I mentioned last week that we have successfully potty trained our daughter!! Hooray!! There are so many parenting milestones to look forward to, but this is not one that I was eager to do. It's intimidating when you're doing it for the first time and we learned lots along the way. I do not think there is one right way to potty train so you do what works for you. These are just the things that worked for us.
Every child is different so I'd highly recommend coming up with a personalized game plan for your family. It's also good to tune out the people who give strict timelines for potty training, make wild claims or anyone who makes you feel bad your child isn't potty trained really early on. Kids will potty train when they are ready. A friend told me that when kids start lining up their toys and organizing them it's a sign they're ready for potty training. Someone else mentioned that if your child is waking up in the morning with a dry diaper then they are ready to start working on potty training. Another friend said that if a child can tell you they need to go potty or if they go off on their own to use the restroom in their diaper they are likely ready to start potty training.
Many of those things ended up being true for us. Early on when we were just starting to talk to about potty training Olive got frustrated and said I DO NOT WANT TO GET ON THAT POTTY TRAIN! Like it was a real train coming down the tracks... haha. So we just followed her lead and are super happy with the results.
5 Tips for Making Potty Training Easy for Everyone
1. Start talking about potty training, potty routines and pointing those things out to your child before they show all the signs of being ready. We read potty books, bought potty seats and did lots of potty talk before we got super serious about potty training. These items just became normal items in our bathrooms and part of our routine.
2. Follow your child's lead. If they're fighting you or throwing fits about sitting on the potty. Wait. It'll be so much easier to learn how to potty when they are on board with the plan. Many people told me that potty training will be a breeze when your child makes up their mind to do it. They were right. We waited until she was ready and it's just like she woke up one day and decided no more diapers. Our daughter has strong opinions about most things so potty training was no exception.
We ignored our pediatrician's suggestion of making her sit on the potty after meals and other times. I just never felt good about forcing her to sit on the potty when she was old enough that she could tell me when she had to go to the bathroom. I'd definitely encourage you to have a chat with your pediatrician about it. I loved our ped's advice in Mississippi... avoid using pull ups. If you start using them then you will just drag out the potty training process.
We ignored our pediatrician's suggestion of making her sit on the potty after meals and other times. I just never felt good about forcing her to sit on the potty when she was old enough that she could tell me when she had to go to the bathroom. I'd definitely encourage you to have a chat with your pediatrician about it. I loved our ped's advice in Mississippi... avoid using pull ups. If you start using them then you will just drag out the potty training process.
3. Let them buy the underwear they like and use the potty products they like. We had to try a few different options and sizes before settling in on ones that were comfy for her. We had a couple of potty seat options and then we stuck with her favorites.
4. Reward. Figure out what motivates your child and run with it. Our daughter loves candy and was super motivated to work towards earning a bike/scooter. We'd tally her potty trips, giver her a tiny candy treat and celebrate each time she had success. She loved the attention and loved seeing her tally marks add up. After a few weeks of great potty success we headed to the store so she could pick out her potty training prize. She was grinning from ear to ear the whole time and was so proud she earned her scooter. She tells everyone it's her potty prize and she's so proud of her accomplishment.
5. Sh*t happens :) Accidents will likely happen, messes will be made, but if you have a really laid back response it will help everyone. Clothes can be washed and messes can be cleaned up pretty easily. We kept Clorox wipes on hand, washed our hands a lot and went into this knowing that things would get a bit messy. I didn't want my daughter to feel scared to have an accident so we just rolled with it when it happened or when a mess was made.
Our favorite potty training products:
IKEA potty to keep in the car
Munchin potty seat for toilet
Little potty for bathrooms
mini m&ms
Dresses/night gowns or oversized t-shirts for boys
Potty
Daniel Goes to the Potty
Potty Superhero
Big Girl Panties
IKEA potty to keep in the car
Munchin potty seat for toilet
Little potty for bathrooms
mini m&ms
Dresses/night gowns or oversized t-shirts for boys
Potty
Daniel Goes to the Potty
Potty Superhero
Big Girl Panties
We tried out bikes and scooters and wagons before she decided a scooter + helmet was the prize she'd been working so hard for. Fletcher woke up mid nap and wasn't sure what all the excitement was about.
She kept reading the "structions" to help Daddy put together her scooter.
She's off... Our little girl has now reached big girl status!!
How was potty training for you?? Any great tips that I left out??
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Hooray for your daughter being potty trained! We crossed that milestone this summer and it's been a challenge and a reward all at once. I have to say, my daughter loved rewards as an incentive. We tried candy and other treats, but she wasn't really into it, but what worked the best was music. She loves listening to the Frozen soundtrack and we used that as our reward. If she went #1, she would listen to a song, if she went #2 it was two songs. It was such a success that I'm now using it to ease her off the little potty and into the actual toilet. So far so good!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for hosting this week! Have a happy Tuesday :)
That's great! How old is your daughter now? Mine is 3 but she was a late talker/communicator. She hasn't peed in the potty yet but she has sat on it and we are just encouraging her to do that. She tells us most of the time when she was gone #2 but not #1 in her diaper. I am just not sure if she's ready yet. No fusses or crying over the potty but I really don't want to get to that point. We tried her a couple of days in her new panties and she just peed in them every time and said "water on my leg" LOL. Maybe she isn't completely read.
ReplyDeleteLove to hear all the stories about potty training...It is always a challenge but all us mom's seem to get it done in our own time and way...Remember when some women years ago tried to train at 1 yr old, can you imagine....Now Olive knows she really is a big sister, no more pacifier no more diapers.. Hooray for Olive and mom!
ReplyDeleteYayy Olive! I agree with so much of this and think readiness must play such a huge role because I'm almost hesitant to admit out loud how NOT painful this process was with Lawter over the past month. I feel I'm being lulled into a false sense of security so that the boy one will be a nightmare to potty train. haha Woohoo for being one-kid-to-diaper families again! hah
ReplyDeleteAmen to all of this! When they're ready, it goes SO much smoother. I forced two who weren't ready and I had two force me that THEY were ready! LOL. They ones who were ready trained in two weeks. The ones who weren't - ONE.YEAR.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on this BIG accomplishment! GO OLIVE!! (and mommy. :)
Awesome! When Hattie started preschool she had 2 accidents in 1 day and regressed and has zero interest in going potty and we went back into diapers. We aren't pushing it, but it's been a tough regression for everyone! We'll try again in a few weeks.
ReplyDeleteLook at her on her scooter! LOVE! I totally agree with these! My boys weren't ready until after age 3.
ReplyDeleteI love that she thought it was a train! Too funny. She looks so big with her scooter! Good job Olive!! Love tip number 2!
ReplyDeleteYay for Olive! She looks so happy on her scooter! We are potty training right now, and I want to pull my hair out! My son has shown all of the "signs", but we are still dealing with accidents every day. I wonder if it is because we are using Pull Ups for sleeping and when we go places. Did you not use them at all?
ReplyDelete#5 baha ha! Oh my goodness, yes! I love all your tips but that is the ome that leaves me nodding my head in agreement. Great job to Olive and mommy too!
ReplyDelete