Leaving the house when you’re potty training can be scary, but it doesn’t have to be when you’re prepared! Make sure have these diaper bag essentials for potty training packed, and you won’t worry about accidents on-the-go anymore!

There’s no such thing as casual potty training.

At least not successful casual potty training.

We’re potty training our third child, and if there’s anything I’ve learned over the years, it’s that in order to be successful with potty training, you have to really commit and go all in.

Instead of being cautious and putting diapers or a pull-up on our son when we leave the house, I’ve been keeping him in his undies. Yes, that does mean there’s a potential risk of accidents outside of the house, and yes, that can be terrifying and messy and complicate things.

But if you stock your diaper bag with these essentials for potty training on-the-go, it will be a lot easier to commit and potty train your child while still leaving the house.

Here are some diaper bag essentials for potty training that I highly recommend you stock in your diaper bag for trips out of the house!

Diaper Bag Essentials for Potty Training

A wet bag

This could be a plastic grocery bag or something fancier like these wet bags that are meant for storing soiled cloth diapers. As long as you can put wet or possibly stinky undies or shorts inside without getting the rest of your diaper bag wet and stinky.

Pants that are easy to put on

When you’re potty training, pants that are easy for your child to put on and take off by themselves are your best bet. And it’s especially helpful to have ones that are simple when you’re on-the-go and need to change your child. Stretchy waistbands aren’t just for Thanksgiving anymore.

An extra shirt

Most often, this won’t be needed, but especially when you’ve got a little boy who is potty training, sometimes their stream can go up a little too high and get on their shirts. So make sure you have a backup just in case!

Baby wipes

Besides obviously wanting these on hand in case of any poop accidents, any mama who has potty trained a child knows that when your kid pees their pants, it’s uncomfortable. Having some baby wipes to wipe down their legs after they have an accident is important for your child’s comfort post-accident.

Clean undies

Or, I supposed, a clean pull-up, but we personally aren’t using pull-ups this time because in our experience, they feel too similar to diapers. ANYWAY, you’ll obviously need some clean undies in your diaper bag when you’re potty training.

Little rewards

Rewards are a big part of potty training for us, even if all that means is a single M&M after using the potty. And if your kid is anything like mine, they will ask you for a reward every single time they use the potty, whether you’re at home or away. Keep something small in your bag for them (even if it’s just a few chocolate chips) or you might be faced with a tantrum followed by the purchase of expensive ice cream.

Sanitizing wipes to wipe the toilet, if needed

You know how sometimes you don’t even want to sit on the toilet seat because it’s so disgusting? Now think about your child sitting and touching and moving all around on that same toilet seat. Keeping a few sanitizing wipes (like Clorox wipes, Lysol wipes, or a small pack of ancibacterial Wet Ones like these) in your bag in case of extremely gross toilets can definitely help. Especially if your child needs to use the bathroom at a gas station or (please, no!) a porta-potty.

Socks

You never know how full your child’s bladder is going to be when they have an accident, and sometimes it runs all the way down into their socks. Keep an extra pair in your bag, just in case.

Disposable or washable changing pad

One thing I’ve always struggled with is when kids poop their pants in public. I have this traumatizing memory of my oldest son when we were at Disneyland for the first time standing on a bench by the Monsters Inc. ride telling me he pooped his pants. Have you ever taken off poopy underwear without getting some on your child’s legs? Have you ever been able to cleanly wipe your child’s poopy bum while they were bending over? It’s a struggle.

My solution is to use a disposable or washable changing pad (or honestly, even a puppy potty training pad like this) so you can put your child on their back and lift their booty up to clean everything. You definitely won’t want to have them just lay on the ground, and sometimes it’s too late to or too embarrassing to go out of the stall and use the baby changing table, and this is a quick solution! Just clean your child up and toss the pad in the trash or washer! Easy peasy!

I honestly think potty training is one of the hardest parts of parenting. It takes a lot out of you, it’s a full-time commitment, it’s exhausting, stressful, and you never know how long it’s going to take. But the reward that comes at the end, AKA having a child who uses the toilet, is definitely worth it. Obviously.

Hopefully these diaper bag essentials for potty training will help make it easier for you to keep up the potty training even when you’re on-the-go! Life doesn’t stop just because you’re potty training!

