I know as a food company we shouldn’t really be speaking about going to the toilet, but potty training is definitely one to speak about. I am no expert in the field but I wanted to share with you how we coped with the dreaded P-word.
Josh was ready to be potty trained from 21 months but I kept putting it off. Instead, I simply put him on the potty before he went to sleep and first thing in the morning. Let’s be honest, at the beginning, he hated the potty and only sat on it every now and then. We read numerous potty training books and watched many videos, too.
Fast forward to the bank holiday weekend, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to attempt to potty train him and Josh had just turned two at this point.
"I also made sure our freezers were packed with My Veggie Bubba meals!"
I bought lots of training cloth pants and pull-up pants from Aldi, a reward chart from Amazon, stickers and lots and lots of treats! I also made sure our freezers were packed with My Veggie Bubba meals as I knew it would be a very long bank holiday weekend…
Day 1
Go nappy-free! Yes, they’ll be accidents- we had four on day one. We set an alarm, which we called the potty alarm, for every 20-30 minutes. After a few attempts, he got the hang of going to the potty when the alarm went off. Josh did his first wee in the potty- hooray! Once he did his first wee in the potty, we put the training cloth pants on him.
Day 2
He woke up and went for a wee in the toilet, I rewarded him with one treat and praised him. I then put the cloth pants on him and increased the alarm to every hour instead of 20-30 minutes.
Again, he sometimes resisted the potty, and there was one accident, but it was better than the day before. Josh is normally a great sleeper but that night his sleep started getting disrupted. This was something I was not prepared for!
Day 3
Still getting better each day and on day three we had no accidents, but I started worrying that he hadn’t done a poo in two days. I fed him high-fibre meals- khichdi and soups. My Veggie Bubba meals really helped on day three as I was extremely sleep-deprived and in no mood to cook!
Day 4
He finally did his first poo in the toilet- hooray! Honestly, this was one of the happiest moments over the bank holiday weekend. Again, like the day before, no accidents. We then decided to stop the potty alarm as he got in the habit of telling us when he needed to go.
After the bank holiday weekend, he went back to nursery where he did have a few accidents here and there for a month, but overall he mastered the art of going to the toilet.
Main things to take away from this:
- Increase your little one's water intake whilst potty training
- Be prepared for long days
- Make sure your toddler is ready to be potty trained. Do not rush into this, every child is different.
- Make sure their meals are well balanced and contain fibre- I would recommend having a freezer stash of meals ready.
- Talk to your little one about potty training; read books, watch tv programmes, and take them to the toilet with you
- Do NOT stress about accidents, accidents are a way of learning for toddlers.
- Pretend to go to the toilet with your toddler
- Be prepared to spend a lot of time in the bathroom; have books, stickers, treats, and snacks in the bathroom ready!
- Once you start potty training, DO NOT GO BACK TO NAPPIES!
A lot of people told me not to use the potty and just go straight to the toilet. Josh found the toilet quite daunting and preferred the potty. A month after potty training he gradually transitioned to the toilet himself- no extra training was needed.
Resources we used:
No More Nappies, Amazon
Potty Superstars, Amazon
Toddler Triumphs, Amazon