Potty Train Your Toddler – 10 Tips For Success
Are you starting to feel completely done with diapers and diaper duty (pun intended)? Are you nervous to start weaning your little one off diapers and onto the potty? Let me tell you, you are not alone! You can potty train your toddler successfully with these 10 easy tips that work!
Potty Train Your Toddler Quick – But NOT in 3 days
Here’s the thing, I do NOT have a 3-day potty training miracle for you. Honestly, I don’t even know how mothers have trained their children in 3 days. All I know is props to you mama’s who have! What I am going to share with you is how we successfully potty trained our daughter by the time she 21 months. She was fully potty trained by the time she was two and a half and right before baby #2 came along.
If you want to know my suggestions on how YOU can do this, keep reading.
How to start potty training your toddler?
Look for the signs! Around 16 months (roughly) we started noticing our daughter pulling on her diaper or saying “pee” when she seemed like she was going in her diaper.
My first suggestion is be aware of these signs, then go from their!
Buy a potty
The first potty we bought was this little portable one. It seemed cute and “fun” and we thought it would be less intimidating for a toddler. Sure enough, she absolutely loved LOOKING at it.
Initially, we tried going cold turkey, taking her diaper off and making her sit on it… Let’s just say this freaked her out. This approach didn’t work so we needed a new one. Keeping the potty on the floor and visible, we just encouraged her to sit on it and get used to the feeling of it. Considering no child ever let’s you go to the bathroom alone (right mama’s?!), I would get her to sit on her little potty while I was using the washroom.
Tell her she’s a big girl
Amp them up!! Get them excited! They are officially out of the baby stage and are a big girl/boy now!
We played the baby bums bathroom song a lot and anytime it would come on we would get her all excited that that’s what she would be doing! I know a lot of parents who have read little books about going to the potty and that seems to work as well!
My daughter loves muisc and is more visual, so the baby bums potty song worked best for us! She would sing a long with it and I think it helped her understand the potty training process.
Regardless of what method you choose, get them excited to use the potty! Eventually they end up being excited to sit on the big toilet. After about a month of seeing the toilet regularly and sitting on it when she felt comfortable, she finally went pee on it! By 18 months she was using it pretty regularly and we kept the excitement up!
Bubbly water and a timer
My mom always told me that the way my sister and I were potty trained, was by drinking something bubbly like club soda (or any soda water style) because it goes through your system a lot faster and using a timer.
This approach really works! Give your toddler a cup of bubbly water, set the timer for 10 minutes and EVERY 10 minutes take them to the toilet. Whether they go or not, tell them how proud you are of them for trying! Key is to be consistent with how often you’re taking them. This gets them use to going often and will limit the amount of accidents.
Give them a treat or sticker
Some mom’s are not a fan of the treat method and that is totally fine. I, on the other hand, love the idea. I think it keeps them encouraged to keep trying and excited knowing that their is a reward when they go.
Now the “treat” doesn’t have to be a candy or piece of chocolate. Something as simple as a sticker on a chart every time they go can be really effective too. I don’t believe this is considered bribery, I believe it is just another form of encouragement and reward for there hard effort.
Potty Insert Ring
The portable toilet we previously discussed is great for travelling while your potty training or moving it around the house where necessary. However, the potty insert ring that sits on the actual toilet is really beneficial. This will get your toddler use to sitting on the BIG toilet but without them feeling scared they will fall in.
Once your toddler has established a bit of a routine with potty training, putting them on the big toilet with the insert makes them feel ever MORE like a big kid.
Make a BIG deal of #2
Nobody loves the pooping topic, but I feel we need to touch on this. Little kids pooping on the toilet does take a bit longer than peeing. That mama, is completely normal! Don’t feel like your doing something wrong.
As they start getting use to the toilet and feeling comfortable, the more they end up feeling uncomfortable with a dirty diaper. In turn, the more they will start trying to go on the big toilet.
My biggest suggestion is just watching for the signs. Usually at this stage, most parents can see the signs of there child going poop or needing too. The second I would see this sign, I would quickly pick my daughter up, run her to the bathroom, put her on the toilet and give her lot’s of encouragement that she could do it!
When they do go for the first time, make a BIG deal about it, because that is MASSIVE progress.
Don’t be afraid of Pull Up’s
While your toddler is still understanding and learning the ropes of potty training, do not be afraid of pull up’s for nap time and bedtime. Take it from me! I thought when my daughter was consistently using the bathroom that we didn’t need pull up’s or that it would cause her to regress to do both.
NOT THE CASE!
What’s worse is the endless nights of changing bed sheets and the additional loads of laundry having to be done… Especially if you have TWO kids or more. Potty training through the night takes a little more time, so again, use a pull up.
*Side note: instead of calling a pull up a diaper, we would call it her “special underwear” so she understood she shouldn’t go pee in her “underwear”. This helped keep her on a progression of training.
Buy big kid underwear
I would suggest starting with the training pants underwear. They are really cheap and have an extra padding to absorb any accidents that will happen. I had my daughter in those for a good amount of time. A fun suggestion is to let them pick out the underwear pattern they like best! This keeps them excited and is like another “special treat” for being a big kid. My daughter is a BIG paw patrol fan so when she saw their was paw patrol underwear she was ALL over it!
Pack extra clothes
Potty training takes time and patience. Accidents WILL happen so make sure you bring extra clothing with you. I always had an extra pair of pants, socks and underwear at the bottom of my diaper bag. The second I had to use the “emergency clothes” I’d immediately replenish the bag with fresh items.
You can successfully potty train your toddler!
Don’t get discouraged, it takes time! Toddlers have accidents often. Although it can feel frustrating at times when they are having a bad day with accidents, try to keep them encouraged. Remember to consistently ask them if they need to go to the bathroom and take them even if they say they don’t! A simple “well let’s just try anyway” has saved us SO many potential accidents. Be positive, excited and pumped up for them!! It is a BIG milestone! If you want to learn some great tips on how to potty train in just ONE weekend then I suggest you read this mama’s blog article on how she made it happen!
If you have any other tips or tricks on how to potty train your toddler that have worked for you, please comment them below to help out the other mama’s too!
You may also enjoy reading:
- 8 Steps to Baby and Toddler Room Sharing
- 5 Tips To Live Your Best Mom Life
- My Natural Birth Story
- 30 Day Detox Post Pregnancy
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