Proven 2-Day Potty Training Method: Worked for Both My Kids!

With my first child, it took us months for potty training. There was so much inconsistency, accidents, and frustration sitting at the potty for 10 minutes for nothing. We tried star charts, candy, you name the method, we probably tried it.

But then… I found the one last method we hadn’t tried.

Before we get to it, let’s talk about making sure your child is ready for potty training. Here are a couple of signs your child is ready:

• Telling you when they’ve gone potty in their diaper (a sign they don’t like to be dirty or wet)
• Telling you they need to go before they go potty in their diaper (a sign they recognize the sensation)
• Interest in the potty (maybe wanting to sit on it, watching you or a sibling, playing with the flush, etc.)

They may be doing just one of these things or all three. If your child is ready, then let’s carry on.

I’m about to tell you how I got not one but two kids potty trained after just two days! (There will still be accidents, but we stopped diapers during the day with this method, so I’m counting it!)

Dedicate a Weekend to Potty Training

I’m telling you, it’s so so worth it. Find a weekend where you have no plans. Nowhere to go, no commitments, nothing. Mark this as the weekend your potty training weekend and expect to be home that whole weekend.

Day One: Naked Day!

Wake up Saturday morning and do 3 things:

1. Take your kiddo’s pajamas and diaper off and do not put any pants or diapers back on. You can put a shirt on, but that’s it!
2. Start hydrating. Give them their favorite juice, milk, or just plain old water, but make sure they’re drinking a ton of liquids.
3. Get your little potty out and show your toddler where it’s at. Keep referring to it, and then let the toddler go play. (I used this one and love it)

This will be a day for accidents, and that’s a good thing! So get your cleaning supplies ready.

Now that your toddler is playing, your primary job is to watch them constantly. And get ready, because they’re about to have their first accident and pee/poop on the floor. Yep, it’s gross, and you’ve got to be ready to clean it up, but this is good. As soon as they start going, pick them up and rush them over to their mini potty.

Don’t act upset, angry, disappointed, etc. Say “woopsy daisy! let’s go pee on the potty!” and smile as they sit. They probably won’t go at all on the potty this time and that’s okay. Just say “that’s okay, we can go pee on the potty next time!” Then let them continue playing.

Repeat this process for as many times as it takes. Try to catch them in the moment they are going and put them on the potty. Never act angry. Just approach it with as much enthusiasm and patience as you can. Reinforce the “oopsy” when they go on the floor and the excitement when they sit on the potty.

For my first kid, it took 3 accidents on the floor before they started to catch themselves and run over to the potty. For my second kid, it took 2 accidents. Your kids may take more, less, but just keep at this process all day if you have to until they start to associate their accidents with instead going on the potty.

By the end of day one, your child should be sitting on the potty and, at least, peeing on it. (We’ll talk about #2 more later).

Day Two: Underwear Day!

Now we got them used to the “i need to go” feeling and catching themselves. Day two is now reinforcing that, but with the additional challenge of underwear maybe making it feel like they are wearing a “diaper” and can have accidents.

A couple of key things here:

1. Buy fun underwear that your toddler will be excited to wear!
2. Buy A LOT OF IT. They will have a lot of accidents at first and some worse than others where you may need to throw out a couple or at least immediately start a load of laundry.

Day two is going to look very similar to day one, but it may be a little harder to catch them in the act of having accidents. Keep watch over them constantly and if you notice them starting to go, repeat the same process of grabbing them in the moment, bringing them over to the potty, and sitting them down on it.

Each of my kids had about two accidents in their underwear before they caught themselves and started going on the potty.

By the end of day 2, your child should be stopping themselves (for the most part) from peeing in their underwear and start going on the potty instead.

If you feel like they are doing really well by mid-day, you can also put pants/shorts on for an extra challenge.

Save

Days Three and Beyond: Now What?

Fingers crossed that your toddler is now out of diapers during the day, but they may still need diapers at night. My little ones used diapers at night for a while until we could gradually reduce the amount of milk/other liquids near bedtime.

Now my 4 year old is in pull-ups at night and I would say 80% of the time she wakes up with a dry pull-up. Once we run out of the last pack, we’ll be transitioning to underwear for her at night.

My 2 year old is still in diapers at nap time and bedtime. I’ll first transition her out of diapers during her nap most likely in about a month and then once she’s consistent about no accidents during naptime, I’ll transition her to pull-ups at night until she’s around 4 and a half just like my other. This has worked well for us.

But what about when I leave the house?

I’m strictly now no diapers during the day unless there’s a special circumstance like a long car ride. I bring the potty training potty in the trunk of my car to outings like the playground in case she needs to go so that we can quickly bring her over to the trunk. When we go to others’ houses or restaurants, we use a portable potty seat that I pack in my diaper bag.

What about using the regular toilet?

After using the portable potty seat with my oldest for about 6 months, she eventually got used to going on the larger potty first at home and then when we went out, I no longer needed the portable one anymore. You can continue to ask your child if they feel comfortable on the bigger potty and they’ll let you know when they’re ready. I let my kiddo take the lead on this one and it worked out.

Why no pull-ups during the day?

This is a personal thing and it may be different for you, but we tried this with my first child and she just thought the pull-up was a diaper. It’s one of the reasons the potty training was dragged out for months, so it was only when we stopped using pull-ups during the day completely that she finally stopped with the accidents.

This is great and all, but what about #2?

I had two entirely different experiences with this one. My second child had no problem with poop once she learned how to pee on the toilet. She just started doing both at the same time.

However, my first was a totally different story. She was good with #1 for months before she finally went #2 in the potty. So it’ll be dependent on the child, but for those of you struggling with #2 specifically, all I can say is that you’re not alone and hang in there. There’s nothing special that we did for the poop beyond staying consistent with trying to catch it before it happened, not getting angry about it, and reinforcing the messaging “oopsy! maybe next time in the potty!” Eventually, she understood, but it was a brutal couple of months to get there. Just be ready with lots of cleaning supplies and back-up undies.

Expert tip: If you’re struggling with #2 and don’t want to deal with trying to pull off soiled underwear and getting it everywhere, check out these snap undies for potty training! No more struggling to pull those nasty undies off!

Please let me know if there’s any other questions you have that I can help clarify and I hope this method works for you as well as it worked for me! Let me know if you did something different that worked great as well! I’d love parents to know there are multiple things to try just in case this method doesn’t end up working!

Happy potty training! Want to learn how to get rid of all those toys that don’t get played with and end up thrown all over your floor? Check this post out next!