toilet training in less than a day...

The Cast of Characters: (a nod to Pioneer Woman for all you PW fans) 6-8 pairs of underwear (loosely fitting), books, puzzles, snacks, a variety of drinks, "potty candy", a timer, and a potty chair. you will also need:

A WILLING PARTICIPANT!
I say willing because there are guidelines to look for to make sure they are ready for this all important milestone. I will go into that further later....
Tie the pants up in the back and secure with a rubber band so that they are above the underwear. This way they will have easier access to pull their pants up and down. It is important that they do this part without assistance. That is part of potty training.

Here are the main points about this program:
1. Make sure they are ready. General guidelines: atleast 20 months old? Does he urinate a good deal at one time or does he dribble throughout the day? Does he often stay dry for several hours? Does he have good enough finger/hand coordination to pull pants up and down independently? Does he have body awareness? (like pointing to a body part when asked), Does he respond to commands?
2. It is suggested that training be done in the kitchen where the floors are generally accident friendly - just in case.
3. Develop a friends-who-care list. This is a list of family, friends, and imaginary characters that would be proud of the child. With each successful attempt, you can call a friend on the phone or tell them "Elmo would be so proud of you!".
4. Eliminate distractions. You have to set aside a chunk (about 4-5 hours) of time where they have your undivided attention. You will need to ask them every few minutes for the first two hours or so if their pants are dry or wet and then every fifteen minutes you have to be available to remind them to go sit on the potty to push the pee out. (Thus the need for a timer.) This is impossible to remember if you are watching tv, on the computer, attending to other children, etc. Almost every accident Brady had was my fault when I got distracted and forgot to remind him when I should have. Don't even answer the phone!
5. Dry pants inspections: Every few minutes you ask the child, "Are your pants wet or dry?" They will probably not know at first. Encourage them to feel with their hand whether or not their pants are wet or dry. After awhile they will be able to tell without feeling with their hand. Show delight and praise with every dry pant inspection that is dry!
6. Stimulate a desire to drink by offering him salty snacks. you should try to have them drink about a cup of liquid an hour. A variety of flavors is good because they are drinking so much that they may get tired of a particular flavor.
7. Every fifteen minutes or so you give the directive to sit on the potty and try to pee. At first you may have to manually help the child to understand what you mean but after a while he will catch on with just verbal cues. Use the same words each time so he can get familiar with them. With boys you might need to remind them specifically to pull their pants down past their knees because it helps them to sit properly on the chair so that they are pointing down! They also might need to be reminded to lean forward a little bit to get the correct angle. Use the puzzles and books to encourage sitting on the potty for several minutes. The book says ten minutes or so at first.
8. When he successfully goes to the bathroom on the potty he gets a reward (potty candy or snack of his choosing). He gets LOTS of praise from the friends who care list.
9. When he wets his pants (and he will so that is why you keep him in an accident friendly environment) you express your disapproval. You don't spank or yell. You just say something like, "Mommy doesn't like wet pants, Mommy likes dry pants". Have him do a "positive potty practice relay". It goes like this: have him quickly walk from the place he was caught wet to the potty, pull his pants down past his knees, sit on the potty for a second, stand up, pull his pants back up, and then repeat. The book says ten times. I didn't do that many times but it might be necessary for younger children. Then he is responsible for taking his wet pants off (AFTER the relay)and putting them in the dirty clothes hamper and then putting on a fresh pair of pants. If he got the floor wet or a chair, then he is supposed to clean that up himself. Having to complete the relay in wet pants is uncomfortable so it is important to do the relay first.
10. Bowel movements: no seperate training is needed for poop. Use the exact same system. This usually is not an issue as pee is usually the opening act before the poop.

I think that is it in a a nutshell. I have used it with pretty much all my kids but two. Those two were exceptions and figured it out at a young age by watching older siblings and just started telling me they wanted to go potty without any training. Maybe some of you will luck out and get one of those! If not, this has worked pretty well for me.