Potty Training

My daughter became curious about the toilet about a month ago. She’s was only 16 months at the time but my husband and I figured we should make the most of her curiosity and give it a try. Neither of us had experience with potty training children so we looked around online a lot to figure it out. Here are some tips that have been helpful for us.

Little Bribes

*Please do not use food! It encourages bad eating habits much too young.*

Kilynn loves one of my lotions so each time she goes to the bathroom in her potty, she gets to put on Mommy’s lotion. She loves it!

Frequency

Determining when to take Kilynn to the bathroom was the most problematic for us. Some articles say to take a child to the bathroom each time a parent goes. Other say take them every 30 minutes. After beginning to potty training, Kilynn started grabbing at her diaper when she wanted to go to the bathroom. We take her each time she asks and at roughly 20 minute increments.  

Kiddy potty or kiddy lid?

Chances are your child will have a preference. We chose to try a kiddy potty and Kilynn took to it quickly. She likes that her potty is just hers. I think it makes her feel special. We chose a kiddy potty because we were uncomfortable encouraging her to climb onto the toilet to use it.

Make it fun

We have races to the bathroom when it is time for Kilynn to go. She loves beating Mommy or Daddy to her potty. While she tries to go to the bathroom, we sing a potty song we made up and clap for a beat. She claps along and tries to join in the song. When she’s done (if she went or not) we praise her for trying and wash our hands. If she did go, she gets to use toilet paper to clean herself up (Mommy or Daddy wipe again to actually get her clean). She loves getting to use toilet paper like a big kid – it’s another little bribe, I guess.

Have patience

Some kids pick it up quickly while others take a long time. Kilynn has days where she wants to use the potty every time she needs to go and other days that she doesn’t want to use it at all. We don’t make her if she doesn’t want to but it can be frustrating because she is usually really good about it.

Here are some sites that have been helpful for us. Hope they help you too!

Help with potty training
Successful potty training for girls
Potty training tips for girls
20 best-ever potty training tips