Potty Training Essentials | Our Experience

P O T T Y  T A L K

I asked for some potty recommendations back in May because I had set my mind to getting Madelyn potty trained as soon as school let out.  She was right at 2 years and 9 months old and we had two weeks of summer with not too much going on before we were heading to our first summer vacation.  I ended up going with no real plan or using any potty training books, but I did purchase a few tools to help me out.

Up until this point, Madelyn had never actually peed on the potty (maybe once actually at school); but she had shown some interest of sitting on the potty around age two.  I toyed around with the idea of actually training her then, but she really wasn’t completely ready and I didn’t want to waste the time.  I honestly liked her in diapers 😳 Sometimes it is just easier, especially when you are on the go.

Anyway, I knew summertime was the perfect solution and with a new baby coming in September; I wanted to make sure she was a professional on the potty by then!

W H A T   W E  D I D

We started the Tuesday after Memorial Day and I basically just sat in the bathroom with her all day (or so it seemed) 😂!  She wore these training panties to start out and we ended up with a couple of accidents on the first day and no pee on the potty! I was a bit frustrated…I’m not going to lie.  I knew that if I could just get her to pee on the potty once, we would be golden from that point on!

I used this potty training chart with stickers to get her excited about the potty.  We got to put a sticker on when she would sit on the potty and then we got to put a sticker on and get a special treat if she peed on the potty.  On Wednesday, day two, she wore her training panties and peed on the potty twice with ZERO accidents!!  It was awesome! She was all about these sour octopus candies (shown below) and her bro was right there to cheer her own so he didn’t miss out on candy too!  We spent the day at home and I would just ask her if she needed to pee a lot.  She loved sitting on the potty and drawing on her little chart.  When we finally had success, she was quick to learn.  She still took her nap in the pull-up and also for bedtime.  She saved her poo poo for when she had her pull-up on at nap time.  I figured I would tackle one obstacle at a time.

W H A T   W E  U S E D

Potty Hook– This is simple but nice to have hanging from the toilet to use for the potty training seat below.

Potty Training Seat– This helps them feel secure on the potty so they don’t fall in.

Step Stools– Perfect for getting themselves on the toilet seat and then also one for the bathroom sink to wash hands.

Potty Training Panties – These panties are great because they have some extra padding in the crotch to hold any accidents.

Potty Training Chart – This was a hit with her because its dry erase and you can write on it or add stickers to it.

Chart Stickers – We used these chart stickers for her chart and she loved them.

Baby Bjorn Training Potty – This was something I had bought when training Brody, my older son, but he never really used it.  Madelyn didn’t really use it much at first, but then she liked it during nap or bedtime when she needed to go pee by herself.

OXO 2-in-1 Travel Potty – I had also bought this with Brody to use on the go, but we really never needed it on the road.  I liked the idea of having it if needed.  Better than having to go #2 in public restrooms sometimes or if your kid is scared of the big potties.  The beauty of it is that it also works as a potty training seat like the one above.  So we use this upstairs in the kids bathroom.

N U M B E R  T W O

Speaking of #2, Madelyn took about two weeks before she ever did it on the potty.  I knew that was fairly normal based on the fact that my son took about 4 weeks before he ever did and he was older than her when we potty trained him.  I didn’t make a huge deal of the poo poo because I knew once she finally did it, she would be good to go.  While we were on our family vacation, she pooped on the potty for the first time.  We made a big deal of it, had a poo poo party and she was pretty good from that point on.  We had one poo poo accident that week where she didn’t make it to the potty in time and I just sat her on the toilet and cut her underwear on the sides and threw those panties away.

She started pooping on the potty regularly and then we went through one more little episode when we got home from vacation where she was trying to hold her poop again.  She came out of it quickly though.

N A P T I M E  &  N I G H T  T I M E

This one has really amazed me.  Even though for the first 3 weeks or so I always put her in a pull up for naps and bedtime, she would wake up dry MOST of the time!  It was crazy.  I couldn’t believe it.  My son just turned 5 and he was fine in underwear during naps, but he STILL sleeps in a pull-up at night and really shows no signs of getting out of them soon.  He is a heavy sleeper and he just always seems to wet his pull-up at night.  Madelyn naps in underwear and I’m pretty certain I could go ahead and stop putting her pull ups at night and she would be fine.  But I’m still a little scared and don’t want to be changing sheets every morning!

So that’s our story!  Every experience is a little bit different and every kid is different.  I chose to wait and potty train both of my kids until they were a little older because I wasn’t up for a bunch of accidents and wanted to make sure they were fully ready.  Madelyn amazed me at how quick she was self-sufficient at going potty and doing it all by herself (I still wipe her!) We are about 6 weeks into our journey or so and she has been so good at being proactive and finding the potty all by herself without me asking her if she needs to go!

I hope this helps! I’d love for you to share your tips below for other readers too!

My best advice??

Commit and then be consistent!  I wanted to give up on the first day because I was tired of sitting in the bathroom for so long, but I’m so glad it finally paid off!!