Potty Training Diaries

Hey friends!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! It’s been pretty cold (-35 with extreme cold warning!!) but nothing us Winnipeggers can’t handle!

Preparing for Potty Training/Tips

Potty training is exhausting, but its helpful knowing there’s an end in sight and soon you won't be changing anymore diapers!! I'm not an expert in this in any way, but I thought I'd share some things that have really helped us and what we've learned along the way! Every child is so different so what may work for us, may not work for you so keep that in mind as well. For both of our kids, they potty trained in about a week and we blocked off a week of mainly staying home and focussing on this one task. Kids already have a short attention span so the less distractions and leaving the house, the better!

There may be a few days where you feel cooped up, so have a few special activities planned for at home really helps. Also, make sure you have enough underwear so you don’t have to do laundry everyday like I did! Haha! We went to the store and bought more asap - Brynn picked them out and was super pumped about her new big girl undies! We also have a little potty for her to sit on that I think we got from Ikea, but you can find them anywhere! We put her little potty near the kitchen/living room since that’s where we spend a lot of time and it’s in eyesight and accessible.

Brynn is almost 2 1/2 years old and was already showing signs of being ready to potty train at the beginning of January, but since we were going on a trip, I really didn’t want to have that stress while we were away. We had tried to potty train her at 2 years old but after two days we realized she wasn’t ready so we decided to wait a few months! Every child is so different and some are ready much earlier, and others much later! Having done this once before with Riley, we learned not to rush it or push it on your child. It will honestly happen when they are ready! (At least in our experience!)

While we were away in Aruba she would tell us when she had to pee and we would take her to the potty and give her a LOT of praise. We still had her in diapers, but when she was swimming or outside we wouldn’t put one on her and this was the beginning of her feeling when she had to pee.

Things You'll Need:

1. Patience!! Like, a lot of patience haha! On days where there may be more accidents you may feel like giving up, but stick with it! They are watching your reaction as well so we would say things like, "oops! We forgot to go to the potty! Let's try to go pee on the potty." I would hide any frustrations and keep it as positive as possible! (But believe me, there were some frustrating moments which I've noted below!) And reminders like, "we don't want to pee in our undies, on the floor etc." I would tell Brynn her undies would be sad if we had an accident in them, but we can wash them!

2. Sticker Chart/Treats/Praise - We would give Brynn 1 chocolate chip for pee and 2 for poo as well as a sticker on a chart. We would be so ecstatic and praise her SO much! We stopped the treat rewards after she got the hang of going on the potty because we didn't want her to expect it everytime.

3. Little Kids Potty - we have a little potty as well as a seat that folds down making the toilet seat smaller. It's from home depot and has been great for both kids!

4. Pull-Ups - we use these for nighttime.

5. Underwear!

Potty Training Day 1-3

Once we got home from our trip we really buckled down and went for it! We left her naked (waist down) for the first 2-3 days and she would run to her little potty and go. We would praise her and be SO excited, do a little dance, give her a treat and put a sticker on her “potty chart”. She had a couple accidents the first 2 days - mostly with the poos. By day 3 she was making it to the potty and only had 1 accident! One tip is to ask if they have to go to the potty A LOT! I would ask every 20-30 minutes if she had to go and it got her thinking about it. Also, get them to drink a lot of water throughout the day so that they have to go pee more often!

Day 4

Day 4 started out with two accidents and felt like we took a step backwards. We put underwear on her (no pants) so it would be easy for her to practice pulling them up and down when she had to go. The rest of day 4 she surprised us and went every time with no more accidents!

Day 5-6

On day 5 and 6 she was fully dressed and was successful at going even when we ventured out of the house! She even woke up dry from her naps and a couple times at night!

Riley was an amazing help and would get so excited when she went on the potty! It was so cute to see him cheering her on! He would make sure she got a treat (and he got one too haha!) and put the sticker on her chart.

xo,

Lindsay

#pottytraining #tipsforkids #toddler