Oh, the ups and downs of potty training. You think they are good to go and then another accident! I’ve come to realize that accidents will happen periodically for awhile! Brace yourself.
We started potty training our son when he was 2 years and 4 months old. I was constantly told that age was early for boys and good luck, but we went ahead anyway. We decided on the first weekend in August because we wanted him to be potty trained before he went to preschool, although it was not a requirement in the 2’s class, we didn’t want the teachers to have to deal with changing his diaper and thought it was an appropriate time. He seemed more or less ready. He was talking about it more and didn’t like his diaper being wet/dirty so that’s all I mean by “ready”, nothing major!
A couple months before we set the date to start this fun process, I ordered several potty training books to read to him. He really responds to books and I made sure to get an Elmo one, a Daniel Tiger one, and a couple more generic ones to keep him interested (see below – they are clickable image). There also is a great Daniel Tiger episode all about potty training and they sing a song that is very catchy that we used to encourage going on the potty. Madden still sings it often when we remind him to “stop and go potty right away” if he feels the urge. If your child responds to shows and you are comfortable showing them, this is a great one to use prior to potty training!
We also bought multiple potties and potty seats to go on the regular toilets to get us ready (pictures below are linked). We let him sit on the little potty when he wanted to prior to starting the potty training and he thought that was fun/funny.
We also bought step stools (again, pictures below are linked) for each bathroom in our house so he could get to both the potty and the sink to wash his hands easily.
Lastly, we bought a couple packs of underwear with characters he likes on them. We got a mix of Mickey Mouse characters and Sesame Street characters. He LOVED them and insisted on putting them all on at once. He then wanted to wear them over his diaper for days before we started potty training.
Tip: If your child wears diapers or pull-ups during nap time, put the underwear over top of the diaper/pull-up so when they wake up, you can just take off the diaper/pull-up without taking their pants off and putting their underwear back on. It saves a lot of time!
List of Things To Get:
- Potty books
- Training potty for on-the-go
- Potty seat to go on the normal toilet
- Step stool
- Underwear
- Long T-shirts
- Reward candy (if you want to do a reward system)
Now we are all ready to go. We went with the bottomless approach. Madden did not wear anything on the bottom during the day (except during naps) for two days. As pictured, we tried to have him wear long shirts so he could run around outside and cover his privates! 😉 I read to do it for three days, but we did two-ish. We had one of his cousin’s birthday parties to go to that Sunday and he couldn’t be bottomless for that!
Tip: Put towels on the couch for the first week or so in case they have an accident. We just did this in our play room and did not let him on the couch in our living room. That way he could play, watch shows, and we could read him books on one couch without worrying.
We tried to put him on the potty every 30 minutes (we set a timer on our phones/watches) for the first 5 days or so. We kept some of the books in the bathroom and he would look at them while he tried to go or we would read them to him to encourage it. Then we moved to asking him every 30 minutes if he had to go (not necessarily putting him on the potty) and if he didn’t, we would put him on the potty every 45 minutes to an hour. We mostly used the real potty, but would bring the small ones outside with us, in the car/stroller, on trips, to the beach, etc. for more on-the-go needs.
We used a reward system of treats and praise. He got a treat for every time he went on the potty (jelly beans or skittles), but he surprisingly got over this quickly and didn’t want them every time he went pee (because it’s very often those first few weeks). We also, of course, praised him a ton! You feel like a complete idiot cheering so emphatically every time they go potty, but it helps! Also, it was pretty entertaining hearing my husband do the cheering! 🙂 You will find that they start cheering you on when you go pee too which is hilarious and kinda cute!
After the couple bottomless days, we went straight to underwear. We did not use pull-ups. I understand if your situation doesn’t allow for that (school requires pull-ups, etc.), but it’s kind of a glorified diaper and they don’t really feel a difference. Clearly kids are potty trained all the time using pull-ups, but we did not use this approach. We continued to use diapers for nap and bedtime because he was still in a crib and couldn’t get out to go potty so I didn’t think it was necessary to waste money on pull-ups and they are less absorbent than diapers.
Overall, Madden did pretty well the first month. He went off to preschool three mornings a week and I think that helped him learn as well. He had a few pee accidents at the beginning of the year (some which were due to him splashing his pants with pee even though he made it to the potty… little boy problems), but nothing major and no poop accidents, which I’m sure his teachers were happy about!
Of course, he still has an occasional accident (it’s now April) and he did go through a regression phase a few months in where he would wait until his nap to poop in his diaper. That was the worst because he would proceed to touch it and wipe it all over things if he was still awake and start yelling “yucky, yucky!”. This prompted our transition to a toddler bed at the end of January so that he could get out of bed to go potty. The transition did not go very well sleep-wise (it’s going much better now that he’s in a twin bed), but potty training-wise he never pooped in his pull-ups during nap or at night!
P.S. This is where pull-ups came into the picture for us – when they are not sleep potty trained and can get out of the bed to go potty. Makes life MUCH easier to use pull-ups instead of a diaper for this phase.
After about a month of sleeping in a pull-up in a big kid bed, he continually woke up with it dry so we just went for it and let him sleep in underwear. He has yet to have a sleeping accident (knock on wood). He does use it as an excuse to wake us up bright and early though yelling at us in bed saying, “I have to go potty, and I need to brush my teeth!” followed by, “Can you make me waffles? Can I have a yogurt while I wait?”. He’s a funny boy. But, yay, good bye to all diapers/pull-ups months prior to him turning three!! Overall, I’m very happy with the age we chose to start potty training and will do the same for my second son.
Xo,
Hillary
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