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Want to know two words guaranteed to give any parent anxiety?

Potty training.

Potty training is such a huge, difficult, stressful, important milestone for kids. Every kid handles it differently, and every kid gets potty trained on their own schedule. Our oldest son was potty-trained by the time he was three, and our daughter didn’t get potty-trained until she was almost three-and-a-half years. 

Our youngest son will be three in January, and now that we’ve settled back into our school routine and feel pretty normal again, we’ve started thinking about potty training him.

And yes, in case you’re wondering, it still stresses me out.

Fortunately, I made myself a lot of notes and wrote a lot of posts while my other two were potty training, so I have been doing a lot of reading and studying up to make sure that we’re successful and I know what I’m doing.

One of the most important things (and also potential roadblocks) for potty training is getting your toddler excited about potty training. If your toddler isn’t excited and on board, I can almost guarantee you that potty training isn’t going to be pleasant or successful. 

Today I wanted to share seven tips to help you get your toddler excited about potty training so that when you actually start, you’ll have a better chance at success!

How to Get Your Toddler Excited About Potty Training

1. Talk it up.

Talk all about how cool potty training is, how their favorite characters use the potty, how their friends and family use the potty, how they can pick out big kid undies when they get potty trained, and how they can get a big reward when they get potty trained (if that’s your thing). Just make it seem like the coolest thing and remind them how important and awesome it is. I know “everybody’s doing it” isn’t generally a good reason to do something, but potty training is an exception!

2. Make a potty chart.

Every kid loves getting to add a sticker to a special chart when they accomplish something, so use that for potty training! You can either buy a potty chart on Amazon or draw one yourself on some posterboard. I drew my son a big train that he got to put stickers on, and my daughter had a castle chart that she put stickers on every time she went potty. Either way, hang it up on the wall by the bathroom so they can see it and get excited about starting every time they walk by!

3. Read about using the potty.

If you don’t want to buy books about potty training, check some out from your local library! Our oldest son loved My Big Boy Potty (and there’s a girl version, My Big Girl Potty), and there are tons of others out there. The key is to keep potty training at the front of their mind and remind them how great it is!

4. Watch shows about using the potty.

Our favorite potty show is from Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. In the episode Prince Wednesday Goes to the Potty/Daniel Goes to the Potty, both Prince Wednesday and Daniel Tiger learn about going to the potty and how important it is to stop and go right away when you need to go. And I promise you’ll be singing the song years later. 

5. Be positive about potty training.

If your child senses that you’re dreading it, they’re not going to be excited. So try to stay positive and don’t talk about how hard it is or how hard it was for someone else or for older siblings. You want your child to associate good feelings with potty training so they want to try it!

6. Don’t shame them.

One thing I’ve learned is that kids aren’t going to get excited about potty training just because they think that pooping in their diaper is what babies do. Don’t tell them they’re a baby for going in their diaper, don’t tell them that they’re yucky or stinky because they still wear diapers, and don’t make them feel bad about not being potty trained yet. If you’re going to tell them anything, focus on how big kids wear undies and use the potty. That way they’ll want to be a big kid instead of feeling shame about wearing a diaper. 

7. Let them pick out a potty seat.

I speak from experience here. Don’t buy a portable potty that you have to clean out every time your child goes. Instead, get a potty seat that goes directly on the toilet. Even better, let your child pick out what potty seat they want! Our daughter picked a pink and purple Paw Patrol seat, and it got her excited about going to sit on it. Involving your child in every step is going to help increase their excitement about potty training!

One more quick tip. If potty training doesn’t work the first time, don’t stress. It’s okay to take a break and try again. Your child might just not be ready, and that’s not on you or on them. Every child potty trains at a different age and at different speeds. Our son took a few months and was accident-free by his third birthday. After several failed attempts, our daughter finally potty trained over a weekend and was accident free at three-and-a-half years. 

Don’t push potty training until your child is ready, because if it’s a negative experience for you, and especially for them, it’s just going to be harder!

Now, fellow mamas in the trenches, I wish you the best of luck! We’re definitely in this together and our kids will all get potty trained eventually, right?!

The post How to Get Your Toddler Excited About Potty Training appeared first on Life With My Littles.

