Successfully potty trained my 3.5 DD in a weekend

[Anonymous]

Just sharing in case there are some parents out there who haven't potty trained their 3+ yo kids yet. I know this post is "cool story bro", but I am posting because I had seen some posts recently about parents regretting not trying sooner because their stubborn 3yo gave them trouble and it freaked me out that we had waited too long and were doomed to a year of potty struggles.

I have three kids, and I waited until 2.5-3yo to train the first two, which worked great for us. For this DD, we ended up waiting til 3.5 and I was worried that would backfire cause she's basically if IDGAF were a person, very stubborn. We started on a Sat am, took off the diaper, put on undies and pants, and loaded her up with juice boxes (not typical at my house) and water and made her sit on the toilet every 20 minutes (timer on my phone). We would at first give her M&Ms for each success, with lots of clapping and cheering. For BMs, we let her watch youtube until she could relax enough to go. She had maybe 2-3 accidents Saturday (our fault for not making her go every 20-30 min), a couple Sunday pm, maybe one or two Monday and then she went to daycare the rest of the week. She's had one accident at daycare since last weekend, so we're pretty relieved.

For the record, she's still wearing pullups at night and probably will for years since her older siblings still do. That's another struggle for another post.

[Anonymous]

Three and a half? Why didn't you just wait until college?

[Anonymous]

Hurray, good for you, OP! That's great to hear. Congratulations on getting out of diapers (daytime, at least, I hear you on the nighttime being a totally different beast)!

[Anonymous]

OP again. Just wanted to add to my super braggy post that obviously ymmv and kids are super weird about everything always and now that I've shared my one success with the internets it is certain that I will be "reminded" about my other parenting failures by COB today.

[Anonymous]

That’s great news op, and no small feat. I’ve toilet trained numerous kids with special needs and some of those take months. You should be very excited and proud about a weekend! Keep the reinforcement up for a few weeks, maybe not m and ms but have a stash of small dollar tree items just to give randomly, not every time, after she uses the potty. This keeps the momentum going until she really has the skill down. I also wouldn’t be scared to try nighttime training in a month or so, just put underwear under pull-ups and have an extra absorbent mattress cover and some towels laid down. This comes fairly easily for most kids because they don’t want to be wet. Teach them to get up if wet and go to bathroom, take off clothes/underwear,, wipe off, change towel, put on new clothes. It usually takes a month of diligent work and help on your part but then you’re free of pull ups forever! Again great job on the weekend training, that’s terrific!

[Anonymous]

Congrats, OP! I think there's always a chance potty training won't take/will be awful whenever you do it and it's always nice to be reminded that yes, actually, it CAN go just fine.

[Anonymous]

We waited until 3 with out oldest and we’re in hell for over a year. All the “voiding specialists” we took DS to said the same thing: the longer a child stands to poop in diapers the more you risk them developing a phobia to defecate sitting on the toilet.

So I’m glad it worked out for your child but would never, ever recommend waiting that old.

Btw, my 2 and 3rd boys trained in one weekend at 22 and 20 months.

[Anonymous]

+1 to glad it worked for you but would never recommend waiting that long barring special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We waited until 3 with out oldest and we’re in hell for over a year. All the “voiding specialists” we took DS to said the same thing: the longer a child stands to poop in diapers the more you risk them developing a phobia to defecate sitting on the toilet.

So I’m glad it worked out for your child but would never, ever recommend waiting that old.

Btw, my 2 and 3rd boys trained in one weekend at 22 and 20 months.

Doesn’t make it likely. Just more common, but not likely.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations, I guess?

No way in hell would I be changing diapers on a 3.5 year old unless there were special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We waited until 3 with out oldest and we’re in hell for over a year. All the “voiding specialists” we took DS to said the same thing: the longer a child stands to poop in diapers the more you risk them developing a phobia to defecate sitting on the toilet.

So I’m glad it worked out for your child but would never, ever recommend waiting that old.

Btw, my 2 and 3rd boys trained in one weekend at 22 and 20 months.

We trained DD1 at 2. Wish we'd done it sooner. Who knows what life will hold with DD2 though. Every kid is different.

Glad it over for you, OP!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We waited until 3 with out oldest and we’re in hell for over a year. All the “voiding specialists” we took DS to said the same thing: the longer a child stands to poop in diapers the more you risk them developing a phobia to defecate sitting on the toilet.

So I’m glad it worked out for your child but would never, ever recommend waiting that old.

Btw, my 2 and 3rd boys trained in one weekend at 22 and 20 months.

Yay for you. All kids are different, yet everyone ends up potty trained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We waited until 3 with out oldest and we’re in hell for over a year. All the “voiding specialists” we took DS to said the same thing: the longer a child stands to poop in diapers the more you risk them developing a phobia to defecate sitting on the toilet.

So I’m glad it worked out for your child but would never, ever recommend waiting that old.

Btw, my 2 and 3rd boys trained in one weekend at 22 and 20 months.

Most likely, the kid was not actually ready earlier-it's not like they are ready and then at age 3, readiness expires and they become witholding, impacted pyschos.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We waited until 3 with out oldest and we’re in hell for over a year. All the “voiding specialists” we took DS to said the same thing: the longer a child stands to poop in diapers the more you risk them developing a phobia to defecate sitting on the toilet.

So I’m glad it worked out for your child but would never, ever recommend waiting that old.

Btw, my 2 and 3rd boys trained in one weekend at 22 and 20 months.

Most likely, the kid was not actually ready earlier-it's not like they are ready and then at age 3, readiness expires and they become witholding, impacted pyschos.

That actually does happen. They get older and develop a preference for the way things are now (ie, their diaper). I’ve seen it happen, then it’s a long road back to willingness.

[Anonymous]

I waited until almost 3 for both kids. So easy.