My Ultimate Guide To Potty Training – Part 2

If you have read my previous post on potty training, you pretty much know about my experience of it and that i began just before we were travelling! Yes even my husband was horrified that i chose that time, but it turned out very well for us Alhumdulillah.

Let me just dive straight into that experience! In a sentence, it wasn’t as bad as i thought it could be! The key here is – trust your child and let them know that you trust them!! Do not doubt them by putting on pull ups or diapers. That’s just confusing.

I did all the same things i mentioned in the previous post here. Toilet right as we entered the airport. Toilet right before entering the boarding lounge (as they rarely have toilets in them). And if you have waited a long time in the lounge, then toilet as soon as you enter the plane (families board before others so you have an advantage here), otherwise toilet right before take off (talk to your cabin crew before hand and ask them when is the best time to go). And of course a toilet trip right before landing (trust me you don’t want a toilet training toddler telling you they want to go poop just as the plane is the middle of landing *yikes*)

Other precautionary steps are to keep at least 3 change of clothes and at least 3  waterproof mattress covers to cover the seat with. Yes i know toddlers don’t sit in one place, so keep wash clothes to clean up accidents while walking. That being said please don’t limit their fluid intake on board, as they definitely need it!

And then once in Florida, we took a road trip right up to Texas. Boy, that was one road trip of my life! 16 hours straight with a potty training toddler!! The potette plus saved my life seriously!! and so did the waterproof cover… and can i please talk more about the ipad and it’s baby sitting properties?! (i’m going to set off some perfect parents there ? ). The rules on the road trip were the same, we just used the potette plus instead of the public toilets (wish there was a potette plus for adults though…)

A word about naps and night time:

So you are giving the message here that, once the diapers are gone, they are gone! there are no exceptions, because adults have a hard time understanding exceptions sometimes, so how do you expect kids to understand them?

1. No pull ups/diapers during nap time or night time.
2. Give them a small goodnight talk about if they want to go potty they should tell mama (trust them!)
3. Take them to the toilet right before bed, and if you can then once before you go to sleep (which is hopefully much later than when they sleep! in my case… LOL! ). It sounds difficult to put a sleeping toddler onto the potty seat, but trust me they won’t even wake up completely and will understand the concept of potty training (you will not disturb their sleep seriously!)
4. Waterproof mattress cover is your friend my dear!
5. Keep the clothing light, sleeping in only undies is a good idea.
6. “Try” to limit fluids an hour before bedtime (as if that will happen ? )
7. Use layers of bedsheets and mattress covers to ease middle of the night sheet changes. Just remove the wet ones and you are good to go (and deal with them in the morning )
8. Give them time, they will figure it out eventually! Do not shame them, or compare them!

A word about the “equipment”:

No we are not sending out a space shuttle, but we are potty training and we do need something to do that! There’s a variety of stuff in the market that targets potty training toddlers, but seriously some things are just over rated, while others are under rated. Again just get whatever works for you! here are some ideas

1. Potty seat/Toilet seat reducer – if you would rather start with a potty seat and then transition to the toilet seat, be it! So there’s a variety of potty seats out there, right from very basic ones to the singing ones, to self cleaning ones, to the ones able to hold an ipad, to the ones with all kinds of characters on them. You name it! Again with the toilet seat reducers, it’s the same, a lot of variety in colors, designs etc. Then there is the potette plus (don’t i just love it?!) It is a potty seat, that doubles up as a toilet seat reducer! And it has it’s own liners, so you don’t have to worry about cleaning it up. Just tie up the liner and trash it!
2. Step stools – Good for the toddlers to reach the toilet seat and the wash basin. I got 2 separate ones so that i don’t have to keep moving one around.
3. Faucet extender – depends on your faucets, mine where too short and straight so my daughter’s hands did not really reach the water stream.
4. Soaps and lotions – Get the kid friendly ones and your child won’t refuse hand washing. Also the lotions to keep their hands from getting dry from all that washing.
5. Attractive undies – Use them as an incentive to get the diaper off!
6. Stickers and candy – Get stickers of their favorite characters, and any candy that is tiny and won’t add up to a sugar rush. You could use raisins if they like them. I used mini m&ms!
7. Anything to keep them sat on the toilet seat while pooping – books, bubble machine, ipad…whatever works
8. Cleaning supplies – for the home and separate ones for when you go out.
9. Mattress protectors.
10. Waterproof car seat protector.

Take a look at what apps I used for potty training my toddler.

A word for working mamas:

1. You don’t need to take days off just for potty training (well if you have enough days that you can waste then go ahead!) because you will not complete the process in a week or two. It takes months! Take the help of whoever takes care of your child when you are at work. Start the process on a weekend and then tell them your way of doing it.
2. I know things are already hard and adding a toddler who is peeing on everything possible to the mix does not sound appealing. But it won’t turn out that way trust me.

The final word…s :

1. It’s a long process Mama, and hard too, just hold on and sometime later you will wonder how did it all happen?!
2. Don’t compare your child to another (even among siblings) every child has their own pace, they are all unique!
3. You know your child best, so just do what you feel is right for them. If you feel they are not ready but they are 3, doesn’t matter! They won’t go to college in diapers! It’s ok!
4. Don’t stress. Don’t fret. Don’t be anxious during the process. Children tend to pick on our anxieties. All these things are counterproductive.
5. Be ready for accidents (lots of them). No need to change the interior of the home just for the sake of potty training! Keep a spare cloth and a good (fragrant) carpet cleaner for this purpose only. For Muslim mama’s, some scholars say you can wash/clean the area once for purity, others say 3 times, so just stick to 3 (sounds a lot, but hey we might loose weight this way lol)
6. If you are visiting somebody do tell them before hand that you are potty training your baby (and take those cleaning supplies with you!) Also you can take your toddler to the toilet more frequently than you normally do when visiting someone. But if an accident does happen, do not be embarrassed! chances are that they have kids of their own and have gone through the same process or will someday in the future. Besides, your embarrassment does not help your tiny tots fragile self esteem (but that doesn’t mean you tell your kiddo it’s ok! Just tell them why it’s wrong without shaming)
7. If you are an imperfect parent like me, you will have times, when you loose it! it’s ok! It’s easy to loose it when all you are talking (and dancing) about for weeks is pooping and peeing. If you did scream at your kid for having an accident, just go back later, apologise and tell them why it happened. Trust them Mama! They know more than us that nobody is perfect!
8. Be ready for lots of laundry. It’s easier to use the 15minute cycles on your washing machines (saves you the water and electricity bill) and keep a separate laundry bag for pee stained clothes, which can be washed in a single load.
9. Display the sticker sheet in a place where everyone can see it, tell your tot you are so proud of her! Use the help of friends and family, call them and let your kid tell them that they are “grown up” now and they go to the grown up toilet. Talk to friends/family about their progress in front of them. This will tell them that you are proud of them. One thing my daughter did was, every time she successfully went in the toilet at my mother’s home, she would come out and announce what she did to everyone, and in return everybody clapped for her and praised her. Helped her immensely!
10. Persist, persist, persist, persist,persist…………

Are you planning on toilet training your toddler soon? did you find this helpful? Mama’s of older kids, how was your experience? I would love to hear from all of you!! Until then, happy Potty Training!!

For further reading on the subject, i recommend this post.

 

featured photo credit: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/88916285@N00/8113790846″>258/366 – 12 September: Potty training</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a&gt; <a href=”https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/”>(license)</a&gt;

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