There are probably a hundred different ways to potty train a child. Which makes sense, because no child is going to potty train the exact same way, in the exact same amount of time, and at the exact same age.

In February, we finally discovered the potty training method that worked for our daughter in less than a week. And it has been amazing.

That being said, this method might not work for your child. If it doesn’t, that’s okay. We tried to potty train our daughter at least three or four times before she finally got it down. I’ll say it again: no child is going to potty train the exact same way, in the exact same amount of time, and at the exact same age.

So if you’re here looking for a new method to try, you’re in the right place. Make sure you’ve got everything you need on hand and you’ve got realistic expectations, because potty training is hard. Here’s how we potty trained our daughter in less than a week:

1. We committed. Besides your child’s readiness, your commitment to potty training is the most important thing in getting your child trained. If you give up after a day, it’s not going to happen. But if you keep at it, it will.

2. We made her sit on the potty every thirty minutes. This is my big tip right here. We set a timer and made her sit on the potty every thirty minutes. Be very firm about this, even if they don’t want to. It’s okay to bribe them by letting them watch a quick little video on your phone if it means they’ll sit on the potty.

3. We kept our routine. During the week we were potty training, we continued to go places, we just stayed on our schedule. Every thirty minutes, we had our daughter try to use the potty. I took her at Target, we took her to gas stations when we went on a day trip, I took her at the start and the beginning of her dance class, and I took her when we went out to eat. Don’t feel like you have to stay home just because you’re potty training.

4. If she didn’t go potty, we had her try again in 15 minutes. In the beginning, we would have our daughter sit on the potty, she wouldn’t go, and then a few minutes later, she’d pee or poop her pants. So we quickly realized that if she didn’t go, we needed to have her go a few minutes later. It might seem extreme to have them try this often, but I’m telling you, this is what worked for us.

5. We didn’t have one big reward. With our son, we promised him a trip to Disneyland if he got potty trained. We tried lots of big rewards with our daughter on the first few potty training attempts, and she honestly didn’t care about any of them enough to potty train. So instead of bribing her that way, we just left that out of the equation.

6. We gave her a single M&M when she would go pee, and two when she would go poop. This was the only reward system we used for her. No stickers (that didn’t work the first few times we tried training her), no toys, only a very small treat. And it was exactly what she needed. Immediate gratification!

7. We ditched the training pants and put her in undies. That girl. Training pants were basically diapers to her and she could care less if she peed or pooped in them. So we told her we didn’t have any more and that she had to wear undies from then on. It worked because she was actually uncomfortable when she made a mess in them, and she could absolutely tell when she had an accident.

8. We made her take off her wet or poopy undies and pants. This might sound gross and messy, but we had her stand in the tub and take off her wet or poopy undies herself. She didn’t like doing it, so she quickly stopped going in her pants.

9. We pumped her with lots of fluids. I got special juice boxes for her and she drank a bunch of them. It kept her hydrated enough that she had to pee a lot, making it more likely that she would go on the potty every thirty minutes. We normally don’t give our kids juice, so it was a special treat for her.

So that’s how we did it! That’s the potty training method that FINALLY got our almost 3 1/2 year old daughter to figure out how to use the potty. The last two months have seriously been incredible (no dramatization there). Only having one in diapers again has been THE BOMB. If you’re feeling desperate and so tried of changing disgusting big kid poops like we were, hang on. Your child will potty train eventually! They can’t go in their pants forever!

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Potty training sucks. It’s stressful, it’s messy, and it’s anything but easy.

A month ago we started potty training our daughter. She just turned 3 1/2, and we had tried at least three other times before to get her to use the potty. I am (incredibly) happy to report that this time, it stuck! I am now the proud mama of two potty trained kids and only one in diapers! Hooray! (You can read all about the method we used here).

Along this long, winding journey to getting her here, I learned several things. If you’re planning on potty training your child soon, these 14 lessons might be helpful!

Truths About Potty Training

Every child is different

My son potty was 100% potty trained right before he turned three. I’ve heard of kids potty training at two, or even earlier. Some kids pick up potty training on the first try, others take four times before they figure it out. It’s frustrating, but it’s just part of the process.

Don’t expect the same methods to work on all your kids, and don’t expect them to have the same level of excitement about potty training, either. Every child is going to be different, and they’ll potty train in different ways and at different times.

