have to do is try and get her to do it herself, without your help. Seriously, though, waking up at night to help her go is much better than waking up at night to change wet sheets!
Interesting stuff. How old is Karis again?
Great to know about this method. Thanks for telling us about it. I didn't use any "method" with Mckenna and sometimes regret the way it went, but I will have a more normal life this time around, so it is good to know one way to do it. Mckenna was not a good sleeper, so I decided not to do anything about nighttime going. One day I just realized that she had been dry for a week at night in her pull-up and I started panties at night. This was after she had been day-trained for a year and a half. I just couldn't see waking her during the night to go because she was a bad sleeper. Anyway, I will be checking out this method when it is time for Knox. - Brooke
I was looking into buying this ebook and came across your site. Thanks for the info. Is that pretty much it, if so I won't waste my money buying the book. I do however have a question, I think I would also rather not deal with the night time wakings, so what do you use, diapers or pull-ups or something else?
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