Knowing when to potty train can be confusing. How do you know your child is ready? What are the signs your baby is ready to potty train? If they are ready, how do you start potty training? If this subject is overwhelming to you, don’t worry! We will discuss all of this in this article. Are you ready to dive in? Let’s get to it!
Signs Your Baby Is Ready To Potty Train
When considering potty training your child, look for these specific signs. If your child displays these signs, that is a good indication they are ready and wanting to grow up! Take advantage of this before they change their minds and potty training doesn’t seem as exciting later in the future.
Is your child:
- Showing interest in the potty?
- Asking to use the potty? Maybe saying, “I have to wee wee!”
- Wanting to go into the bathroom with you when you have to go?
- Trying to take off their diaper?
- Going a few hours keeping their diaper dry?
- Able to follow simple instructions?
When To Potty Train
If you are wondering if you should wait for a certain age before starting to potty train your child, here is what I suggest. The earlier the better. If your child is showing interest and wanting to learn about using the big potty, take advantage of that! Start right away!
Perhaps some mothers prefer to wait to potty train their child. Maybe there is an infant in the house and you’re just not ready to tackle another project quite yet! Or maybe you know your family is about to move, and you would prefer to wait until after life settles down again. Those are all good reasons to wait, and there’s nothing wrong with waiting. You want to make sure you and your child are ready to ditch the diaper before starting!
How To Potty Train
When it comes to the process of potty training, you make the calls. You know your child best and know how they will best learn. I will share with you some approaches and what has worked great for me and my child!
1. The Bare Bum Approach
Here’s what I call “The Bare Bum Approach”. With this approach, your child learns a negative association to not using the potty. Here’s what happens. Your child walks around the house with only a shirt on. If they were to pee themselves, they would get all wet. The idea is that this would be uncomfortable for them. Hopefully the sensation of peeing themselves would be very disliked. As you take them to the potty after they peed themselves, they would learn it would be best to use the potty instead of peeing on themselves. You can also proactively take your child to the potty every 20-30 minutes throughout the day.
Pros
- Child may learn quickly to like the potty and dislike peeing themselves.
Cons
- Will need to lay towels or plastic down around the house.
- May need to confine your child to one section of the house.
- Not practical if you have to go out of the house (i.e. shopping)
- Can be very messy.
- May require more cleaning than some want.
2. The Copycat Approach
Next is the approach I like to call the “Copycat Approach”. This is the approach I used with my daughter when she was a little over 1 year old. We had great results from this!
With this approach, you can start even before your child is showing interest in the potty. What you do is every time you have to go to the bathroom, you take your child with you. (This may not work with boys if you are uncomfortable with that idea.) All your child does is observe and talk with you about the potty. You can explain to them what you are doing. If they want to flush the toilet or wash their hands with you, let them.
The idea is that they get early exposure with little to no pressure. As they show more interest in the potty, you move forward. Once my daughter was asking to use the potty and washing her hands every single time with me, I knew she was ready to ditch the diaper! My daughter was fully potty trained (minus wiping herself and washing her hands independently), by 2 years old! She could pull her pants down, go potty and wash her hands with my help. The point is she knew the steps and understood when to go potty! She loved it!
Feel free to proactively take your child to the potty every 20-30 minutes throughout the day. This helps remind your child to listen to their body. If you add a reward system, which is discussed below, it will reinforce using the potty!
This approach was super simple for me too. I bought some pull-ups and a child’s potty seat. Every time I went to the bathroom, she would sit down on her potty too! We would wash our hands together and go about our day.
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Pros
- No pressure approach
- No mess around the house
- Easy for you
- More fun for your child
Cons
- May not work for little boys to go to the bathroom with their Mamas, and vis versa.
- Some may not want to have another little potty in the bathroom for the child. Maybe some prefer just a potty seat to go on top of the potty.
