Anyone ever tried the pantsless potty-training boot camp weekend?

Julia - posted on 07/27/2012

My Grandbaby Lili refuses to potty train so why not do it in train form? (Ps Im a Grandma not a Mom )

Crystal - posted on 06/10/2012

EEven though my daughter showed signs from 2 years, I don't think she was really ready until almost 3. We used a sticker reward chart. 2 stars for poo and one for wee. Them after 10 she got a small treat. 2 months down the track she no longer asks for stickers . I try to remind her every few hours.

Amanda - posted on 06/10/2012

Worked great for me... took about 5 days tho.:

Michelle - posted on 06/07/2012

My husband and I are trying pant less potty training here at home, it's day 2 and we've had a ton of success so far. A lot of people don't think it's right that were letting our child run around with no pants, diapers, or underwear on but it's working for us. He goes to his potty every time he needs to do a pee or pooh without us telling him too sit down and go and he is very happy with himself after he does his business. I feel he'll get the concept better this way because wearing a diaper or pull-up still allows him to go in his pants and enables him. the 1st day I had to keep him sitting on the potty so that he understood that that is where he is to do his business and by today (day 2) he was running around and playing and going to the potty on his own when he needed to go. I think you just need to find what works best for you and your child.

Kathy - posted on 04/10/2012

One never punish a child for having an accident. I did the "Potty training in less than a day." The technique is similar to those used by the boot camps. If you follow the proceedure it really does work but only if you child is ready to be potty trained. It worked with my oldest we only had a couple of accidents the first week or so. My second child had sensory issues and we were not aware of at the time we tried to introduce that potty training. Even thought he passed all the tests for potty training readiness the sensory issues prevented him from realizing that his bladder was full. The boot camp usually enforces a practice method for accidents. This may seem harsh for a 2-3 year old but it does encourage independence and self reliance. Time outs are for control behavior and not accidents that your child may not have control over. All you doing is runing your childs self esteem.

Jennifer - posted on 09/17/2009

Amber, you have the exact same issue we've discovered now that we've done this. My son is almost perfectly potty trained after a few days ... as long as he's naked! He hasn't had an accident in almost a week, but the second the diaper is on, he uses it. I'm not sure how to bridge this gap.

Amber - posted on 09/13/2009

Hi, I am actually in the process of starting my 28mth old boy/girl twins. I bought the potty chair and the pull-ups they can care less about pull ups it being summer and warm I have let my daughter run around without any pants on and surprisingly she is about 80 percent potty trained (in 2 days) but only if she is running around with a bare bottom. I have not been super diligent about it so the minute I put diapers (she refuses the pull-ups) all goes out the door- so yes when I finally talk myself to doing this full heartadly I recommend that (my son is clearly not ready yet). Good Luck.

Jennifer - posted on 09/13/2009

We decided to bite the bullet and do potty training boot camp. We our on the last day of our three-day pantsless weekend, and it has gone amazingly well. Keep in mind, he had only used the potty three times before this out of sitting on it probably 100 times. Day one of our experiment, he had two accidents and peed in the potty six times. However, he held his poop all day. Day two: one accident, five pees and one poop. Day three so far: zero accidents. The best part of potty training boot camp is he is getting so good at telling us when he needs to go that we no longer have to ask him constantly.



So my worries now are that he will totally regress back to going in his pullups when we have to start using them again tomorrow to send him to daycare. I guess we'll just see how that goes. Maybe we'll need to accelerate switching him to underwear so he won't fall back into the comfort and laziness of going in his pullups.



Also, we have to read him a book or two each time he sits on the potty. He refuses to sit there if we're not reading, and this is something we'll have to wean him of for sure because who has time to do that forever?

Lizz - posted on 09/11/2009

I have never heard of potty training boot camp and I have 6 kids, ages ranging from 23 to 3. I think I would be worried about where they would have their accidents & having to constantly clean them up & not get to mad as to discourage the potty training.

My youngest son (age 3) has been easy and hard at the same time. He had all the signs, but did not give 2 hoots about getting serious until I bought him a Peter Potty and had it delivered to the house. I let him open it & help me put it together. It is his potty and only his (his 4 year old sister can't use a yernal). So we had only had 1 or 2 accidents since buying one 2 months ago. As for the going #2 in the potty, I just had to keep on him & try to see what time of day he was going so I could direct him to try to go #2 even if he didn't think he needed to. Once he did I used a plain poster board and stickers he got to put on himself for each time he went. This also worked wonders for my stubborn 4 year old when she was potty training. We have a few accidents now & then but not many & it was not a frustrating experience for either of us. (The Peter Potty also flushes & they love to do that).

Good luck, it's great to get rid of the diapers.

