September 30, 2019

How I Potty Trained My 2 Year Old

This is a post I’ve been meaning to write for awhile, as it’s one of the most asked questions I get. Just 5 days after Grayson turned 2, we knew it was time to start potty training him. He had been showing many signs for 6 months and I kept ignoring them thinking it was too soon. So here we were, with a freshly turned 2 year old, & me who had no idea what I was getting myself into. I did assume ok, several accidents a day, a lot of cleaning, washing, scrubbing, lets go! (But first I did have to purchase the cutest potty I’ve ever seen!) I’ll be clear on this, I didn’t google a single thing about potty training, I was just going to do it my way and what worked for our family. So another disclaimer, I didn’t bribe him with a single thing. (other than tv for the first 2 weeks) That is not how I wanted to do it and at that age, even still now, he is not aloud candy, sweets, chocolate bars, or anything like that. So that method was not going to work for us. But don’t let that stop you from doing it! I’ve heard it works wonders! It just wasn’t what I did. I did however, scream, yell, and do a dance and song every time he pee’d!

Day 1 – Naked baby! This is what started his love for being naked haha so many of you are always laughing messaging me about how he’s naked 24/7. This is very true, if we are home, he’s most likely naked. So day 1 was here and I stripped him down when he woke up, we went downstairs, turned paw patrol on, and he basically sat on the potty the entire day. It was something new and fun, and if it included tv, he was there! I asked him all day long if he had to pee, and by the end of the day, only 1 accident! I was blown away! He was soooo proud of himself each time he went & so was I! This was where the screaming, yelling, and song & dance came in!

Day 2 – It went the same as the first, tv all day, he mostly sat on his potty, & I would continue to ask if he had to pee. End of the day came, only 1 accident again.

Day 3 – Again, same thing, and at this point he was starting to recognize it more and was more aware of what was happening. Skip to day 5, and he was accident free! Now coming into the second week, I knew I needed to change something. We had been talking about taking the tv away from him entirely so I needed to get to that point. So week 2 I turned the volume off. He watched tv all week again but with no volume. Accident here & there but never 2 in the same day. Week 3 was where I started to panic. It was time to completely remove the tv. I thought this was where the problems were going to start! Nothing, he didn’t care one bit, and he actually went from December until March with absolutely no tv. I would watch my shows which he didn’t care about, and he got nothing. (Just an experiment for some problems we had been having and it solved all of them) We would bring his potty everywhere we went so he was comfortable with it. We did use public bathrooms though as much as possible. They gross me out but I know several kids who were afraid of them from the automatic flushing, so I wanted Grayson to be completely fine going to the bathroom in them. He actually loved the flushing and found it funny LOL

Fast forward to week 6 and we started having problems. We had company come stay with us for New Years. Their kids are both older than Grayson, and he was having accident after accident. I don’t really know why this happened, if it was an attention thing? I’m really not sure whatsoever. But this was the first time he was having more than one accident in a day. Then when they left, it took a couple weeks to get back into our routine, & then another problem! He started only having accidents in the car! Which was a place he had never had one before. So that was super fun. NOT! Then that time passed and everything has been smooth sailing since! Ya he still has an accident here & there, it happens! But for the most part, potty training was far more easy than I expected. Oh! Also, he never had a poop accident which was AMAZING! He enjoyed going on the potty and that was never an issue. The first 2 weeks he did cry a bit when he would poop on the potty. Seeing it come out of him scared him for some reason. But that didn’t last long and that part has been pretty easy! He actually just had one for the first time a month ago. Hubby was whipper snipping the lawn and Grayson kept going up to him to ask to use the bathroom, and Gary would yell at him to get away from him so he didn’t get hurt. (He didn’t hear what he was asking) Well hahaha he eventually couldn’t hold it any longer and pooped his pants then cried and said he was so sorry LOL I wasn’t there so never had to clean that up! Poop free for me! hahaha

I hope this helps someone. Just know to not give up. Buy them some cute underwear that they love! Make it fun for them! And as hard as it is to not get frustrated with them, take a deep breath, and know, this too shall pass. When they are ready, they are ready. Every child is different! Good luck!