No gender is easier

Before we started potty training my daughter, I had heard that potty training girls was easier. Mamas, that is a lie. It really just depends on your kid. Some boys are going to be easy and some girls are going to be easy. And on the flip side, some boys are going to be hard and some girls are going to be hard. There really isn’t an easier gender to potty train. It’s hard no matter who you’re trying to train.

You have to COMMIT

This is one of the biggest things I learned potty training my daughter. If you just sort of work at it and you’re not fully committed, it’s not going to happen. You can’t just “try” to potty train your child. You have to really go all in. No more pull-ups, no more “taking a break,” no more giving in after a day of cleaning up accidents. You’ve got to be in it 100% or it’s not going to work.

Skip the pull-ups

When we first started potty training our daughter, we switched from diapers to pull-ups. I think she was probably wearing pull-ups for about a year, because they are basically glorified diapers. My daughter did not care at all that she was running around in a wet or poopy pull-up because it felt exactly the same as her wet or poopy diapers. So if you’re really going to try and potty train your child, just skip the pull-ups and go straight to undies.

Potty training at night will take longer

The one exception to the last rule is at nighttime. Little A still wears pull-ups at night because I’m not super keen on changing the sheets in the middle of the night. It’s okay if your child still wets the bed for a while. Just try to limit drinks after dinner and make them go to the bathroom before they go to bed! (And make sure you have a waterproof mattress pad when you do decide it’s time!)

It’s going to be messy

Last year we bought a new sofa and I really didn’t want our daughter to pee on it when we started potty training. I bought some puppy potty training pads for her to sit on when she was on the sofa, and it was the worst. She basically refused to sit on them, so my little perfect potty training dream of not having to clean up any accidents did not work.

If you have hardwood floors in your house, make sure you’ve got a lot of Clorox wipes on hand, and if you have carpet, invest in a carpet cleaner because potty training is going to be messy and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Clean-up supplies are important

I just mentioned them in the last tip, but I definitely used clean-up supplies getting Little A to potty train. Accidents happen, and the tools you have on hand are going to make the difference between an easy cleanup and one that gets messy.

We used our carpet cleaner both for wet accidents on the carpet and for cleaning up any poop that got on the carpet (because that happened once or twice). And then of course paper towels and Clorox wipes for hard floors!

Little potties are gross

Guys, these things are the worst. Yes, they are easy for little kids to sit on, but they are so gross to clean. I hated using one of these with my son so we skipped it with my daughter and went straight to a squishy seat that went right on top of the potty, paired with a stool in front so she could get up there. So much easier and so much better.

Stay kind and patient

This one is hard, and it’s also a super important truth about potty training. I had a very hard time staying kind and patient when Little A was having so many accidents the first few times we tried to potty train her. Once I was able to relax a little and change my tone and my attitude, it made a big difference in how I felt about potty training (a nightmare v. a challenge we would get through) and in how I was able to help my daughter. It’s a lot easier to help and encourage when you’re not mad about another accident!

It’s okay if you have to try multiple times

SO okay. Sure there are stories of kids getting potty trained in one day and on the first try even before they’re two. But that is not what happens for most kids. So if you try and fail, try and fail, and then try and fail again, it’s okay. Little A tried at least three other times to learn how to use the potty and it never worked. Don’t stress if that happens to you, too!

Rewards don’t always work

Sometimes using a sticker chart isn’t going to work. Sometimes, promising a big awesome reward isn’t going to work. We tried promising a toy from the store, a princess dress, and even a trip to Disneyland (which we still went on, even though she wasn’t potty trained) and she could not have cared less. Some kids just aren’t motivated by things like that, and that’s okay.

Make sure you have lots of lotion for your child’s hands

When we first started potty training we made Little A sit on the potty every thirty minutes. That mean that every thirty minutes, she washed her hands. And in the dry Minnesota winter, her poor hands got SO DRY. Like, cracked and bleeding dry. So make sure you put lotion on your poor child’s hands often when they are learning how to use the potty!