Lisa - posted on 09/11/2009

I am just in the process of this potty training boot camp method now and agree that the pantless for 3 months does seem very extreme.

I started last friday by saying we wouldn't be using nappies anymore as he's a big boy now and should use his potty. Things didn't quite go as planned and he point blank refused. Then I got mean and took his favourite toy away and said he could have it back when he started to use his potty. After some major tantrums he got it and has been using his potty (when pantless and in the home) without accidents since.

My problem now is he doesn't like to wear pants, and screams at the mention of underpants. So he's still been in nappies when we've gone out which I know I shouldn't be doing. He tells me when he's doing a wee though so he's aware of it now himself.

So I have found the potty training boot camp method effective as he was trained in less than a week but now I just need to know how I get him to wear pants and underpants happily both in and out the home??

Miranda - posted on 09/10/2009

It seems to me like he's on the right track. He's still pretty young, especially for a boy, so I wouldn't stress about it too much, but I can say for certain that my daughter was at that point a few months back. She even went a couple of weeks at her daycare where she used the potty regularly, but she wasn't fully ready, and at that time it was more to do with her sitting on the potty until the need came, not waiting for the need to come and getting on the potty. If you force it, it could backfire.



Having said that, though, I just got my daughter fully potty trained in the last few weeks. I've had her big girl panties in her drawer for a couple of months, and told her constantly that when she used the potty (big toilet) for #1 and #2, she could wear her panties. When it started this time, it was because I took her diaper off. She was ready to use the potty, but was kind of just being lazy. I put her in a pretty dress that she picked out, and let her run around the house with a naked bum, telling her not to get her pretty dress wet or dirty, or she couldn't wear it anymore. When she had to use the potty, she did, and I gave her some panties afterward. It's been smooth sailing since then. She only had a couple of accidents - one on each of the first two days, that could have probably both been prevented if I'd paid more attention - and I made her throw away those two pairs of panties. A little wasteful, I know, but it got the point across, and she hasn't had any issues since then.





I forgot, also, that leading up to this I had been telling her that her diapers were almost all gone, and we wouldn't be getting more, because I really didn't want to buy more. I bought her the princess pull-ups for nighttime, and she's used those the last couple of weeks, but seems to have night time trained herself.



I'm sure that if we had pushed it a few months ago, she would have figured it out, but we likely would have been doing the "every half hour" or however often trips to the bathroom, just in case, and I think that because we waited and mostly let her do it when she was ready, she can go for a long time without needing the potty. The second day the accident was simply that she'd made it to the bathroom a second too late, but with a couple of weeks, that doesn't seem to be an issue at all. She doesn't like the automatic toilets at the mall, so if we're there and she doesn't want to pee, she doesn't. If she has to go when we're out, she can hold it in, and like I said, I think she has nighttime trained herself aswell.

Jennifer - posted on 09/09/2009

Yes, I agree that pantless for three MONTHS afterward is pretty extreme ... and sounds unnecessary if they are getting the hang of it!



How well were your kids using the potty before you did these more intensive techniques like potty training boot camp? Would they use the potty sometimes, and would they ask to go and then actually go? My son is doing neither of these things. He'll sit on the potty, but he's only peed in it three times out of the countless times we've tried. And he asks to go potty frequently but then doesn't actually go ... so it's like a game to him. Part of me is afraid that I'm trying the pantsless potty training boot camp thing too early, and the other part of me is convinced he's showing all the right signs but just doesn't "get it" yet.

Angela - posted on 09/08/2009

I have not tried potty training boot camp but I had my son potty trained in about a day! He was about 32 months. I chose a week that I could dedicated to him, you could do it in a weekend. I told him that we were having a 'potty party' and made a calendar showing him the day that we were going to say good bye to diapers. We counted down, and we talked about it, that he was going to stop wearing diapers and he could pick out his own undies, he was going to be a big boy, etc. Then, we went to the store and got balloons and some little treats (half were edible, half were party favors) that he could pick out of a bag every time he went potty. We then set an alarm and every 30 mins we ran to the potty (he got a treat even if he tried). I played with him ALL DAY and by the next morning he pretty much had the hang of it.

For the next week or so I used jelly beans (small and not too sugary) to coax him to use the bathroom. I never scolded him for accidents, we just matter of factly changed and he went to the bathroom. Others have said this technique works well pantless too.

Darci - posted on 09/07/2009

I haven't read through the entire website, but I know that I did things a little differently My daughter (who turned 3 years old in December 2008) was taking forever to potty train (started July 2008) and in April, I told her that if she had an accident she was going to go without underwear or diapers the rest of the day. So, she had an accident in the morning, and she went pantless the rest of the day. We kept the potty chair with us where we went, and we didn't go places. When she started to go pantless, she actually did pretty well. I think I only cleaned up 2-3 potty messes over the 3 days when she was pantless. She really learned to recognize the feeling of needing to go potty. When she'd go potty on my floor (which didn't make me very happy), I'd place her in time-out for 3 minutes (because she is 3 years old)... I also kindly reminded her that she needed to go to the potty when she needed to go pee-pee.



