One Simple Change Made the Difference: How We Potty Trained with Pull-Ups®

February 19, 2015 · by Tiffany Merritt · 8 Comments

After going back and forth with Layah for over a year on a “laid back” potty training approach, I threw my hands in the air and decided to try something new: we just stopped using diapers cold turkey. I made peace with having a bit of a mess to clean up during this transition, and I also purchased some Pull-Ups® Training Pants for night-time, when I know it is harder for toddlers to go accident-free, at least in the beginning of the effort. Pull-Ups® had recently reached out to partner together for a post since they knew we were still in the midst of potty training, and I decided that now was as good a time as any to try a different approach since Layah wasn’t fully committing to being out of diapers. Want to hear about what happened when we simply removed diapers from the equation?

Short Answer: It Worked!

I kept my explanation of the changes we were making easy breezy with my daughter, and I had lots of very cool new things to show her, too. I laid out her super cool character underwear for day time and I also chose the Pull-Ups® Learning Designs Training Pants so that she would be drawn to the designs on them, as well. Doc McStuffins and Ariel are some great new characters you’ll find on the designs for the girls, and the boys have Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Lightning McQueen. I explained that we would wear character underwear until we had an accident, and then if we had an accident, we would take a break and switch to underwear that didn’t have a design on it.

The main thing Layah was struggling with up to this point was pooping in the potty. This is a major sticking point for a lot of kids. She would ask for a diaper and we would often cave and give her one because let’s be real: who wants to clean poop out of underwear? It’s not high on my list of things I’m interested in doing.

So this time I explained to her that mommy and daddy and big sister were here to help her all day long and to get her to the potty any time she wanted to try, and that it was totally fine to try and not get the poop out on the first try. We could try again and again, no problem! BUT...if she pooped in her character underwear, unfortunately they would get so dirty that we would have to throw them away. I was VERY careful with my explanation of this because I did not want to make Layah feel any sort of shame. I was simply experimenting with a different consequence, as the previous consequence for pooping in her underwear, which was to help us clean it up, didn’t seem to be having much of an impact. And to be honest, I wasn’t so sure that she would care at all whether or not her character underwear got tossed in the garbage.

But guess what? She NEVER pooped in her pants again. She even took herself to the potty several times that first day until she was successful. And OH MY GOSH did we throw an impromptu party for that kid once she pooped in the potty. You would have thought that we had won the lottery by the level of celebration happening!

To further boost Layah’s confidence once she conquered her big hurdle of pooping in the potty, we made use of Pull-Ups® Training Pants at bedtime. We simply called them night time underwear and showed her that you put them on and take them off the same way. We talked about how it would be fine to take trips to the potty during the night and how she could call for us if she needed help. For the first few nights, we were getting up to do a few potty sessions with her and she did wake up a few times having gone potty in her sleep. But she very quickly started to shift to waking herself up and going potty all by herself.

And now? More nights than not, she makes it through the entire night completely dry, and she is good about taking herself potty first thing in the morning. Our youngest is now potty trained.

photo credit: BLUE SKY2 via photopin (license)

It took forever and a day, but once we changed the tactic around and simply removed the crutch (diapers), the process wrapped up very quickly. If you are just getting started with potty training instead of being in the thick of it, you might want to think about starting with Pull-Ups® full-time while your child adjusts to learning how to start using the potty. Then you can gradually start introducing underwear during the day time until your child is in underwear 100% of the day, and after that, tackling night time potty training will likely not take very long, either. Pull-Ups® are a great addition to the potty training experience because they get kids started right away with training on how to be independent by taking their underwear off and putting it back on (thanks to those nice, stretchy sides) while also offering a level of protection against those accidents that are frequent in the beginning.

Special Coupon Offer

If you are ready to ditch diapers and give this approach to potty training a try, be sure to get the awesome coupon for Pull-Ups® Training Pants (size Jumbo or higher) currently being offered. You can take $2 off, which is great, and if you share the coupon via social media, you get an upgrade to a $3 off coupon! .

The Pull-Ups® Big Kid Academy

If you want a customized road map for your potty training journey, be sure to enroll in the Big Kid Academy at Pull-Ups.com. It’s totally free, and totally helpful, as you’ll find activities and advice perfect for wherever you may find yourself on the road to potty training. Parents can find expert advice there, too! And don’t miss out on the Pull Ups® Time to Potty App! Your toddler probably already wants to play with your phone, so you might as well bring in some helpful potty training resources during phone time!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pull-Ups®.

Another Resource

If you are in need of a resource to help you kick potty training into high gear, I have heard RAVE reviews for blogger Becky Mansfield’s ebook, Potty Train in a Weekend. Definitely check that out if you have a feeling that with the right approach, your little one can finish up potty training quickly!

7 Ways to Make Potty Training AWESOME With #CtnlCareRoutine

February 24, 2014 · by Tiffany Merritt · 5 Comments

This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Cottonelle but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #CtnlCareRoutine http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

So as many of you might recall, we’ve been working on potty training with Layah for quite a few months, now. We took a laid-back approach with our first child even though we started really early. It worked beautifully, as she was out of diapers by the time she was 20 months old.

