This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PUBigKid #CollectiveBias. Here I’ll share 10 Potty Training Tips that Work and a set of FREE Printable Potty Training Charts for boys and girls. Plus, enter to WIN a $100 Kroger Gift Card or a Potty Training Prize Pack valued at $200. Scroll down to enter.
I was putting off potty training. I was a bit worried if my son was ready. But I can honestly say I am thrilled by how these potty training methods have made toilet training easy and fun!
My top 10 potty training tips combines the techniques that worked for our eldest with some fun activities which better match the motivational preferences of our youngest. In my humble opinion, the key to any type of training is to use your child’s personality and interests to help motivate him or her. Every child is different and I get a chance to enjoy being creative as a parent. Now my creativity isn’t limited to potty-training. I also enjoy making fun printables. So with this post you get eight different formats of potty training charts (for both boys and girls) and some fun “potty time” door hangers to add a little fun to your toilet training. You’ll find these fun freebies at the end of this post.
I truly wanted to make toilet training a special event for my youngest. He is almost three years old. I may have been able to start training him sooner but I wanted to wait until I saw signs he was ready for potty training.
My son knows how to listen and follow instruction, so we started potty training about a week ago and I am amazed by how quickly he’s gotten into the habit of regularly using his potty chair.
My Top 10 Potty Training Tips that Work
1. Communicate – We’ve been talking with our son about the importance of going potty for awhile now. A week or two before we started “officially” potty training we started by taking him to his brother’s potty chair to use the potty before we put him to bed. We talk with our boys about the importance of all things related to going to the bathroom. Keeping clean, keeping everything in the toilet, not using too much toilet paper, washing hands with soap and water, and letting mommy and daddy know when they need to go to the bathroom.
I talked with our youngest when we decided it was time to “officially” start training, and asked him if he was ready to start using the potty. He said “yes.” When we went to buy him his own potty seat I asked him if he would use it. He again replied, “yes, I will”. I explained to him that he needed to let me know when he needed to go – especially if he wanted to earn his new Disney Cars themed slippers. He’s so open about needing to use the potty and he always tries to tell me before he goes. An open line of communication helps us stay on a regular potty training schedule.
2. Prepare with Books and Multimedia – We read books and watch videos about going potty to help our son understand how it works. By explaining to our son that going to the potty does not mean he is losing any part of himself, he freely does a bowel movement as well as he urinates in the potty chair. Some of our personal favorites:
- Leap’s New Potty Seat by Tag Junior
- Elmo’s Potty Time DVD by Sesame Street
- My Stomach by Rena Korb, illustrated by Remy Simard
- What’s Inside Me? My Stomach by Dana Meachen Rau
- Big Boys Go Potty by Marianna Richmond
- Ian’s New Potty by Pauline Oud
We found many of these resources for FREE at our local library. You can also find resources online.
3. The Right Tools can Help you in your Potty Training Efforts. Shopping for the right tools is also a great way to let your child be a part of the process of toilet training. We went shopping and our son picked out a new potty seat in the shape and style of a small red sports car. We also purchased our Huggies Pull-Ups® training pants, and a special reward for our son – new Disney Cars themed slippers. In the photo below you can see all the motivational tools we used including the potty training charts and stickers. Our biggest motivators have been lots of applause and hugs – for each and every success.
Huggies training pants come in a wide range of sizes including: 2T–3T (18- 34 lbs.); 3T–4T (32–40 lbs.) and 4T–5T (38+ lbs.); the new designs feature Doc McStuffins and Ariel for girls, and Jake and the Never Land Pirates and Lightning McQueen for boys. There are also three different kinds of gender and size specific training pants that include: Cool Alert®, Learning Designs®, Night*Time Training Pants.
We purchased our Huggies Pull-Ups® training pants at our local Kroger – King Soopers store while shopping for groceries. You can find them on the baby aisle.
Our son loves the Disney characters on the Huggies Pull-Ups®. We partnered Buzz Light Year and Jake from the Neverland Pirates with some toy car sticker rewards and a new potty chair and voila – we now have a two year-old asking to use the potty regularly.
I really like the Huggies Pull-Ups® because unlike others I’ve seen (volunteering in childcare) you can open them on the sides and put them back together again. Just something to keep in mind when you’re shopping for training pants. With my eldest we tried a generic brand and the waistband only lasted one pull up and pull down before it stretched out. With these training pants you get multiple tries at pulling pants up or down. You won’t have to replace the Huggies Pull-Ups® training pants that haven’t been used.
