Potty training: The Naked Method

Isabella is the first child that I have had living with me when old enough to be potty trained.  I had a lot of confusion and anxiety about potty training.  When is she going to be ready?  How do you start?  Which method should I use? 

When you look online at any article about potty training, they will give you anywhere from two to ten things to evaluate to know if your child is ready to be potty trained.  When we looked at any of those lists, Isabella never met all of the factors.  She was old enough and could communicate her needs, but she didn’t care that she was in a messy diaper and she didn’t show any interest in doing it.  Anytime that we brought up the subject she FREAKED out.  She had never been traumatized by any related experiences before, she just had zero desire to potty train, sit on the potty, be near a potty, etc.  I was never willing to push her because I knew that she would let us know when she was ready.  Plus, having a potty trained toddler meant that she wasn’t a baby anymore and that makes me sad.  

So we waited… and waited… and waited.  People were concerned, but I knew that she would potty train on her own time.  I trust my children and mine and my husband’s parenting instincts enough to know that we would get there eventually and that it would be an easier time if she was ready. 

We decided that this year we would like to go on a cruise for our family vacation.  When I began talking to Isabella about what that was going to be like, I started prepping her by saying that she needed to be going on the big girl potty by then if she wanted to swim onboard – not as a threat but as a reward.  She instantly perked up and said that she wanted to go potty.  Fantastic!  I took out her big girl panties that were now too small because I bought them when I assumed that she would be potty training around 2, and we followed the steps that I thought you were supposed to follow.  I fed her more drinks than I would have ever before, I asked her every 15 minutes if she had to go, allowed her to not wear pants, etc.  She had three accidents in about 30 minutes.  I was discouraged.  I knew enough to not be mad about it towards her but I had no idea what to do. 

I was discouraged and apprehensive about continuing because I didn't want to try with her and fail.  I want to see my children succeed in everything and even with a silly thing like potty training, I wanted her to succeed.  Hubby found a website years ago that talked about something that I am going to call "The Naked Method" and one of my friends confirmed that this should work, so we decided to give it a try.  The instructions are simple:

• Remove clothing from your child from the waist down
• Give lots of drink(s)
• Wait

Let me tell you, the first step was difficult for me.  I like to run a modest household for all of my children.  I don't like for children to wear 'skanky' outfits.  Even in long dresses, both girls still wear shorts or leggings underneath.  We all know how lady-like a three year old is, right?  Rarely do I let my children run around in just a diaper, but I had high hopes that this would work, so off the clothes went. 

We decided to initiate the process using a stand alone potty chair.  We were also dealing with a broken arm situation with her at the same time and we figured this would be the easiest transition possible.  This stand alone potty chair also enabled us to take this chair in the car since it was about the size of a 24 pack of sodas.  This helped us to still go places around town and not be stranded while she was in the potty training process.  In fact, we still have the chair in the back of our car today in case we get stranded on a highway somewhere without ready access to a bathroom. 

Isabella had one accident and was golden after that.  We pumped her full of water, milk and whatever other liquids that we had on hand and she was able to go three times in one hour.  She quickly understood what to do and how to make it happen.  We even took her out in public on a road trip a few days after this potty training debacle began and she was completely fine.  To this day, she has had maybe 3 total accidents and this was almost 8 months ago.  The theory is that without any diaper, pants or panties on they are uncomfortable when they need to use the restroom and you are more quickly able to determine that they need to use the bathroom and respond appropriately.  Once she knew that the feeling that she was getting was her needing to pee, then it was all good from there.

Silas has been a bit more of a challenge.  Even months after he has been potty trained, he still gets busy and has an accident.  He benefitted from having Isabella as an example.  He wanted to be potty trained because she was.  He picked the general idea of potty training up quicker than we had heard boys would, so we just ran with it. 

Hands down, I would recommend this 'naked method' to anyone, anywhere who was trying to potty train a child.  It's easy.  It's fast.  And more importantly, it works.

How did you decide to potty train your child?  
 

SMALL update: Isabella 22 months

Statistics:

                Weight: 34lbs

                Shoe Size: 6-7

                Clothes: 3t

Milestones:

                We have FINALLY started potty training.  For the longest time, she had absolutely no desire to even sit on the potty.  A few months ago I was reading an article about potty training your children and they said that sometimes they can be coaxed into potty training by you letting them choose a potty.  We were at the mall one day and found this potty that we have now and she seems to like it more than the one that we had before.  The first time that she sat on it, she sat there for an hour with her phone just hanging out.  She finally went and we were ecstatic!  Lately she has been more willing to sit on it for shorter periods of time, which is awesome.  We are still a long ways away but we are making good headway.  She has mastered putting on and taking off her shoes.  She doesn't always get them on the correct feet but we are working on it.  She knows her letters and some of her numbers.  She can sing her ABCs and most nursery rhymes.  She speaks very well and is very intelligent for her age.  She has been speaking in full sentences for months which is awesome and I appreciate now that we are able to communicate with each other instead of just me trying to guess what she wanted by what cry she was making.  She has an excellent memory and is very helpful with the two babies. 

Attitude:

                Isabella is very smart for her age, but I feel like she is very emotionally immature for her age and she always has been.  She has always gone through certain phases later than other children, which hasn't been a problem until recently.  She didn't go into the "terrible twos" when she was two years old.  Unfortunately Silas went into this stage early and they are not in the same phase together and it is proving to be too much sometimes.  She has a very strong willed personality sometimes and gets very emotional when agitated.  On the other hand, she is the sweetest little girl that you can find sometimes.  She is quick to apologize for hurting someone either physically or emotionally and she makes me cry on a regular basis because she apologizes after she gets punished for acting up and it just crushes me. 

Learning:

                She loves to assign time to certain things like how long before you have to go to bed, how much longer she wants to be in her chair eating, etc.  She is very helpful with teaching Silas things that she knows, even though sometimes that comes with a bossy attitude.  She loves to learn new things.  We are trying to teach her currently how to put words to her emotions and about telling time.  She is one of those learners that needs to hear something and then repeat it in order to learn it.  She absorbs a lot of information from educational programs and shows that she watches on 'her phone' and is able to easily regurgitate that information back to you.  She has an amazing memory with things that she has heard or said before, but we are also very lucky that she rarely repeats bad things that we say to each other or that she hears from programs from TV.   

Likes/Dislikes:

                Isabella likes:           

                       Playing with kids

                       Disney Jr shows like Doc McStuffins or Little Einsteins

                       Balloons

                Isabella dislikes:

                             Strangers

                             Heights
                       Bugs