The second half of the day is all about your child. Immediately following lunch and\/or nap, your child gets his own \u201cbig kid\u201d underwear. Then you spend the afternoon snacking on pee-inducing salty foods and all the beverages your kid can handle, practicing your child\u2019s budding potty skills and celebrating his successes (adding stickers to the poster board is a great way to keep track of them all), and of course reading and watching even more potty books and videos.<\/p>\n

The day culminates in a \u201cbig kid\u201d party, where he gets a special gift and you ceremoniously throw all of his diapers away!<\/p>\n

STAGE 4 \u2013 THE DEVASTATING DEPRESSION<\/h2>\n

While this day will be a fun \u201cpotty party\u201d for your child, complete with gifts and special treats, it will be totally energy-sucking for you<\/em>. By the end of the day you will be sick of hearing yourself talk about peeing and pooping on the potty. And you will probably also be absolutely positive that despite all of your preparation and hard work, the day has been a completely disastrous, soul-crushing failure.<\/p>\n

Because guess what? There will be at least<\/em> as many accidents as there are successful potty fillings. And when your child goes to bed, you will be totally sure that all your effort has all been for naught.<\/p>\n

STAGE 5 \u2013 THE JOYOUS MIRACLE<\/h2>\n

But it won\u2019t have been for naught! Because over the next few days you\u2019ll realize that it has actually worked. All of the teaching, practicing and potty propaganda has somehow seeped into\u00a0your child\u2019s brain (and bladder), and following the one-day training he will be mostly to totally potty trained. Sure, there will be some accidents here and there for a little while, but not very many considering you only spent one day<\/em> practicing!<\/p>\n

Holy crapola, right?<\/p>\n

Think you\u2019re brave enough to try the one-day potty training method for your own kids? Here are some insider tips for you:<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
• Enjoy the fun parts.<\/em><\/strong> The day can be really, really tough. So don\u2019t forget to laugh whenever you can. Personally, our favorite part comes after you give the doll to your child and ask him to name it. Our daughter called hers \u201cDolly\u201d and our son decided on \u201cHuggy Oaks.\u201d (Because he\u2019s crazy, obviously.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  \n
  • Tone down the party.<\/em><\/strong> Crane\u2019s book suggests that you take the party concept to the nth degree, developing a theme based on your kid\u2019s interests and decorating your house to the max for the occasion. We do a very scaled down, decoration-free version of that \u2013 just calling the treat-filled day a \u201cpotty party\u201d has always made it feel special enough for us.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \n
    • Do not let your kid see you eating poop. <\/em><\/strong>For the doll\u2019s simulated poop accidents, we suggest using brownies. But do not let your kid know that they\u2019re brownies, and definitely don\u2019t let him see you snacking on it. What kind of potty training issues would that<\/em> lead to?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
      • Buy extra underwear.<\/em><\/strong> We suggest buying at least two packages of underwear for your child. You can use one package for the doll\u2019s \u201caccidents\u201d in the morning, and gift the other to your child after naptime. (Face it, you\u2019re going to need the extra package anyway.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
        • Visit your local library.<\/em><\/strong> When you get there, ask a reference librarian to gather all the potty books and movies she can possibly find. While you may have some in your personal collection, you\u2019ll want as much as you can find to fill your potty day.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
          • Use towels strategically.<\/em><\/strong> For the afternoon, lay towels out on the floor to be your special \u201cpotty party\u201d hang out spot when you\u2019re not in the bathroom. The towel will<\/em> get peed on, so have spares.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \n
            • Use Pull-ups strategically too.<\/em><\/strong> After the potty day, your child will never wear diapers again, but you may want to use Pull-ups at night and for outings initially. Try to phase out the ones for outings as soon as you can muster the guts to take your kid out in underwear. But use the Pull-ups at night for as long as your child seems to need them. When our daughter kept her Pull-up dry until the morning for five days in a row right after potty training, we switched to underwear. After only two weeks of wearing Pull-ups at night, our son insisted on underwear at night himself, saying, \u201cI big boy. I no wear diapers anymore.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              \n
              • Siblings can be an asset.<\/em><\/strong> When the Doctor\u2019s mom used the one-day method on her kids, she made sure to be alone with the kid that was being potty trained, sending the siblings away to be with a babysitter for the day. But when our son was being potty trained, we took a chance and let his big sister participate in the \u201cpotty party\u201d day \u2013 which turned out to be a great move. Motivated by getting to share in the rewards each time he<\/em> was successful, big sis was an enthusiastic role model and cheerleader for our son.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                You\u2019re welcome.<\/p>\n

                And good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                So how long do you think it should take to potty train a child? A month? A year? Approximately for-freaking-ever? Well you could do it that way. Or you could save yourself some serious time and do it like we did. We\u2019ve potty trained two kids \u2013 in a total of two days. That\u2019s right, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[146,50,134,52],"class_list":["post-2043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-magic","tag-milestones","tag-pain","tag-potty"],"yoast_head":"\n