Go with no pants, or pants your child can pull off and put on easily

The good thing about potty training a girl is that she can just wear a dress and not have to worry about messing with pants. Little A didn’t wear pants (and I still don’t usually put them on her unless we are leaving the house or she has a plain shirt on) while she was potty training so that she was able to make it to the potty and get on the toilet fast. Definitely don’t put any pants with buttons or zippers on your potty-training child (Cat and Jack leggings or slip-on pants are our favorite!). No bueno there, mama.

Shame and comparing don’t help

We tried pointing out to her that all her friends use the potty. We tried pointing out that Moana and Elena use the potty. We tried telling her that her friends at dance were going to find out she still wore pull-ups. All that did was make us feel bad for trying to bring her down. Try instead to focus on your child and not the people or kids around them!

There’s no perfect time to start potty training, there’s no perfect method to potty train, and there’s no way potty training is going to be the same with every kid. Hopefully these truths about potty training can help you help your child learn how to use the potty, but if not, it’s okay. Just remember that everyone gets potty trained at some point, and your child won’t be in diapers forever!

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When we decided to potty train our son at two, I did a lot of studying and preparing for what we were getting ourselves in for. Despite my preparations, he was not ready and we failed miserably. Six months later we tried again and our son was successfully potty trained.

Potty training isn’t complicated, but it does take a lot of time, effort, and patience. There are also a lot of things that we had on hand that really helped make it easier.

As we get ready to start potty training our daughter, I am trying to refresh myself on everything we did with our son that worked well. Today I want to share some of our potty training essentials with you guys, too, in the hopes that maybe they will help you on your potty training journey!

1. Potty with a seat that fits on the toilet. There are lots of different kinds of potties out there, but the kind I would recommend the most is the kind that is both a tiny toilet and has a seat that you can lift off and fit on the actual toilet. It’s perfect when they are first starting because they have their own little potty they can sit on, and then once they start figuring out how to use it and get comfortable with the idea, you can just put their own little seat on the big toilet with a step stool by it. Yes, cleaning the little bowl is gross, but if it makes them comfortable and helps them go, it’s worth it!

2. Training pants. Huggies, Pampers, or store brand, these are a must. Super easy to pull up and down, but not quite as absorbent as a diaper, you definitely want to start with these before moving to actual undies. I have heard that some kids just go right to undies and that’s awesome, but that’s not something I would recommend trying first. Plus, we have our son sleep in training pants at night just in case he has any nighttime accidents, since that’s not his fault. Huggies come with Lightning McQueen and Pampers come with Thomas for boys, so they were both a big win in our house!

3. Pants with a stretchy waistband. If you want to encourage your toddler to learn to pull their pants down on their own, you’re not going to want them to have to fuss with buttons and zippers. It’s so much easier having pants with a stretchy waistband that just slip on and off. We have found that athletic pants work great, and they are always easy to find at the store!

4. Books about potty training for you and for your child. Before we even started our potty training journey, I read the book The No-Cry Potty Training Solution. It helped me know when it was time, some good tips, and some helpful problem-solving ideas when things went awry. We also got My Big Boy Potty for Little J since he didn’t have any older siblings that he could see on the potty. We wanted to show him that not just mommies and daddies use the potty, and this was a great book to help him. He also loved reading it while he was just sitting there on the potty, too!

5. Clorox wipes. Guys, no matter how ready your child is, you’re going to have accidents. And I highly recommend getting some clorox wipes to clean up any spills when your child just doesn’t make it. If you have a house with carpet, I would recommend a carpet cleaner like the Bissell Little Green ProHeat Carpet Cleaner. Super easy to use and it helped our house not smell like pee when the accidents were on the carpet.

6. Tracking chart and stickers. I tried to find a picture of our potty training chart but no luck, so I’m just going to have to describe it to you. For Little J, I got a big white posterboard and drew the outline of a train on it. Then I wrote “The Potty Train” on it and hung it on the wall next to the bathroom. Every time Little J successfully used the potty, he got to put a sticker on the chart! It was so much fun for him and for me as the chart got filled up, and he was so proud of himself. Plus the reminder of it on the wall I think helped us both keep potty training on the mind. Obviously you can just do whatever shape you want, but if your son is into trains like mine, he’ll love a big train. And use your child’s favorite character for stickers and it will make it a lot more fun!

