Potty Training — our style

When Ellie first starting wearing these babies around instead of diapers, it was weird. I couldn't really believe her diaper days were over. But now that the once intimidating potty training process is over, looking back, it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be.

In an effort to help anyone out there who will be potty training a toddler soon, I thought I'd share a few lots of tips that worked for us. Let me just stress the "worked for us" part. Every child's learning style is so different and as a parent, you will know what method will work best for your little one. This is just the way that worked well for our family.

I have heard a lot of people use and like the one or three-day potty training method, but I knew we needed to ease Ellie into the idea rather than go cold turkey and that with her, we would have more success in the long run if we let her take the time she needed. Also, I feel like not having a deadline took the pressure off us as parents and helped it be a less stressful situation for us.

First, I checked out a bunch of books from the library, knowing I would take bits and pieces from them but for the most part I'd use my judgement and Ellie's cues to guide us. My favorite books were "The No-Cry Potty Training Solution" and "Toilet Training the Brazelton Way." 

Once I read those, here are some tips that helped us:

• First and foremost, we made sure Ellie was ready for potty training and that we were ready to commit to it too. Online quizzes, pediatricians and the books I mentioned that can help with that.

• Next, we introduced her to the potty idea (which we had actually been doing for months prior) by: 

-Teaching her about the using the toilet process (we've never been shy about keeping the door open when we go)

-Ordering her potty seat online with her. This one has been perfect for us. You can get cheaper ones, but it's worth it to get a good quality one that stays securely on the seat. We talked up the fact that Ellie's very own potty seat was on it's way and that she could sit on it to go potty. It's also good to have a stool that your kid's feet can rest on so he/she doesn't have to strain, and so they feel more secure. Ours is a wooden 2-step one.

-Getting board books from the library about going potty. This helped her a lot to see that going potty was a normal next step and that she could do it. Her favorite book was My Big Girl Potty, but there are tons of good ones out there.

• We never forced her to sit on the potty — talking it up and being really positive about the whole idea was enough to motivate her to try it herself. We incentivized her with reading books every time she sat on the potty and giving her a jelly bean when she went. (We've since switched to Cookie Crisp to scale down on the sugar a little.)

• When she started going in the potty regularly, I took her to buy underwear and let her choose them. The winners? Tangled and Dora.

• When she had an accident, we didn't make a big deal out of it and stayed upbeat. We just had her help us clean it up and encouraged her to tell us next time when she felt it coming.

• We always keep a spare outfit and undies (including shoes and socks!) in the diaper bag and one in the car just in case.  

• We have a foldable potty seat that is super small, light and portable. I highly recommend something like this to make pottying on the go much more doable.

• Even though it was a little scary, once we stopped asking her every 5 minutes if she needed to go and let her tell us, potty training became "her" thing rather than something we were making her do. I decided we had to ease up once I saw it's potential to become a power struggle. I still ask her once in awhile and have to be sneaky sometimes by saying things like, "Mommy needs to go potty and I get a potty treat! Wanna come too?"
• If your toddler is sensitive to loud noises, be aware of the automatic flush public toilets. Once, one went off while Ellie was still sitting on it and it traumatized her and made her scared to go on toilets outside of the home for awhile. She's OK now, but I wish I had avoided that whole situation by covering the sensor with my hand until she got off.

Hopefully something here will be helpful to you.

Good luck!

{Sometimes, when Ellie puts her undies on unsupervised, they end up looking something like this.}