During this time, she also potty trained herself at night! It was such a blessing to have her potty trained because she is my first, and I had a new baby on May 13th! Let me know if you have more questions. She did NOT go pantless for 3 months... that seems a bit extreme.

Jennifer - posted on 09/13/2009

We decided to bite the bullet and do potty training boot camp. We our on the last day of our three-day pantsless weekend, and it has gone amazingly well. Keep in mind, he had only used the potty three times before this out of sitting on it probably 100 times. Day one of our experiment, he had two accidents and peed in the potty six times. However, he held his poop all day. Day two: one accident, five pees and one poop. Day three so far: zero accidents. The best part of potty training boot camp is he is getting so good at telling us when he needs to go that we no longer have to ask him constantly.



So my worries now are that he will totally regress back to going in his pullups when we have to start using them again tomorrow to send him to daycare. I guess we'll just see how that goes. Maybe we'll need to accelerate switching him to underwear so he won't fall back into the comfort and laziness of going in his pullups.



Also, we have to read him a book or two each time he sits on the potty. He refuses to sit there if we're not reading, and this is something we'll have to wean him of for sure because who has time to do that forever?

Lizz - posted on 09/11/2009

I have never heard of potty training boot camp and I have 6 kids, ages ranging from 23 to 3. I think I would be worried about where they would have their accidents & having to constantly clean them up & not get to mad as to discourage the potty training.

My youngest son (age 3) has been easy and hard at the same time. He had all the signs, but did not give 2 hoots about getting serious until I bought him a Peter Potty and had it delivered to the house. I let him open it & help me put it together. It is his potty and only his (his 4 year old sister can't use a yernal). So we had only had 1 or 2 accidents since buying one 2 months ago. As for the going #2 in the potty, I just had to keep on him & try to see what time of day he was going so I could direct him to try to go #2 even if he didn't think he needed to. Once he did I used a plain poster board and stickers he got to put on himself for each time he went. This also worked wonders for my stubborn 4 year old when she was potty training. We have a few accidents now & then but not many & it was not a frustrating experience for either of us. (The Peter Potty also flushes & they love to do that).

Good luck, it's great to get rid of the diapers.

Lisa - posted on 09/11/2009

I am just in the process of this potty training boot camp method now and agree that the pantless for 3 months does seem very extreme.

I started last friday by saying we wouldn't be using nappies anymore as he's a big boy now and should use his potty. Things didn't quite go as planned and he point blank refused. Then I got mean and took his favourite toy away and said he could have it back when he started to use his potty. After some major tantrums he got it and has been using his potty (when pantless and in the home) without accidents since.

My problem now is he doesn't like to wear pants, and screams at the mention of underpants. So he's still been in nappies when we've gone out which I know I shouldn't be doing. He tells me when he's doing a wee though so he's aware of it now himself.

So I have found the potty training boot camp method effective as he was trained in less than a week but now I just need to know how I get him to wear pants and underpants happily both in and out the home??

Jennifer - posted on 09/09/2009

Yes, I agree that pantless for three MONTHS afterward is pretty extreme ... and sounds unnecessary if they are getting the hang of it!



How well were your kids using the potty before you did these more intensive techniques like potty training boot camp? Would they use the potty sometimes, and would they ask to go and then actually go? My son is doing neither of these things. He'll sit on the potty, but he's only peed in it three times out of the countless times we've tried. And he asks to go potty frequently but then doesn't actually go ... so it's like a game to him. Part of me is afraid that I'm trying the pantsless potty training boot camp thing too early, and the other part of me is convinced he's showing all the right signs but just doesn't "get it" yet.

Angela - posted on 09/08/2009

I have not tried potty training boot camp but I had my son potty trained in about a day! He was about 32 months. I chose a week that I could dedicated to him, you could do it in a weekend. I told him that we were having a 'potty party' and made a calendar showing him the day that we were going to say good bye to diapers. We counted down, and we talked about it, that he was going to stop wearing diapers and he could pick out his own undies, he was going to be a big boy, etc. Then, we went to the store and got balloons and some little treats (half were edible, half were party favors) that he could pick out of a bag every time he went potty. We then set an alarm and every 30 mins we ran to the potty (he got a treat even if he tried). I played with him ALL DAY and by the next morning he pretty much had the hang of it.

For the next week or so I used jelly beans (small and not too sugary) to coax him to use the bathroom. I never scolded him for accidents, we just matter of factly changed and he went to the bathroom. Others have said this technique works well pantless too.