Layah is now 21 months old, and is still in diapers. I noticed that we seem to have more success with her when we really make the potty experience special. We no longer have a winter wonderland in our bathroom (though it was there for 6 weeks, so trust me, it had its run!). But perhaps I could think of something else that would be fun?

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to the 7 things that are working for us right now.

1. Set the scene. Perhaps you call it a potty palace (that’s our term for it). Maybe it’s a big kid bunker. It could even be a toilet tent. Whatever you choose to call it, just make sure it is a special space that will pique the interest of your child, and make them feel happy just for being there. Layah hangs out in this space I set up for her ALL THE TIME, and much of that time she spends sitting on the potty. Score!!!

2. Have the right tools. Layah has always loved wipes for some reason. They just make the kid happy. Even when she is in the regular bathroom and I reach for a roll of Cottonelle, she calls the toilet paper “wipeys.” Cottonelle actually has an entire Clean Care system to help keep bums clean (little ones AND big ones!) and I have found the Cottonelle Cleansing Cloths to be extra useful during potty training. As Layah practices wiping herself, the wipes are fun for her to use, and can help her be more aware of how much contact she has actually made with her body. I personally have found that she does a better job with this product than with toilet paper alone.

3. Sticker charts rock. Kids love to see the progress they have made, so be sure to get a pack of stickers, as well as some sort of potty training chart.

4. Reward your child’s efforts. I’m not big on bribing, but let me tell you, putting out some chocolate in plain view and informing your child that she can have a piece once they successfully potty WORKS. Layah was thrilled with the promise of an M&M, and didn’t leave her seat until she earned one! 🙂

5. Involve friends. Darah and Layah both seemed to love the idea that their stuffed animals also went potty, so this time around, I got a doll potty for Layah’s BFF, Doggy. Now they can hang out together in the potty palace!

6. Provide some reading material. Yep, even little ones like to do some reading while they do their business! Layah has a heightened interest in potty training books while sitting on her throne, so I recommend that you have at least one book of this type in your assortment. My top picks are Uh Oh! Gotta Go! and Potty.

7. Decorate to motivate. Layah absolutely loved seeing big girl underwear decorating her potty palace. I reminded her about how she would get to wear them once she started using the potty regularly. She was so thrilled to hear it!

All the special elements in the potty palace are making Layah feel very excited about potty training. And the Cottonelle Clean Care routine is helping to ensure confidence and true cleanliness! But this routine isn’t just for little ones making the transition to using the toilet. It’s a great routine for anyone!

Book Recommendation

Finally, I want to share a resource for the parents! If you are working hard on potty training right now and need some help figuring out how to wrap it all up and be done, I highly recommend Potty Train in a Weekend by fellow blogger Becky Mansfield. It’s a great affordable resource that you can download as soon as you purchase it. It gets rave reviews from parents everywhere who aren’t sure how to keep potty training from going on and on forever!

So what about you? Have you tried the Cottonelle Clean Care Routine, and started using Cleansing Cloths in the bathroom? If you are potty training (or soon to be potty training) do you think adding them to your process would help your child feel more comfortable and confident? Any other potty training tips out there for other parents in the trenches???

Potty Training: How I Get My Kids to Use the Potty So Early

September 3, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 55 Comments

Potty training is happening in my home once again. Layah has been working on how to use the potty for a month, now. I should probably mention for all the new readers out there that Layah is just shy of 16 months old.

Do you think I’m crazy/silly/delusional for potty training such a young toddler? It’s cool. You wouldn’t be the first!

But the fact of the matter is this: our first child was 100% potty trained by 20 months using the same method that we are using now, and so far, so good with the second one. So for those of you out there who are interested in potty training tips, especially for younger toddlers, I’d love to share with you what we do!

How to Potty Train

Let me preface by saying this: every child is different. I am not claiming to have a method that will work for every child. But I don’t think my children are exceptionally gifted or exceptionally rare when it comes to potty training abilities. I think that early potty training is a possibility for many children if they are given the opportunity to try it out! I also think that parents need to read up on different approaches and develop a strategy BEFORE their child is ready to potty train. You want to be prepared so that if your child starts to show readiness for using the potty, even before you thought they might, that you are ready to get started!

I would call our approach “laid-back” early potty training. This is not the method for anyone who wants to be all done in 3 days or 24 hours or anything like that. We worked on potty training with our first starting at 13 months and while she was all done by 20 months, you can see now that the process of potty training took 7 months. But it also came without any tears and with remarkably few accidents. Here’s what it did take: LOTS AND LOTS of time in the bathroom, sitting on the potty. Reading books. Waiting.

What you need:

1. an infant potty seat. We have a two-story house, so we actually have two! Our current favorite is one Prince Lionheart recently sent our way, the pottyPOD Basix (I always shop at Amazon, but JCPenney also carries this particular seat). It is very important for a child to have a seat that they can hop on and off that is at their level. It gives them more of a sense of control, and also rapidly increases their comfort level with potty training. We had the potty seat out for a few weeks before we even talked about it with Layah, giving her time to get used to seeing it and to develop her curiosity about it, without feeling stressed.

