We potty trained Jasmine last week! I had bought a child’s potty about a month ago, and Gabe had fun showing her “this is how you go potty like a big girl.”
I let them play with it for a week or so until we got moved back from Matt’s and church meetings were over for the weekend. Then I removed the area rug and covered the chairs in towels one Monday morning.
“We’re going to teach you how to go potty like a big girl,” I said to Jasmine.
First I put some underwear on her and I explained how to pull them them down and sit on the pot. Then I walked her through it, and then we practiced. Every five to ten minutes I would say, “Time to pretend you need you go potty!” And she would hustle over and practice how to do the motions of going potty.
During this time I also fed her a bunch of salty snacks and all the juice, hot chocolate and water she could drink to make her need to pee regularly. Andy and I still laugh at the look on her face the first time she peed and a diaper didn’t catch it! Suddenly there was water coming out of her and she looked so confused! We explained that she was peeing and needed to do that on the potty.
Monday was one accident after the next, but Tuesday afternoon it clicked. She sat on the potty, peed, and got a candy reward. She was hooked! Now that she knew what to do the misses were few and far between.
I had been wearing a pull up on her at naps and at night, but when I saw that she was staying dry consistently I stopped.
On the hour long ride to church on Sunday she said she needed to go, so we pulled over, squatted her down, and she did her thing. We continued on the road to church praising God. She’s was trained!
There are a few things I did with Gabe and also with Jasmine to help the training go quickly, and I’ll share them with you here. Gabe was fully trained (nighttime and away from home also) in ten days, and Jasmine took less than a week. I definitely think these tips helped speed the process along!
First may I just say that if your toddler is openly rebellious, does not enjoy pleasing you, and tries to get away with things behind your back, don’t expect potty training to be easy either. In fact, potty training is the least of your concerns. Keep them in diapers a while longer and work on that attitude!
1. Wait until they are two.
There doesn’t have to be a set age to start potty training, but I’ve found that if you wait a little longer, until you are sure they understand what you mean, everything goes faster. It also helps if they can tell you they need to potty and have the coordination to be able to pull their own underwear up/down as well as dump their potty in the big toilet. It saves work for the mom!
2. Don’t use pull-ups!
I know pull ups are super handy and spill free, but honestly they only inhibit potty training. For a child who is used to peeing in a diaper, half the time they don’t even realize when they are going because a diaper soaks up the moisture. A pull up feels the same as a diaper, so the child had a hard time learning what it feels like when they need to use the potty.
A good rule of thumb is to use pull ups when you cannot control the situation – bedtime, away from home etc. – until the child’s is consistently going in the potty during a normal day. Then work on removing the pull up the other times as well.
3. Explain, show, and then practice!
Potty Training uses the same concept as any other training – training for sitting in church, training for right attitudes, training to not touch, training to come when called. Explain the response/action you expect, walk them through how it should be done, and then just practice until it becomes second nature! The concept is simple, but I think sometimes training myself as a parent is harder than teaching the children!
Any more tips or tricks that you’ve found work well for potty/child training? Let me know in the comments!