POTTY TRAINING: How I Potty Trained My Daughter

After reading Candi's blog about potty training her son, and a bit of advice from one of our six followers (thanks Tanya), I thought it would be prudent to share how I potty trained Channing. There is  a mother reading this blog who needs some helpful hints on how to get your daughter out of those princess pull ups!

Let me begin with the good news. It is not difficult! Based on Candi's blog and everything I have read, potty training a girl is walk in the park.

Channing Hall
Age 2

I decided to potty train Channing at two  years of age for three important reasons.

1. I was pregnant with Chase. I did not 
    want the task of potty training 
    Channing and breastfeeding
    a newborn.

2. I planned for Channing to start school 
    at two and a half years old. I know that 
    preschools take on the daunting task of 
    potty training but that did not sit
    well with me. There are a few tasks 
    that I want to be able to say I taught 
    my child.

3. There was no way our budget allowed 
    for the purchase of pull-ups and 
    diapers!

And so I logged onto www.babycenter.com and searched for tips. (I love that site. If you have never been check it out!) I read an article that said potty train your child in a weekend! YEAH RIGHT! I read the stupid article. I decided to try the stupid advice.

Now, here is why I thought it was stupid.

1. You have to stay in a room with your child and a potty all weekend. Yes all 
    weekend! REALLY? Who can do that?

2. Your child needs to walk around without, I repeat WITHOUT a pull-up all 
    blessed weekend! REALLY? Sorry, I meant to type WHATEVER!

Well, I ignored the article, went to Sandy's and bought the panties with the padding. They were pretty and cute so of course they had to work. I looked at these things and knew they would not work but I bought them anyway.

Amazingly, I still have these silly things. I put these potty panties on Channing. The have a padding in the crotch to absorb the urine which if you think about it, defeats the whole purpose. 

Channing urinated in this padding just like a pull-up, then would have the nerve to look at me like, "Hey Mom, change these wet panties please!"

This led me back to the stupid weekend article. Mind you the article said don't waste your time buying panties like these but I ignored it. What do they know?

Jokes!

Anywho, one Saturday morning, I said to Eric, "I am going to potty train Channing." And I did!

You can too. Here is what you will need.

POTTY TRAINING SUPPLIES

• A Potty
• Toilet Tissue
• Wipes
• Salty Snacks....I used Cheezits
• Juice/water
• A Naked Bottom Child

POTTY TRAINING STEPS

1. Get all of your supplies and confine yourself to a room, preferably a tiled room. Why? You want to limit the amount of accidents. Remember your child should not have on a pull-up or a diaper. With that said, you don't want a naked bottom child roaming around the house.
2. Feed your child as much salty snacks as they can eat. Why? You want your child to get thirsty and drink. Eventually he/she will have to urinate.
3. Pay careful attention to your child. At some point you will see urine running down his/her leg. Swoop them up and put his/her on the potty. If you were like me you fell for the stupid potty that sings when used. Yes I fell for it! Did you? Of course you did!!!!!!!
4. After your child is finished dance, sing, clap.....make an absolute fool of yourself. You have to look like you have been trained as an Urine Cheerleader all your life and now the moment you have been waiting on is here. Your child will love it.
5. Take your child off of the potty, clean up and start feeding snacks again.
6. Keep repeating the steps until at some point when your child feels the urine coming down his/her leg, he/she will eventually run to the potty.

So yes, I did this all day Saturday and all day Sunday. Believe me when I say it worked. I am a school teacher so I was home on vacation. The next day, on Monday, I moved the potty to the bathroom. I went out and purchased regular panties and put those on Channing. I promise you, she would let me know when she had to pee every single time. I swooped her up, ran to the bathroom and put her on the potty. She was a star!

Now I would love to say that Channing is a phenomenon, but I won't. I am a phenomenon. Why? Because I sat in a bleepity-bleep room for two bleepity-bleep days with a naked daughter. I was consistent. This plan works because of consistency. Were there accidents? Yes but I kept at it and it worked.

So if you have a daughter try it. 
It works!

As for during the night, Channing remained in a pull up overnight. At some point she asked to stop wearing one. We limited night time drinking, she used the bathroom before bed and we prayed. 

If my memory serves me right, she would get up crying in the middle of the night. That was when we took her to the potty. To this day she gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.

Were there accidents? Yes! Are there still accidents? Yes!
(Make sure you have a mattress pad on the bed.)

Happy potty training!

Chase Hall
Age 1

This is my son Chase. Look at this face. 

The goal is to try this process with Chase.

Good luck right!

Until I blog again,

Tiffany