Teaching your kiddo to use the toilet can be stressful. And frustrating. And tedious. And make you want to lock yourself in the closet inhaling an entire can of pringles. But, guess what? It doesn’t have to be this way! There are a lot of things you can do to help the transition from diaper to toilet a lot easier.
Here are my top 10 tips on how to have a successful potty-training experience…
1. Talk it up BIG TIME before you ever try to potty-train. Show them the toilet, and tell them all about it. Kids feed off of your enthusiasm, so if you act like going potty on the toilet is the coolest thing since sliced bread – they’ll believe it! Talk about how fun things will be once they are potty-trained. Sophie was sooo excited to go to preschool, so I told her that she wasn’t allowed to go until she used the toilet. That got her really excited about it! The more you build up the hype, the more excited they will be to go.
2. Get them involved in your potty time. This may seem a little weird, but it works! When Soph just wasn’t getting it, one of the things that really helped was to switch roles. When I had to go, I would bounce around like she did, and say “oh no! I feel something in my belly! I think I might have to go potty, what should I do?!” She loved being able to tell me what to do, and she would cheer and clap when I went on the toilet 🙂
3. Let them pick out new underwear. With Sophie, I let her pick out her own undies (they were Minnie Mouse, of course). She was so excited to wear them. I told her that Minnie had to stay dry, and if she peed on her and got her wet, I would take her away. She was heartbroken the first time she peed on Minnie, which helped motivate her to not have accidents!
4. Make a big fuss over every “success.” The first couple of days, every time Sophie made it in the toilet, we went crazy! We jumped up and down, screamed and cheered, and got over-the-top excited. We called relatives, and skyped cousins, spreading the news of what a big girl Sophie was. All of the positive feedback she got helped build momentum and stay motivated.
5. When they have an accident, immediately put them on the toilet. Even if they empty their bladder on the floor, still put them on the toilet. This will help associate going potty with being on the toilet (so hopefully those will happen at the same time in the future!)
6. Keep things positive. Even when you feel frustrated and upset, try to stay upbeat! Don’t get upset over accidents – getting angry will just make things worse. If you make your child feel bad for not catching on, they’ll get discouraged and end up taking even longer to learn. Be proud of their progress, even if it’s not as quick as you’d like it to be.
7. Let them flush their own… business. Every time Sophie went #2, she would flush the toilet and yell “bye-bye poo-poo! See you later!” She loved it, and got excited every time she was able to flush the toilet.
8. Make them clean up their own accidents. Let’s be honest, cleaning up pee (and heaven forbid, poop) is gross. We don’t want to do it, and the kids won’t either. If you give them a rag and make them clean it up themselves, they sure won’t want to do it again!
9. Accept that accidents happen. Remember, this is a learning process. They don’t know how to use the toilet, and it’s your job to teach them. You can’t expect them to be perfect right off the bat, that would just be crazy! They will have accidents, and that’s normal. Expecting perfection will result in frustration, disappointment, and a whole lotta stress.
10. They need to be ready. After all is said and done, the child needs to be ready. You may try every tactic under the sun, but if they aren’t ready, it ain’t gonna happen. Be patient, and sooner or later, diapers will be a thing of the past.
I’m DYING over those pictures of Sophie!! Love this post!
Thanks! She’s such a cooperative little model… Especially when I promise to give her chocolate chips 🙂
Adorable pictures of the little one!
Now I see my problem… when Charlie peed all over my kitchen floor and I was cleaning up he was busying climbing on the table getting into things… I need to put his 18 months to work on clean up patrol 🙂
So he’s still seems a little young for potty training… but he has been loving sitting on his little potty… so we do it just for fun 🙂 and so I can feel grossed out by his little hands touching everything.
Really good ideas 🙂
Give that boy a rag! Haha.. Good luck, girl. Hopefully he decides to do it soon!
Good information, thank you
My son turned 2 on March 16. He showed interest in potty training at 18 months but when we went on vacation, I neglected to take his potty and it wasn’t until 23 months before he really started wanting to do it again. My advice to anyone is to be consistent. Don’t start when it will be difficult for you to follow through. Now he stands to potty (YEAH!) I was worried that he would have trouble since this is all new to me but so far so good. We kind of make it a game to see if he can hit the water. He loves it. Afterwards, he gets a sticker to be placed on a construction paper cutout on the wall as a reward. He loves that too. He gets a sticker for just trying. Now, he is starting to ask when we go out and about. I am so excited. He doesn’t like to poo poo in the potty though. Anyone else have this issue? Any advice greatly appreciated.
That’s such good advice, Eden! I totally agree.
For the poo issue… We made that extra special. So if Sophie got 1 chocolate chip for #1, she got 2 chocolate chips for #2. And we made it a silly game, to wave to it as it went down 🙂 I’ve heard that a lot of kids are scared to go #2 in the toilet, so try talking him through it and see why he doesn’t want to go. Also make sure he’s drinking plenty of water, and isn’t constipated.
With my daughter, I would put her on the toilet when I knew she had to go (she got the toots 🙂 ) and then distract her with books and songs, until she went without really paying attention to it.
With my son, I had to talk him through it more. We talked about what it felt like when you can tell you have to go, and how to (gently) push it out.
Both of these methods worked for us, but every child is different. Hang in there! 🙂