A Little More on Potty Training

Just when you thought you could ditch the diaper bag, it’s time to potty train! Something I learned quickly with going out into the real world with a freshly trained child is that you have to be prepared. Suddenly I’m back to carrying a behemoth bag around everywhere just to cover my ‘in-case-of-emergency’ bases. And then there is a whole other list of items you might need for at home. Here are just a few items I recommend you stock up with before you ditch the diapers. 

Books (for you and baby):  

 1) Oh Crap Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki. 

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This is a pretty easy to read how-to guide and we’ve had great success with Forest following her methods. She also has a website and facebook page with lots of additional tips and videos. 

2) The Potty Train by David Hochman and Ruth Kennison

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Anything with a train is a huge hit with Forest and most of his 2 year old friends. It was nice to be able to reference this when trying to entice him to use the potty. 

3) Potty by Leslie Patricelli. 

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Cute, simple, and funny, this book has been a favorite for months. 

Things You'll Need at Home: 

1) A Potty Chair. We use this Baby Bjorn one. We got it in Orange to match the one in the Potty book that Forest loves so much.

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Before starting, I ideally wanted Forest to only use the big potty in the bathroom. We have the toddler toilet inserts (see #2) but decided to get a potty chair just in case. Turns out, it’s been essential to his success. 

He can use it independently which is so important when they are just learning to go and have some close calls. Plus they travel well and we’ve been able to take this Baby Bjorn from room to room as well on excursions where a bathroom might not be readily available.

2)Toilet inserts. 

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Eventually your toddler is going to make the jump up to the big toilet, and honestly it helped Forest on day 1 to make the connection since this is where he always sees his mommy and daddy do their business. 

3)Flushable Wipes. In every room of the house. 

4) Elastic waist pants. Toddlers are still learning to get their pants off in a jiffy so in order to encourage potty independence, stock up on pants (or dresses) that they can manipulate themselves. 

On the Go: 

1) OXO 2-in-1 Travel Potty Seat. 

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Thank goodness for this product. It fits onto any toilet seat and we’ve had a lot of success getting Forest to use public restrooms with it. It also can double as a free-standing potty seat. 

2) A plastic bag with a complete extra set of clothes in case of an accident. Throw in an extra plastic baggie or two to contain soiled clothes. 

3) Baby Wipes. Lots and lots of baby wipes….Forest has only had #2 accidents which as you can imagine are very messy. 

4)Post-its. These are good to stick over the automatic flusher sensors on public toilets. These understandably FREAK Forest out so if the toilet flushes while he’s on it he gets really scared and refuses to get back on the saddle. I read about this tip in Oh Crap Potty Training and it’s been a cool trick. 

General Potty Training tips: There are several things you can do pre-potty training that I think can make the process easier once it starts. 

1) Start working with them on taking their pants off. In order to use the potty independently, they are going to need to be able to do this pretty efficiently. You can start this months before you ever introduce a potty. 

2) Invite them with you when you use the bathroom. Toddlers are very monkey-see, monkey-do and they love to imitate their parents. Forest also seemed to register it very quickly when he saw his buddies using the potty. If you have a friend whose kiddos are potty trained and they're ok about your kid observing than this can be really helpful.  Give them lots of examples to model. Daniel Tiger also has an episode called ‘Prince Wednesday Uses the Potty’ which is a great conversation starter when you’re ready to start potty training. 

3) Start verbalizing their body functions. If you already know their pee/poop faces/dances then start narrating them when you see them. This helps them to start recognizing when they are going and this is the first step in potty training. Once the diapers are off, they will have an easier time recognizing and labeling the sensation of having to go. A few weeks before we officially ditched the diapers, we would let Forest wear big boy undies in the morning when we were at home. He knew to keep them dry and if he started to pee, he would stop himself and we’d finish up on the potty. 

Oh Crap Potty Training warns against this kind of casual, inconsistent training precursor but I thought it actually helped prime him in our case. Plus, even though it was a chaotic and busy time for us to seriously commit to potty training him, he was clearly ready and willing and I didn’t want to deny him the opportunity to try. 

Other suggestions once you are ready to start: The first few days of potty training felt like having a newborn again. I wanted to be able to just focus on Forest so I tried to have as many other things done and organized as I could beforehand. Think of it as a sort of nesting period. I made sure my house was freshly cleaned, all the laundry and dishes were done, our house was stocked with groceries and I even had a few meals tucked away in the freezer so that dinner wouldn’t take any time or attention away from Forest. 

I also suggest having a few at-home activities planned and have them organized and ready to go. We had some water-paint books, window gel stickers,puzzles and a new movie which were great things to keep him entertained all day without leaving the house.

Jonathan was a big help, but similar to having a newborn, I felt like his was a more supportive role whereas mine was more active. He was able to wash dishes or clean up after dinner while I stuck like glue to Forest so as not to miss any teachable moments. On day 3, Forest really had a handle on the potty training thing so Jonathan was able to take the reins a bit more and after about 5 days we were really able to start to relax and life started to get back to it’s normal rhythm. 

An update on our potty progress (Day 12): Forest is continuing to do well but we’ve definitely hit a snag with the pooping issue. He’s been trained for about a week and a half and has had 2 poop accidents in that time frame. If he’s naked, he will get to the potty in time 100% of the time, but with pants on he seems to get there just a smidge too late. I’m getting a little frustrated but keep trying to remind myself that it’s still early in the process and a few accidents here and there are to be expected. And the good thing is that he’s at least trying to get to the potty when the accidents occur. 

He hasn’t had a single pee accident since our very first morning so that is something to celebrate! He is almost completely self-initiating with both pee and poop, and for every poop miss there have been at least 10 successes, so he’s certainly on the right path. He has made it through a trip to the gym daycare and the church nursery with zero accidents. He is also getting really comfortable with peeing in public restrooms or in nature...

You can barely see it, but Jonathan is assisting Forest to pee on the hedges. We were on a walk far from a restroom and Forest insisted he needed to go! One of  the perks of having a boy is that they can basically go anywhere...

 Fingers crossed and prayers lifted that he continues to progress and solidify his skills. I am soooo sick of thinking and talking about potty training and sooooo glad that this is mostly behind us!