7. Reward system. M&M’S work great, and so do little bite-sized candy bars. You have to have rewards, guys. We first started by giving Little J a little mini candy bar every time he went potty, but then we realized he was eating a ton of chocolate (duh). So we switched to M&M’s, and eventually, we were able to stop with the candy/treat every time and just do the stickers on the chart. We also had a big reward in place that we reminded him about a lot. We told him that if he was potty trained by the time he turned 3, we could go to Disneyland. Oh man, that worked! Your reward can be something smaller, but it does help a lot to give them a little more incentive!

8. Undies. Last, you will need undies. When you give them to your child depends on your child. Some kids won’t even care if they pee in their training pants and that might be an indicator that undies might be better. But we waited a while to put undies on our son so that we weren’t constantly having to wash undies every day when he had accidents.

So there you have it! Our potty training essentials. Potty training is hard, but it’s so worth it in the end. And just remember that it will happen one day! They can’t wear diapers forever!

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Right after my son turned 2, we tried to potty train him. I read some potty training books and blog posts all about how to potty train boys. I thought we were ready. Turns out, my son wasn’t.

We suffered through several days of pee on the floors, multiple outfits changes every day, and several sticky, poopy undies that I just threw in the trash.

My son wasn’t ready.

So we waited a few more months, and when he was 2 1/2, we tried again. And guess what? He was ready.

You’re probably asking what the big secret to potty training is. That’s why you’re here, right? Well here it is.

Wait until your child is ready.

You might be ready when your baby is 2, or 2 1/2, or 3, or whenever. But if your child isn’t ready, it’s not happening.

Yes, it can be super frustrating and hard to be patient, but every child is different, and every child will be ready for potty training at a different age. You just have to wait for it. Otherwise, you are going to get a ton of pee on the floor and a whole lot more laundry to do.

And lest you think that once your child is ready it’s going to be easy, let me just stop you there and say it’s still going to be hard. You are still going to have to clean up a few accidents and do some extra laundry, but if you are patient, it will all end in a potty trained child.

I know there are lots of posts saying they have tips for how you can potty train your kid in 24 hours or how taking their diaper off and letting them be free will help them be potty trained in a week, and that might work for some kids. But I think for the vast majority of kids, it won’t. And if it doesn’t, that’s okay.

Just be patient. Try some other things, and if it still isn’t working, just take a break. And wait until your child is ready.

Because when they are, they’ll figure it out. They can’t wear diapers forever!

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You’d be surprised how “dirty” conversations become when you are potty training your toddler.

We started potty training our son in October, and since we began, a very high percentage of our conversations have revolved around his bowel movements.

And I’m not just talking about asking if he needs to go, either. We have had conversations that I never thought I would have, both in the bathroom and outside of it. We talk about the colors of his poopies (don’t give your potty-training child Froot Loops), the size of his poopies (“That was a BIG poopie!!”), and how many poopies he has (“I had three poopies! That’s a lot!”). It’s gross, but also kind of hilarious.

Here are a few more examples to give you a clearer picture of what I mean:

Toddler: Where do dogs go poopie?

Me: Outside. They go in the grass.

Toddler: I’m a puppy! I go in the grass, too!

Me: No, you are a boy. You go poopie in the potty.

Toddler: No! I want to go poopie in the grass!

As you can imagine, this resulted in a tantrum because I wouldn’t let my two-year-old poop in the grass.

Toddler: (sitting on the potty) My poopie isn’t ready to come out yet.

Me: Okay, well we can wait until you’re ready to push it out.

Toddler: (several seconds pass) My poopie is ready to come out!

I think I may be at fault for this one for telling him we have to wait until we are ready to go.

Toddler: My poopie is coming! (pushes)

Me: Good! Keep pushing it out!

Toddler: It’s almost here! (pushes again)

Me: Yay!

Toddler: It dropped!!

Thanks for the status update, little man. I have a great mental picture now.

Me: (comes into the room chewing some gum) Hey bud!

Toddler: Is that candy? Because you went potty?

Me: You bet it is.

I’m so good at going potty in the toilet that I can have candy whenever I want.

Toddler: (in the middle of pooping) My poopies are saying “Ahh! Jameson is pooping us!!”

I laughed out loud at this one. I think it might be my favorite.

