Toddler Potty Training Tips

Getting Ready to Potty Train

I did a lot of googling when it came time to potty train my toddler, but my biggest advice is to trust your gut and don’t be afraid to introduce elements of potty training early! Keep your eyes out for early cues that your child might be interested and seize the moment to talk about going on the potty or even introduce a small potty into their bathroom (they don’t even need to use it yet!) just so they get used to seeing it there.

Turner started showing an interest around 20 months. At first I thought my mom was just being a typical grandma and hyping up her only grandchild. She would say things like, “Oh he’s so ready to potty train. He can get this so easily. He’s so smart.” And I was like yeah, yeah, said every grandma ever. But then I stopped and really paid attention. And he was indeed interested in learning about the potty. So we bought him a small potty and put it in his bedroom and read him books about going to the bathroom. Well, really we just read him Everyone Poops. That’s a really good one to introduce the idea in a fun and simple way. And sure enough, with a little encouragement he was using the potty before bathtime! We never forced it, we would just ask him if he wanted to and if he did - great! We would give him a ton of encouragement and praise. If he didn’t want to, we never made a big deal about it or tried to convince him. We just said “ok” and moved on.

When to Start Potty Training Your Toddler

When to start really potty training in ernest, is going to depend on your child. I don’t have to tell you, but I will, that every child is different and develops at a different rate. I knew I wanted to potty train, ideally, while I was still on maternity leave. Since we had introduced the potty so early, I felt that Turner was ready to give it a shot about a month after he turned 2 years old. For the weeks leading up to it, I talked to him about how we were going to start using the potty and we wouldn’t need diapers anymore. Turner has always done very well with absorbing information, so I feel that talking to him about the transition was the best way to get him ready.

What Potty Training Method to Use

Technically we followed the “3 Day Potty Training” Method. The idea is that you give your kid lots of liquids and set a timer for every 15-20 minutes and have them go to the bathroom. This worked well for Day 1. Day 2, he was completely over the whole every 20 minute thing and the fight wasn’t worth it to us or beneficial for getting him to enjoy this new situation and learn how to do it. So we moved the timer back to an hour, and as the day went on a little further back. We tried to listen to him if he didn’t want to go. Naturally, we had some accidents. Day 3 was the hardest because now he just didn’t want to go at all. This day we had some more accidents and then suddenly it clicked, probably cause he didn’t like having accidents.

Remember, NEVER make your child feel bad for having an accident. Get them to the potty to finish their business and clean things up without making any kind of big deal about it. There is no point in trying to make your kid feel remorseful when they don’t know how to control it yet. You want all things potty training related to be pleasant.

I would say after Day 3 he was pretty much potty trained. He still had a few accidents, but to be honest they were few and far in between. It seemed to happen if he got really upset about something.

Our biggest challenge was getting him to wear underwear. I had to call them “short shorts” which got them on, but then he wouldn’t put his normal shorts on so I had to call those “long shorts” to get him fully dressed.

Then he would get confused when he had to wear a diaper at naptime or nighttime. So we tried pull ups and he hated those so we said “F it” - he can just wear underwear at nap and nighttime. He’s done really well, I think we’ve had only two nap or night time accidents in the 3 months since we ditched diapers. Which I recognize is really an anomoly. I wasn’t expecting him to be night time potty trained at all… it just kinda happened and seemed to be how he wanted to do it. He’s an all or nothing kind of kid. To be honest, I had trouble accepting that we just needed to stop forcing pull ups or something on him because in my head, based on research, I thought he was too young to be able to hold it through nap or nighttime so I kept trying to force the pull ups on him which was creating an unpleasant experience and when we used diapers he would get attached to them again and want to keep wearing the diaper. So, against conventional advice - we went cold turkey - no diapers, no pull ups, no transitional pants or whatever and it worked for him. That takes me back to - TRUST YOUR GUT, MOMMA.

Tips & Tricks for Potty Training

Start with a small potty early on - when they are still impressionable and less strongwilled. LOL.
Encourage them to use the small potty once a day early on - make it fun!
Get fun underwear! We like these ones.
I said I wasn’t going to use treats to get him to use the potty. But we wouldn’t have been successful if we didn’t. He got one dark chocolate covered raisin everytime he used the potty. This worked wonders.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate with common things. In the first few weeks, heck even month, heck even now - we have to negotiate to ensure he goes to the bathroom. Oh, you want to watch Frozen. Sure thing bud, use the potty first.” “Oh, you want to go outside on the swing, sure thing bud, use the potty first.”
This advice is for after you’ve gotten through the inital stage of potty training - If you ask them if they want to go, 90% of the time they will say “No” don’t force it, instead say “Cool, let me know when you need to go.” For us, its about 1-3 minutes after that he tells us he needs to go. He just needs to feel like he has some control over the situation and say in what he is doing.
Follow accounts on Instagram like @megan_toddlershop for helpful tips and tricks and resources!