2. sign language. Communication is a key part of potty training, no matter the age. Your child needs to be able to tell you when s/he needs to use the bathroom, or when s/he just used the bathroom (either in a diaper or in the potty). We started teaching baby sign language potty training terms to Layah at the same time that we introduced the potty seat. Since she already uses sign language, she was very quick to pick up on the sign for “potty” and within a month, was using the sign gleefully any time she sat on the potty. She also started telling us when she just went potty in her diaper. That’s a HUGE step forward for potty training, as a child has to be aware of her bodily functions before she can exercise control over them.

3. a potty schedule. Currently we are in the phase of potty training where we put her on the potty as soon as she wakes up in the morning, as well as right before bed. We have a pile of books in the bathroom to read to her while she sits (be sure to have a potty time book in the pile!). The longer we can get her to sit there, the more likely she will go potty. But we don’t force it. If she is adamant about being all done with her potty time, we tell her that we are going to put a diaper on her now, and then we go on about our day. Currently, she is using the potty about 25% of the time that we put her on it, which isn’t too bad!

After your child gets very used to morning and evening potty sessions, begin to incorporate potty time 10 minutes after every meal that you are together. I am just about to get started with this phase, and it will involve setting the timer so that I don’t forget! You will notice your potty success rate go up dramatically when you add this step in, and along with that success, please do heap on the praise for your child for using the potty. This will build their confidence and their own joy about using the potty instead of their diaper.

4. a plan for wrapping things up. We knew that our first was ready to totally finish her potty training once she started going to a corner and hiding when she pooped. So at that point, I told her all about big girl underwear and how she was ready to start wearing it because she knew when she needed to potty, she knew how to tell us, and she even knew how to sit on her potty seat. Over a 2 day period, we gave Darah lots of water and juice and put her on the potty every 2o minutes on day one, and every 30 minutes on day 2. She wore big girl underwear all day. And she had 2 accidents on the first day. She actually told me about them, believe it or not! She was accident-free the second day.

Overnight Potty Training Tips

After she was fully potty trained during the day, we immediately began potty training for night-time. She has been receiving a bottle before bed, so over a 4 day period, we reduced the amount of milk she got in her bottle. And I’m going to tell you the truth, folks. She was cool with it for the first 2 days, but by day 3 she was NOT happy with how little milk she was getting. This was the only time in the whole potty training experience that crying happened, and it wasn’t because of having to use the potty, but rather, because of giving up her bottle. BUT…the drama was over fairly quickly, and because she was no longer drinking 6 ounces of fluids right before bed, she pretty much stopped using the bathroom at night! I do brag about the fact that we never purchased a single package of Pull-Ups. Our checking account was SO thankful! I will say that at 20 months, Darah did sometimes wake up in the middle of the night and ask to go potty (we could hear her thanks to the monitor). So be prepared for possible middle of the night potty breaks.

So that’s how we potty trained our first by 20 months, and it is the path we are currently on for our second. It definitely takes a lot of time, but it is a powerful example of just what little ones can accomplish if you give them the chance!

Looking for a Different Approach?

I fully understand that the approach we took with potty training isn’t right for everyone. If you are looking for something a little different (perhaps for an older toddler who might be ready to train quickly). In this case, I’ve heard rave reviews about blogger Becky Mansfield’s ebook, Potty Train in a Weekend. It’s definitely worth a look to see if that’s a better option for you!

Other Resources

Essential Oils and Overnight Potty Training

Affiliate links may be included, always at no cost to you!

How to Take the Ick Out of Potty Training (Giveaway!)

March 12, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 45 Comments

Any parent will tell you that one of the many joys of this job includes having to deal with lots and lots of poo and pee. There’s just no nice way to put it, people. You’ll be wiping it off bottoms for YEARS. Potty training, for this reason, is a very exciting time for many parents. You are inching your way toward freedom from this job (sort of…you still have to do a LOT of teaching about how to wipe, but that’s a topic for another post…).

However, potty training is also sort of gross, because if you have one of those potty seats, which we used and highly recommend, you have to deal with what has been deposited there every day. Multiple times a day. You dump, you flush, and then you have to wipe. It’s pretty nasty. But what choice do you have?

You actually DO have a choice, as it turns out! There’s a fantastic ECO-FRIENDLY product on the market called ToddleGreen Flushable Potty Liners, and oh my goodness I wish they had been around while Darah was potty training.

ToddleGreen is the very first flushable potty liner, designed specifically for toddler potty chairs.

Yes, you really and truly can flush the liner! It is 100% biodegradable, water-soluble, non-toxic and sewer/septic safe. This is in sharp contrast to plastic, which can take between 500-1000 years to decompose.

You will save yourself SO much time by using these liners. You don’t have to clean, scrub or sanitize the potty chair after each use. Let me tell you, based on my experience with potty training, that is one chore I would be DELIGHTED to take off my daily to do list! ToddleGreen products can be purchased for $11.95 on the site’s website or on Amazon.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a box of ToddleGreen Potty Liners!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.

Thanks to ToddleGreen for sponsoring this post and giveaway. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.