Conversations during potty training are kind of inappropriate, and you’d be surprised by what comes out of your toddler’s mouth. Make sure you write some of them down, because they’ll make great stories when they have their own kids. I’m hoping that now that he’s officially potty trained, we can start talking more about regular things and less about the shape of his bowel movements. But I doubt that will happen.

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There are two words in the English language that are guaranteed to make any parent with a baby or toddler cringe. Two words that when you bring them up in playgroup, all the moms audibly groan a little bit. POTTY TRAINING.

I am here to tell you that those two words don’t actually have to be as bad as they sound! No really, potty training doesn’t have to be the hardest thing you and your toddler have done yet.

Last year I was contacted by Elizabeth Pantley, author of bestselling “No-Cry Solution” series. She has written books on lots of great parenting topics like sleeping, napping, discipline, picky eating, and yes, potty training. She asked me if I would like to review one of her books, and since we were planning on potty training Little J soon, I knew that was the one I wanted to pick.

In “The No-Cry Potty Training Solution,” Pantley talks a lot about the pre-potty training stage, and I think that has been a huge help to Little J and has helped us know what we will be in for and be ready for it. I plan on posting a more formal review of “The No-Cry Potty Training Solution” once Little J is officially potty trained, but for now, I thought it would be helpful to talk about the importance of pre-potty training!

Pre-potty training is perhaps the most important part of potty training. If you do it right, your child will be ready to go, know what to do, and feel comfortable doing it. I don’t want to give away all of the amazing suggestions Pantley provides, but I want to talk about a few that really helped us.

1. Read about potty training before you start. I think a lot of parents probably start, get frustrated, and then go back and read tips. But if you read about potty training before you start, you are going to be prepared! And I suggest reading a lot of different things. Pantley talks about how every child is different, so what works great for one toddler might be a disaster for another. So read about lots of different strategies, and you will be all set.

2. Be patient. Potty training doesn’t happen overnight. Yes, there are some stories of kids who take one day to potty train, but that is super rare. Pantley mentions that it takes most children 3-12 months after potty training begins to be daytime potty trained. So one huge thing that will help you be successful is to work on being patient. If you can’t be patient in normal situations, then you are going to have a hard time when your child pees on the floor for the fourth time in a day. Work on patience, and know that it is going to take a while and I promise you will get through it!

3. Come up with a plan. Have lots of options ready. Part of why reading about potty training is important is because then you will have a good idea of lots of different ways to help your child with potty training. Decide if you want to do pull-ups or undies first, if you want to use a reward system, if you want to want to ride “the potty train” every time you go to the bathroom. Some things are going to work, and some things aren’t. And if you have a lot of options ready, you won’t be stalled or get hung up in the middle of potty training when something you had planned doesn’t work. So figure out what your plan is and make sure you have lots of backup options ready, too.

4. Learn about the potty. Talk about it, read about it, and show your toddler the potty. If you are comfortable, let your child watch you. This may be weird but Little J loves watching me flush the toilet. He says, “Flush it?!” and gets a big smile on his little face. You will definitely be talking about potty training all day long. But getting your toddler familiar with the words you are going to use and helping him understand that everyone uses the potty will really help once you start. If you familiarize your child with the potty, he isn’t going to be scared of it and it will be a lot more comfortable for him to start potty training.

5. Teach your child to follow directions and foster independence. Potty training is pretty much about following directions and being independent. So if your toddler won’t listen to a thing you say or if he needs you to do simple things for him, potty training may be a lot harder. So before you start, work on getting your toddler to do easy things like take his plate to the table or throw away a dirty tissue. And try to have them put their pants or shoes on by themselves. Simple things like that make potty training a lot easier. Which is something I never would’ve thought of, but Pantley talks about a few things like this and that’s part of why I love the book.

After you do these things, you still may not be ready for potty training. Just because you really want to potty train your child does not mean that he is ready. In “The No-Cry Potty Training Solution” there is an amazing quiz with 22 questions to see if you are both ready for potty training. I actually took the quiz twice because the first time, I realized that since we were moving in a few weeks, it probably wasn’t the best time to start. I know it’s going to take a lot of work to get Little J officially potty trained, but I am excited for the day we will only have one in diapers!

Have you started potty training your toddler yet? What tips do you have that helped you start off on the right foot? Let me know!

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