Tell me about the three day method

[BertieBotts]

Not oh crap although I don't mind incorporating some bits from it. The one where you give them loads of juice and take them to the toilet every half an hour.

Would you big it up beforehand or just announce it on the day? Pretend the nappies have run out? How long before? Child is somewhat prone to anxiety.

Rewards yay or nay? Some kind of sticker chart? Don't normally do these but I think it's a good time to break one out - specific measurable task that's temporary in nature.

I know he can do it, it's just persuading him to ditch the nappies. 3.7yo neurotypical, has done wees and poos on toilet before and prefers privacy when he does it. We are not on a deadline, just fed up of doing nappies now.

[DatingAWidower22]

Can he use the toilet? At that age and wanting privacy, I’d skip a potty and go straight to the loo. Do they use a loo at nursery/preschool?

[BertieBotts]

Yes he will have to use the toilet as he is physically too big to fit on the potty we have. We're abroad and they are happy to do nappies at nursery but they have child sized toilets as well which they will help or encourage him to use. But I was thinking of doing the method over Easter so we'll all be at home.

[findingsomeone]

If he's prone to anxiety, I'd worry saying the nappies have run out might cause anxiety around the issue and complicate it. I feel as though you saying the nappies have been put away, we won't use them now, is better.

[BertieBotts]

The biggest hurdle really is that I use public transport to get him home from nursery and it takes about an hour. So warm weather is useful in case of any al fresco wees on the way home and then hopefully we can get him to holding on for a bit.

[streamee]

he one where you give them loads of juice and take them to the toilet every half an hour.

That's not the oh crap method at all

[BertieBotts]

Yes, I know. That's why I said I don't want to do oh crap, I want to do this instead.

[brainstories568]

We have just finished day 2.5 as we only did half a day on the first day. We didn't really announce it, we'd just talked about it as something exciting coming up really soon as he was now a big boy etc and my mum eased him into the idea by making a big fuss of the potty training gear when she was (conveniently) here last week. He turned 3 in March and like you we want to make the most of having a week off to (hopefully) crack it.

It was wees all over the shop on day one, but by day two and particularly day three he seems to get the idea that he had to tell us when he needs to go to the toilet and has only had one accident per day, compared to once every hour or more on day one as we'd expected. He has still got a long way to go on the poos though, sorry!!

We have discovered that a) he hates the potty and just wants to use the toilet which is good and b) although it says don't watch TV in the book he seems to be most comfortable on the sofa which has led to more TV so we've just put a bed wetting sheet under him. We had a sticker chart but he hasn't been that bothered by them and just wants praise, so Pirate Pete is already somewhat demoted. We haven't gone in for material or food "rewards" as that's not our parenting style, although he probs has had more biscuits than normal!

We got the book from our friend who has a little girl 2 years older and she said she followed it to the letter. We definitely haven't (nappies are still in a bag in his room, but he didn't seem at all bothered about getting rid of them) although I am worried about next week when he returns to the childminder as she said that he ideally needs to have a "clean 2-3 days" before she will take him and I can not see that happening with the poos. We are going to keep doing it and see where we get to over the weekend, as I read in the book that you should give it 10 days and that's the length of time we have before he goes back to the childminder.

Sorry that was a slight ramble, but that's been our experience this week!

[BertieBotts]

Oh brill, thanks for the update :) DH has been bigging up the "no nappies weekend" to him and he is enthusiastic so that should help. I'm trying to catch up on all the washing before Friday in case we need to wash loads of his clothes or everything else. I might try and stick towels on the sofa etc so he can sit down without it being a huge panic thing (the sofa is already so gross so it probably doesn't matter).

[brainstories568]

Yes our sofa is also in need of replacing meaning it's no big deal (we got it 8 yrs ago as a "temporary" one) but we also didn't want him to be literally pooing on it. Not that he has (yet) so we will see. I've definitely hit a "oh he's never going to do it" wall tonight but we are persevering with it, although I very much envisage it will take longer than tomorrow morning even if we had followed it to the letter so I'd get started as soon as you physically can!!

FYI we used 9 pairs of pants in the first afternoon alone but then he's only used 2 each day since then, and both of those were when the poo came.

[mondler]

Hows everyone getting on? We are attempting potty training this weekend too and day 1 hasnt gone well! I dont know how many pairs of trousers we got through. It's good to hear that's normal

[BertieBotts]

We had a great day! No accidents, 7 wees in the toilet, 1 on a tree. He is 3.8y so it's really late compared to most people. I think he could probably do it all along and just needed a push to be out of nappies.

He asked for a pull up this morning to do a poo in and I let him as didn't want to get into battles about poo on the first day. We need to go to supermarket tomorrow so will see if this continues.

Definitely normal to have lots of accidents. I had all the spare trousers ready and will pack several changes of clothes for nursery on Tuesday.

[brainstories568]

@mondler

Hows everyone getting on? We are attempting potty training this weekend too and day 1 hasnt gone well! I dont know how many pairs of trousers we got through. It's good to hear that's normal

We had a similar day one, definitely thought we'd run out of pants but hopefully day two and three will go better. How old is yours?

@bertiebotts - that's really great!! I was going to ask how you got on - we've now had multiple poos in the toilet including him giving me some notice of when he wants to go, so we are really happy. Yes planning on sending him with a million pairs of pants and trousers to childcare on Tuesday, but hopefully he won't need them as he's had 2 clean days in a row now. We are just about one week in.