Potty Training: The First 3 Days

I based what I did of the RTT (Rapid Toilet Training) method. It is a very intense method, geared mainly for children with developmental delays or autism.

The first 3 days the most involved part, because you stay in the bathroom the whole day, except for 5 minute walks. Hopefully any other kids are shipped off to family, because you will have absolutely zero time for them.

Most of the first day, we spent with Chelsea sitting on the potty (only dressed waist up). She would sit for 30 minutes, then have a 5 minute break. Once she went in the potty, she got a break right away, plus a prize and lots of praise, singing, the whole 9 yards.

Once she was successful, we moved to sitting for 25 minutes with a 10 minute break, and so on down to sitting for 15 minutes. But I kept the breaks at 5-10 minutes because she was peeing a LOT (remember those drinks and salty snacks?) when we had any longer of breaks.
All the Potty Activities we did were geared so that they could all be done sitting down on the potty and be so motivating that Chelsea would want to continue sitting.

During breaks, Chelsea would start to pee, so I would hurry her onto the potty, and if a single drop of pee got in before she finished, I counted it as a success.

The goal here is 100% positive attention! If there is an accident, give a neutral reaction- "Pee-pee goes in the potty" in a neutral voice, and clean it up silently. Then go back to very positive interactions with sitting and going on the potty.

Tips:

• Either get a tight shirt (really, really tight) or a baggy shirt that you tie tight around your kiddo's middle. Two goals here: first- this helps them feel what is going on inside better, and second- it helps to not have that little bottom covered at all. You will be watching that rear end nonstop on their breaks from sitting
• The goal for the first day was for Chelsea to recognize that she was peeing when she was going by me labeling
• The goal for the second day was for Chelsea to label that she was going potty before she was done
• The goal for the third day was for Chelsea to label that she was going potty as she is starting to go potty
• Mentally prepare yourself. The days will be looooooong
• Record everything! Even on really difficult days, it was nice to see that Chelsea's success percentage was increasing over time