I’ve been meaning to mention this for quite some time and keep forgetting…anyhow, we have successfully potty-trained our youngest daughter!  Whoo-hoo.  I am not an expert of children by any means.  Common sense seems to have served me fairly well this far in my mothering adventure of 9 years and counting… and so these are my reflections on potty-training.  My personal tips, if you will…

First, and foremost, listen to that little voice in your head.  What’s it saying?  Follow that.  I read article after article about potty-training.  Most articles give you a few criteria that your child should meet in order to be ‘ready’ for potty-training.  Mine had none of those signs.  She didn’t tell me when she had to go.  She didn’t care to sit on the potty.  She wasn’t interested in the potty.  She didn’t stay dry during naps.  She did, however, know how to pull her own pants up and down.  She turned 2 in May and I decided to start after Halloween. 

Second…if you’re still reading, then yo’ve got to make a commitment.  If you are a stay-at-home mom, you must commit to staying home without outings for about 2 weeks.  When I decided we were going to give it a try, I stopped running around during the days and ran my errands in the evening when dad was home.  Let’s face it, if you’re just now at this point, I doubt that you’re going to try to take your little on in your car, hoping she or he can ‘hold it’.  And if you’re just beginning, believe, me…they can’t.  So, putting a diaper on and off to go away is only going to delay the process.  It’s probably going to become confusing.  Decide your staying home. For a little bit, at least.

Third, and most important.  Please do not fall into the disposable underwear trap.  Just because it does not have to velcro tabs on either side of the waistband and it’s not called a diaper doesn’t mean it’s not a diaper.  If it looks like a diaper and smells like a diaper….you guessed it.  It’s probably a diaper.  Pull-up diapers are just one more way to squeeze a few more hundred dollars out of you, and they delay the training process.  Go out and buy about three packs each of underwear and plastic pants.  Plastic pants can normally be found in the same area as the cloth diapers.  When you begin potty-training, wear the underwear beneath the plastic pants.  Do not buy the plastic pants large enough to have room to grow into.  You want them to fit snugly.  If they do, pee will not escape their confines–at least not in detrimental amounts.  (think sprinkles as opposed to storms.)  A good tip for these plastic pants:  When your child does have an accident, don’t pull their pants down!!  ( I tried that once, it didn’t work) sit them on the potty and insert your finger into one leg of the plastic pants.  Pull it  away from their leg, and the pee will drain into the potty.  Goingto the bathroom in these underwear will become uncomfortable for your child.  That’s good!  It’s not like the pull-up, where most of the moisture is absorbed, leaving cute designs on the outside indicating an accident has occured. 

Fourth, decide you are going to begin.  That morning, put on the underwear and plastic pants.  Realize that you are going to probably replace these no less than 6 times today.  Explain to your child that we are going to use the potty.  After getting dressed, go sit on the potty. 

Now, you can proceed in one of two ways.  I’ve had success with both. 

Your first option is to just allow accidents to occur.  When they do, take your child into the bathroom to sit on the potty, then clean up/get fresh underwear on. 

Your second option is to purchase an inexpensive egg timer and set it to go off every 15 minutes.  When the bell dings, you can either have your child sit on the potty, or just ask if they have to go to the potty.   This method is particularly helpful for the child who easily gets ‘lost’ in play.  It’s also useful for the parent who simply forgets to give periodic reminders. 

Regardless of which option works best for you, the end result should be a child who is learning the concept of using the potty.  Be forewarned, the first week is going to be terrible and you are going to want to give up.  You are going to feel as though the only thing you’ve done was clean up bodily fluids.  But you will notice a gradual progress in your child.  I’ve used this method twice and have had very successful results.  The first few days, we had accidents all over the place.  By the end of the first week, we were still having accidents,–but the accidents were getting closer to the bathroom.  By the middle of the second week, we were having about 90% success rate with making it to the potty.  And now, “Mommy, I went ucky” is heard daily from my child whose hanging half off the toilet seat, waiting for someone to come wipe her hiney.