3 day potty training

Alright, people I am no expert in potty training, only shopping. However last weekend we potty trained Drew and I would venture to say he is pretty darn well potty trained. So I thought I would share what we did and what worked for us, because I know going into the whole potty training gig I was totally and utterly lost.

    First, we waited until Drew was ready. He is 3 years and 2 months old. He finally started to show interest in his little potty a few weeks ago and we would let him sit on it before bath time and if he went great, if not no biggie. If he would go he would get a little reward of a vanilla tootsie roll. Now, I know some parents frown upon rewarding with candy but my kid hates stickers and you do why ya gotta do and stickers weren't going to cut it. This past weekend we had three solid days to stay home and fill Drew full of liquids, and focus on getting him going on the potty. The week leading up to our potty training weekend we prepped Drew about his new underpants and how we were going to go on the potty, you get the idea. Saturday morning when he woke up we took his nighttime diaper off and let him go commando with no undies on and just his Jammie pants. We then told him to tell us when he had to use the potty.

 That morning he had his usually milk and then he had requested orange juice and lemonade for the extra liquids that weekend. We had quite a few successes that morning and when he got dressed we put on underpants. This was our one mistake the first day. As soon as we out on undies he had 3 accidents in a row. It was almost like he couldn't tell he didn't have a diaper on. Each accident we encouraged him that accidents happen and we go potty on the potty. After the third accident we went back to just pants and no undies and from then on we've not had one accident. ::knocksonwood:: All three days we filled him full of liquids, any liquid he wanted either OJ, lemonade, milk or water and then each time he went on the potty he got a reward. Then every so often he would get a big reward to keep him going. We had purchased small toys to reward him. They were mostly matchbox cars and the die cast cars from the Disney movie Cars. He was thrilled each time he got a "prize" and we let him set the goal. Like 5 times and then a bigger prize or 3 times on the potty and he got a prize. So we let him have control of his potty training. Sunday night we could tell he was about ready to have a BM. We did have to remind him once to tell him to let us know she he needed to and then he went and hadn't looked back.

    Monday we put underpants on him and by then it had clicked that he needed to keep them dry and tell us when he needed to go potty. Drew went back to daycare on Tuesday and has been doing really well. He now goes in to the bathroom himself and goes all by himself. He likes using both the big potty and the little potty. He's even woken up from his naps in the morning dry, which shocked me. We were still putting a diaper on him at those times but if he continues to stay dry we will make the jump to nap and overnight times.

   My biggest advice to parents would be to wait until your child is really ready and don't force it. We haven't forced Drew what so ever and it's been such a smooth transition, I'm glad we waited.  If you have any questions don't hesitate to email or leave your questions in the comments.