Potty Training
So I have been questioning whether to do this post a lot. Because let’s be real. No one method of potty training works for every single kid. What worked for us, likely won’t work for you. That is something I discovered over the last year and a half. I read lots of ideas and blog posts myself, but nothing seemed to work. However, I thought maybe, just maybe someone can take away something from my posts. So here goes.
So we literally started introducing Melody to the potty at 18 months old. I was told that getting her naked and sitting on a potty without a diaper was the first step. So that’s where we started. She enjoyed this, so I got my hopes up. We continued doing this before baths most bath nights for a few months.
Then we started putting panties on her. I bought the padded kind to help with accidents at first. I would also do this a little before baths just to get her used to the idea.
Then one day I decided to dive in. No pull ups, no diapers. She might have been two. We did the padded panties but they were no help. And here was the problem. I tried to time her peeing. Well she peed like 5 times an hour. She never really sat and peed all of her pee out. I attributed this to she wasn’t ready. I did NOT want to force potty training. I knew she would eventually catch on. So I did not let any peer pressure force me to do otherwise. I stuck to my guns and waited. I mean we literally went through all of these panties in two hours…
Once every 3-4 months I would go all panties again. Same issues. I would have her sit on the potty until she went. She would go. Then go again 15 minutes later. Or she would hold it and wait and pee until she was “covered”. I tried stickers, coloring books, even the phone. Nothing worked. I moved the potty into the living room , still no help. She would literally sit there until she fell asleep (evidence below).
This continued until she was 3. Now she HAS to potty train for school. I finally decided to make a reward chart. Stickers alone did not work. M&Ms alone did not work. So I let her pick a candy. She picked suckers. For every time she peed in the potty, she put a sticker on the chart, got an M&M and got a sucker. Poops got 2 stickers, an M&M, a sucker, and ice cream or cookie. Every time she got to a “big” circle she got to go in the treasure chest. When she filled the chart she could go to Target and get ANY toy she wanted. The treasure chest was full of small toys I picked out at Target earlier. We are talking Little People figures, Paw Patrol blind boxes, Peppa Pigs, etc.
I let her see the treasure chest and explained it all. We started July 11th in panties at home. If we went to town I would brave it and do panties and bring clothes and towels. She would treat a pull up like a diaper so that wasn’t happening. She filled the chart in 3 weeks. We did a second chart and she filled it even quicker.
Accidents are rare and she is officially daytime potty trained. I am certain she is ready to go to bed in panties at night, but mommy is not. We will try that in a few weeks, maybe. She already wakes up when she has to potty at night, but I have noticed a wet pull up on occasions.
I think what worked for Melody was waiting. I never forced it. And I truly believe she wasn't ready sooner. I think the incentives worked, and now after the two charts we don’t reward her anymore. Every now and then she will ask for an M&M, but I tell her no because big girls don’t get M&Ms for going potty. And she moves on. I think the key is don’t get frustrated and wait until your child is ready. Luckily our preschool would have still let Melody go even if she wasn’t fully potty trained. Their main concern was that she was in pull ups and trying.
