Having said that, let’s go through and see where you’re at and
what, if anything, you need to do differently. Remember the time line
of potty training: Clueless to I Peed to I’m Peeing to I Have to Go
Pee. We are looking for progress, not perfection! I’m going to refer
alternately to “blocks” and “days,” because no matter how much I
want you to avoid tracking progress by days, you are going to.
There are really, honestly, truly no disasters in the first couple of
days of potty training. There can’t be; it’s too new. You are changing
a routine, a habit that has been in place for somewhere around two
years. That’s not going to happen in a day.
No poop: The most common cause for a parental freak-out is not
getting a poop on the first day. You may have noticed that poop has
its very own chapter. Yeah. It’s that big a freaking deal. Do not worry
if there’s no poop on the first day. Your child was most likely a once-,
twice-, or three-times-a-day pooper when she was diapered. Almost
every child I’ve ever worked with goes down to one poop a day during
potty training. I think this consolidation of poops is natural. Most
adults only poop once a day, if that. There’s nothing to worry about
from a medical standpoint if your kid has a day or two of no pooping.
For many kids, that first day of potty training is very strange—all this
focus on a previously unnoticed thing—and there’s bound to be some
performance anxiety.
If there’s no poop, don’t sweat it. Carry on like normal. Be aware,
though, that a poop is most certainly coming at some point. Go look
over chapter 10, “Poop” and see if anything there pops out at you. But
honestly, especially on the first day, this is normal.