Once our son picked out the style of his potty seat and Pull-Ups® training pants; he jumped right into ownership of potty time. He went number two on the first day of bringing home his new potty seat!
4. Reward Your Child for their Efforts – I came up with a reward chart and told our son that if he filled the chart he could get some new slippers with cars on them. Every time he completes a step we add a sticker to the chart. By leaving the days of the week and dates blank my son doesn’t see the missed opportunities – he only see the successes, which adds to his confidence.
5. Keep it Positive – Little spills on the floor – no problem, accidents – they are just that – accidents. And we praise our son tons when he gets it right! Lots of hugs, clapping, etc. We share the good news – we call grandma and grandpa and we always make sure to tell daddy after work. We celebrate with lots of hugs and applause.
6. Make it Fun – I suggest offering reading material, playing games, or just sitting and talking with your child while they prepare to go to the bathroom. Some children recognize that they need to go way ahead of actually being able to go. Or they may have a false alarm. Place a basket with toys and books nearby to help pass the time that you’re both sitting in the bathroom. When my son asked if his stuffed toy Cookie Monster could go to the potty with him, my answer, of course, was “yes”.
6. Build Your Child’s Confidence – By placing our son in Pull-Ups® we’ve now empowered him to go straight to the bathroom when he needs to go, and he’s learning how to pull his pants up and down. I’ve read where other parents have made the choice to skip Pull-Ups® altogether. I can only imagine the devastation my son would have felt when he called for me, and before I made it to him, he had a major blow-out. It would have been a serious mess had he not had his training pants on. I want my son to feel confident about potty training and I don’t want him to be devastated by accidents. Sometimes in potty training there are false alarms and other times there are blow-outs.
7. In the Early Stages Timing is Important – I ask our son often, “do you need to go potty?” I praise him when he lets me know he needs to go. Pull-Ups® Big Kid Academy offers a free Pull-Ups® Time to Potty App with a potty reminder timer that you can set to go off as frequently as you like. For my son’s age (nearly 3) the timer self-selected to remind us to go potty every 45 minutes. What a great tool for potty training – and it’s FREE! Link to Pull-Ups® Time to Potty App.
By the way, the smart timer on the Pull-Ups® Time to Potty App adjusts the time between potty breaks based on your child’s progress.
Pull-Ups® Big Kid Academy also offers some free fun games that can be used as rewards or to pass the time while on the potty in their Pull-Ups® Time to Potty App.
8. Be there to help and encourage. We teach our boys how to wipe correctly, wash throughly and take care of waste. I don’t let my youngest dump his waste into the full-size toilet yet. I take care of that for him so it doesn’t wind up making a mess. My eldest is four and half years-old and now goes on the big potty all by himself – even through the night.
10. My best piece of advice is to wait until your child is developmentally ready – It will be less frustrating for both of you and a lot less likely to create bad experiences that may make it harder to try again later. Pull-Ups® Big Kid Academy offers a FREE quiz to help you determine if your child is developmentally ready. Follow this link to Pull-Ups® Big Kid Academy. For more information about special offers and to connect with Pull-Ups® as you journey through potty-training, check them out online on Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube.
WIN a $100 Gift Card or Potty Training Prize Pack worth $200
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Pull-Ups and GoodNites Potty Training Sweepstakes
Potty Training Success
Its been about a week and we’ve already had two-hour-periods where my son has no wet Pull-Ups®. He lets me know when he thinks he needs to go to the bathroom before he goes. We’ve had a few challenges with keeping the pee pee in the potty, but overall he is doing great. He has a wonderful attitude about it, and it hasn’t been a struggle to get him interested. I can tell he is proud of himself. After he goes to the potty he walks around the house saying “See, see, see – I did it.” Yeah son – I am so proud of you! 
Free Potty Training Rewards Charts
These are the Free Potty Training Charts I promised with eight different formats and multiple colors and styles for both boys and girls. I also created some fun “potty time” door hangers – perfect for the trainee who has older siblings and would like a little privacy during toilet training. Click the Blue “Download Now” button to download these free Potty Training Charts to your downloads folder.
Helpful Parenting Tips
If you have young children, you may also like these articles with parenting tips:
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Are you in the middle of potty training or waiting to start? What’s the best advice you’ve read on potty training? Maybe someone else would love to read about what is working for your family. Please leave a comment below. I always love hearing from my readers.
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