Potty Training: 8 Best-Ever Top Tips from Real Moms & Parents
Potty training is an exciting time – but also a challenging one! The constant need to change diapers is about to end, and if you can’t wait for your child to be relatively independent when it comes to going to the bathroom, you aren’t alone!
Of course, your excitement can lead to some frustration, too, especially if your child doesn’t pick things up quite as quickly as you’d like. Don’t forget that this is a pivotal time in their life and so you need to make it as easy and enjoyable-a-process as possible! To help you do just that, here are 8 of our best-ever top potty training tips.
8 Best-Ever Potty Training Tips
1. Don’t Start Too Early – Sick of changing dirty diapers? We get it! Once your child understands how to use the potty (and that they should!), you’ll be largely free of that chore. But it’s important to remember that the readiness of a child to potty train is dependent on their physical development, rather than their age. If you start this process too early, you’ll struggle to get results and may have problems later down the line.
2. Choose Your Language Carefully – Selecting certain “toileting” words to use may feel a little weird, but it’s important to encourage your child to express when they need to go and ask your child to let you know when they’ve used their diaper. Avoid using negative words like dirty or smelly – remember, you want your child to think of this as a positive experience!
3. Be Prepared to Take More Time – if you’ve ever had a puppy, you’ll know what it’s like to sit outside for 10 minutes waiting for something to happen. You may have the same thing for your child (sans sitting outside!), especially if you want them to go potty before you leave home, so set aside some extra time.
4. Use Potty Toys or Encouragements – You can get temperature changing stickers that reveal a picture when your child goes, but if that’s too distracting, try a rewards chart where they get a sticker. Make sure you make a fuss when things go right!
5. Don’t Be Distracting – Having a reluctant child who doesn’t want to sit on the potty can be difficult, but it’s best not to fill the area with toys, books, and other entertainment. While we want to positively enforce the experience, we don’t want it to be so exciting that they’ll only go if they’re desperate or if you catch them at just the right moment.
6. Move Quickly and Learn Their Signals – when you can see your child is starting to get antsy or go, quickly move them to their potty. If you don’t make it in time, don’t stress. Just tell them they should try to make it to the potty next time, and let it go.
7. #1 is Likely to Be Easier than #2s – Many parents find that pee is easier to master than poo, so don’t be frustrated. We can usually all go for a #1 when asked, but #2 isn’t something we can do on command, so don’t expect it for your child. Just encourage them to tell you when they need to go.
8. Use Easy to Remove Clothing – their clothes need to be easy to get on and off, with no complicated fastenings. It will seem funny trying desperately to undo belts and clips as your child shouts about needing to go later, but it won’t at the time! Make potty training easy on yourself by using clothes you can remove easily and, ideally, clothes your child can remove too so they can be independent.
If you’ve got visions of struggling with cute but difficult clothing, we’ve got just the clothes you need to make potty training easy! (ish!) One Kind makes sleepwear, rompers, and blankets that are made to hug your baby with the softest materials while giving them room to play and be kids. We design all our clothes to be easy-on, easy-off, with no complicated snaps or trims to get in the way during the learning process! You can find our pull-on bottoms here, our zippered rompers here, or click here to see the rest of the collection.
