I know what your thinking.. there's just no way my almost 2 year old is ready to be potty trained.
I used to think the same thing. Until I realized the most important part of it all was when I WAS ready, not my son. Of course they need to be able to grasp the concept and every child developmentally are in different places as they grow. But this was huge to understand, regardless of age and when we chose to potty train, I had to be the one ready to dedicate my full attention and time towards my son for success.
Mentally and physically I prepared myself and home for one of the hardest weeks. (I kid you not, we might have both shed a few tears together in the beginning.) Of course I have to reiterate, EVERY child is different and something that worked for us, may NOT work for you and your kiddo. In fact the method I originally came across, I altered to my son and I'd needs.
For starters, I watched a lot of videos on how to prepare. To sum it up, you need to think ahead and prepare a few things:
Get your bathroom(s) ready. We live in a two story house, therefore having a downstairs and upstairs bathroom prepared was important. We bought two of everything. A step stool for their feet to rest on under the toilet and use to wash their hands after, a potty seat to go on top of the adult toilet, a prize corner. We personally did not want to start with a small kids floor potty, as I read this can be confusing and you almost have to retrain to use the adult toilet when it's time.
Rewards. We tried a few methods. A container of candy were placed in each bathroom as well as a small basket of prizes. Now there is no need for expensive prizes. We ran to the dollar store and loaded up on $20 worth of toys. And yes, these will probably end up in the trash or broken, but the short term excitement is all that matters here.
Get activities planned out. I got messy art projects planned out for the entire week ready to be occupied with. We kept the distractions to a minimum leaving the tv off, no other electronics, including my own phone was completely away. You want full attention and focus for both you and them.
Get the liquids and fiber. I had an assortment of cheap new cups ready so he would be excited to drink liquids from new cups each day. I also bought a big pack of organic juice boxes (duh they will love this) and chocolate milk on hand. The idea is to get them to go as often as possible to instill potty training as quickly as you can. Prolonging the process will just take them longer to get it. My son is a regular #2 goer, therefor fiber wasn't too important to add extra of. But find healthy high fiber foods to allow them to need to go a little extra these days of potty training.
Check your calendar. Pick an entire week to stay home and not go anywhere if possible! We know this can be tough for busy parents but even a few days home would do you a favor! Living in an area with all four seasons, we purposely chose when we knew we may be stuck indoors anyhow.
Prepare for after. I bought a travel car potty to have for quick pull over potty breaks. This especially is helpful if you have multiple kiddos. We all know it isn't quick to run in places with more than one child. Buy all the cute underwear or Timber and Moon boxer briefs and nighttime pull-ups. I say nighttime pull-ups because we chose to day time train and hope for night success down the road. Some people prefer to do it all at once, but I myself, had a new baby to also be up with at night which is why this worked best for us.
We chose a Monday morning to start our potty training. Repetition repetition repetition... Get ready to repeat yourself a million times today. Dig deep and find the most patience you thought you could ever have and try your absolute hardest to maintain that for the positivity of your child. The last thing you want to do is correlate negative emotions and feelings with going to the bathroom. Day 1, I felt like a complete failure and honestly thought it was not possible to achieve. A few things I had to alter to make day 2 more successful. This included ditching the underwear. I thought we could try underwear and see how that went, but that resulted in about 20 accidents before noon of day 1. What I saw most success with was the "naked method." I already had a giant piece of drop cloth laying around that I decided to lay on the entire living room floor. (You can get a huge drop cloth for about 30-45 dollars on amazon.) This was perfect for the arts and crafts I had planned for the week anyhow. The naked method allowed me and him to visually see when an accident was starting to occur. This is why avoiding distractions is important. AS SOON as I saw an accident start, I would pick him up and run to the toilet and say "don't forget you have to tell mommy when you have to go potty, ok." Throughout the entire day I said this to him while playing, doing crafts, and even if accidents were not occurring. This is to get the idea through their heads. You also know your kiddo best, watch for their cues like grabbing their privates, dancing around, looking down, or going to hide for #2's.
Each time he even would complete a pee on the potty, as well as if it started as an accident, he would pick a "small" prize of his choice. We held back a few larger prizes and ice cream cones as poo prizes. But no prize was given if it was a full accident on the floor. This is where remaining calm and positive is important. Even though it is beyond frustrating to clean up accidents all day and repeat yourself, you still have to smile through it and not show your frustration while continuing to be encouraging. I even logged everything in my phone to track improvment. They say if by day 3 your kiddo is not getting it what so ever, to give a 30 day break and come back to it. I genuinely felt such a turn on day 4. Every day was a bit better than the day before, but day 4 was a huge change! He was communicating needing to go, even if he didn't make it in time, and we introduced underwear by this day. Of course still with accidents, but not nearly as many.
We kept a pull-up on him for both nap time and bedtime. I still tell him every time he goes down, that he can tell mommy or daddy on the camera if he has to go and I will come grab him. And in fact, if he is awake and knows he has to go, he will always do this. It's when he is in a deep sleep and has no control that he still goes in a pull-up in the middle of the night. 99.9% of the time he wakes up dry from a 2-3 hour long nap. For good habit, we still sit on the potty right before going to sleep, and right when waking up, as well as changing back into big boy undies. This also goes for leaving the house, we have him at least sit down to try before we leave the house. Not once have we ever had a carseat accident. The few times in the beginning when he would tell us he had to go, we would quickly pull over and let him use the car potty. Using public toilets is also scary in the beginning for some. For 6 months after our potty training, anytime we used a public toilet, I had to bring a fold out potty seat along with so he wasn't so scared of sitting to go.
By no means am I an expert on potty training. Especially because every child is different and what worked for my son might not work for yours. But I truly learned so much going through this. I have even had other mama's ask for advice and tips on how I was able to successfully potty train so young and so quickly. The biggest reason was that I was dedicated to us both having success. And before I began, I remember saying what a foreign world potty training felt like not knowing where to even begin. Maybe these tips can help you too with a start in the right direction. My only advice would be to buckle down and stay committed. Even after the stressful first few days. You are their biggest cheerleader, praising them and cheering them on helps them tremendously. We still high five after a poop in the potty.
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