Potty Training Tips and Tricks
Potty training is an exciting new adventure—it can also be scary, frustrating, and rewarding. Every child potty trains differently, but I will share a few tips and tricks that worked (and didn’t work) for my children so you can find the best method for potty training your child.
Potty Training Process
1. Get your child psyched up. After I started to notice signs that my children were ready to potty train (CLICK HERE for more details) I would talk to them for a week or two about how they were growing up and would not need diapers anymore. We would discuss how they would use the potty like mommy and daddy, they would get to wear new underwear that they picked out, and get a special treat for going pee or poop in the potty. I believe this helped them be a part of the process and me to see if they wanted to begin potty training.
2. Get your supplies. If you need to know what to get, CLICK HERE.
3. Start right away. After we got our supplies, we started potty training right away. Usually we would buy supplies in the evening, and then we would start potty training the following morning.
4. Set a Timer. A timer is what worked the best for me and my children. For the first 3-4 days of potty training I would use a timer to help remind myself and my children that we have to stop what we are doing to go to the bathroom. The first day, I set the timer for 30 minutes at a time and made my children stop what they were doing to go sit on the potty each time. They would only have to sit a minute or two to try to go, if they went then we celebrated with a dance and a treat, but if they didn’t go we would try again at the next timer.
The second and third day, I set the timer for an hour and would make my children stop what they were doing to go sit on the potty when the timer expired. If they went then we would celebrate, but if they didn’t go then I would set the timer for 30 minutes and try again after the timer went off.
On the fourth day, I would set the timer for an hour again, but when the timer buzzed I would ask my children if they needed to go. If they said “yes,” then we would go, but if they said “no,” then I would reset the timer for 30 minutes and make them try after the second timer went off. After about a week-ish of timer then I would rely on them to tell me they needed to go to the bathroom.
5. Give them a reward. I chose to let my children receive a small treat after they went pee or poop in the potty to reward their good efforts. My boys picked to receive Tootsie Rolls (they got half a Tootsie Roll for going pee and a whole one for going poop), and my little girl chose jelly beans (she got one for going pee and two for going poop). Some kids enjoy stickers or the ability to earn a toy. I liked the idea of an immediate reward for this milestone, but you know your child best so you choose the best reward for your child. Whatever reward system you chose, be sure to always praise them through this process—words of encouragement can go a long way!
6. Accidents…there will be accidents. Remember this is a learning process, so there will be times they forget that they don’t have a diaper on and will have an accident. Even though it might get frustrating, be gentle with your words.
When my children had an accident I would have to take a deep breath and remind myself that this is a process and it will take time, then I would explain to my children that they are big and don’t have a diaper on anymore so they have to tell someone when they need go pee or poop in the potty. Going pee or poop in their underwear makes the underwear sad and we want them to be happy underwear.
Even though it is a learning process, I would make them take responsibility for their accident and help clean it up. I thought this would be a good way to reinforce that they needed to go pee and poop in the potty. So they would have to put dirty clothes in the wash, get me paper towels, and spray disinfectant.
There might be a few times that your children will get frustrated, mad, or try to demonstrate their control and lash out by having an “accident.” Two of my children did this. The times when they decided to pee on purpose they did get in trouble. I had to explain that there are other ways to show we are mad. You will most likely be able to tell the difference between an accident and an intentional “accident.”
7. Sleeping. During naps and night time I put a “sleeping” diaper on my children. I made sure that they went to the bathroom before putting a diaper on, and when they got up I would insist that they use the bathroom.
My oldest started asking to keep his underwear on during nap time about 6 weeks into potty training. He was doing such a great job of keeping his underwear dry during the day that I let him try it out. He wanted to sleep in his underwear at night too, but I wasn’t quite ready for that so we made a deal that he had to keep his “sleeping” diaper dry for 10 nights before he could sleep in underwear at night. If he had a wet diaper one of those nights then the countdown would start over. He eventually made it to sleeping in underwear at night, but he did wake up a few nights with a wet bed. When that happened I made him return to the “sleeping” diaper for 5 nights before getting to sleep in underwear again.
My second son didn’t really mind the “sleeping” diapers. After he had consistently kept his underwear dry during the day I began to offer to let him take naps in his underwear. Sometimes he would pick underwear and sometimes he picked diaper. He liked having the choice. Then I eventually told him he no longer needed “sleeping” diapers because he wasn’t having accidents anymore and he was fine with it.
My daughter is still in the “sleeping” diaper phase of potty training. She asks to sleep in just panties, but she’s not consistent enough yet, but we will get there.
Mistakes You Can Learn From
1. Timer Mishap. On the first day of potty training our oldest I made the mistake of setting the timer for every 15 minutes ( I didn’t know and was scared of accidents). This caused a little frustration for both of us, but we got the timing right.
2. “Water Trick.” My second son thought that each time the timer went off he HAD to go pee in the potty so he would literally sit on the potty for 45 minutes waiting for the pee to come. I had 2 other kids to take care of, I didn’t have time to sit and wait for the pee to come each time so I started warming luke warm water on his pee pee to make feel the urge to pee and it worked; however, then he started insisting on doing that each time I asked him to go to the bathroom and he wasn’t understanding when his body actually needed to go pee, so he was also having a lot of accidents outside the bathroom. So, we just took a break from potty training and started over a few months later.
What questions can I help answer about potty training? Please email me with your questions.