3. The Let’s-See-How-You-Do Approach
Thirdly is the “Let’s-See-How-You-Do Approach” to potty training. With this approach, you simply put your child into big kid underwear and see how they do. Of course you want to prepare your child for this by saying goodbye to the diaper, talking to them beforehand about using the potty, and that sort of thing.
However, with this approach, there is less structure. When your child seems ready to ditch the diaper, you give them big kid underwear and see how they do. If they pee themselves, you encourage them in what they did well. However, you also encourage them to use the potty next time they feel like they need to go pee. You may want to have them sit on the potty after they pee themselves and encourage them to use it if they feel the need to pee.
Also, you can proactively take your child to the potty every 20-30 minutes throughout the day. Or you can decide not to. This approach is super more relaxed and puts your child in more control. This approach is good for older kids who have still yet to learn to be potty trained. Maybe they don’t want as much adult supervision and would do really well with more independence.
Pros
- Good for older kids who want less supervision and more independence.
- Less structure – some kids may like this approach more than others
Cons
- Less structure – some kids may do better with more structure
- Can be messy – not using a pull-up can mean more mess to clean up in the potty training process
- Some moms may not want extra laundry to clean
No Turning Back!
Once you and your child decide it’s time to ditch the diaper, do not return to the diaper! Saying, “Bye-bye, diaper” means no more. That season of life has officially ended, and a new chapter is beginning! If you do turn back to the diaper, your child is going to get confused and may have an even harder time ditching the diaper next time.
Let’s say you need to go shopping for the week but you know your child isn’t potty trained yet. What should you do? Buy some quality pull-ups to help you out. Your child will still be able to pull them down like underwear and go potty. If they have an accident in public, no problem!
Check out below to find quality pull-ups and overnight pull-ups mothers love!
Add A Reward System!
Adding a reward system to your potty training efforts will help make the whole process fun and exciting for your child! Personally, I tried really hard to stay away from candy and food as a reward for my daughter. Simply because I did not want to give her candy all throughout the day!
Instead, I got a potty training chart with stickers. Every time she used the potty, I let her put a sticker on her chart. If she went poop and pee, I let her have two stickers. If you have a girl, she may enjoy being a potty princess!
Use words as a positive reward system! While they are sitting on the potty, you can tell them, “What a big girl/boy you are!”, “I am so proud of you!”
What You’ll Need
Child’s potty or potty seat. If you are taking the “Copycat Approach” to potty training, you will definitely need the child’s potty. This is so you and your child can go potty at the same time.
Pull-ups. Nigh time pull-ups are also great to have on hand! You don’t want to return to using the diaper. If you do, it can make your child confused and cause potty training to be even harder next time. Instead, get pull-ups you love. They will allow your child to still learn to use the potty, but keep their clothes and bedding dry!
Add a reward system. Potty charts are great because they help your child learn to love using the potty! With potty charts, your child will be able to put a sticker on their chart by themselves. This is fun for them! They will want to use the potty again in order to be able to put another sticker on their chart.
Secondly why potty charts are so great is they allow your child to see their progress as they get more stickers. This is really exciting for them, and for you!
Finally, having a reward system gives your child positive reinforcement for going to the bathroom.
Be sure to encourage your child as well! Say, “You are such a big girl/boy!”, “I’m so proud of you!”, or “You’re doing great!”
Summary
After reading this article, you know understand the signs your baby will give when they are ready to potty train. You also understand three different approaches to potty training and the pros and cons of each one. Additionally, you know what you will need for our potty training journey. This includes a toddler potty or potty seat, pull-ups, and a reward system of some kind.
It is very important to stay consistent with your child. They will learn better and faster if they understand what the rules are for going potty and where not to go potty. Encourage them if they have an accident, tell them what they did well, and try again. There is always next time to improve!
You and your child can do this! You’re doing great, Mama!
Leave A Comment Below!
After reading this article, what are you excited for with potty training your child? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!
Want To Know More?
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