As a first time mom, it feels like an accomplishment! We are now reaping the rewards! And it is bittersweet to watch her pee and poop by herself. We still have a few accidents once in a while but I can proudly announce that our 2-year-old is now potty trained! Wooooot! It is really worth all the effort and the mess!

If you haven’t read my first two posts on how we went about it, here they are: Potty Training: 9 Tips Before You Start and How To Potty Train Your Toddler: 10 Useful Tips. In this post, I will tell you more on how the potty training tools helped us along the way.

STICKER REWARDS

I immediately knew they were working because she would sometimes try to pee even if she just did, just to get another sticker.

For pooping, we gave a bigger sticker. It was a harder task for her and we only get ONE chance a day for it (or two if we’re lucky) so the reward has to be a big one.

HOW THE POTTY BOOK HELPED:

The Potty (Everything I Know About) by Kathryn Knight and Anne Kennedy was such a blessing. The author made use of easy to recall lines and complemented these with happy and fun illustrations of kids using the potty.

Do you need to pee? Okay, sit on your potty…

To my surprise, she suddenly said, “Don’t be scared, you won’t fall in.”

That’s when I realized that the potty book was working! That was the exact line in the book.

So I memorized the other lines with the hopes of convincing her to poop, as we had no success on that yet. When I sat her on the potty the following day, she immediately said,

“I can’t do it.”

Sure you can! (with all positivity and enthusiasm my friends!) Remember what the potty experts in your book said?

They said, you can do it too!

“But I can’t…”

Yes you can! We just have to sit for a?

“Loooooooooooong time.”

And she produced! For the first time! HOOOOOOOORAH!

Thanks to this book. The lines really worked!

HOW WE ARE NOW:

We are down to just 2 diapers a day instead of 5. Spell S A V I N G S! 🙂 One for naptime and another for bedtime. We use the pull-up kind so when she wakes up, she’ll pull it down, the same way she pulls her panties down.

In the morning I would say: When you wake up dry, QUICK! Use the potty! (That’s a line from the book too hehe) And she’ll run to the potty and pee.

Before we go out I would say: You better go before you go or? And she’ll happily continue, “Oh no!” while running to her potty. (Yes, from the book again.)

Stickers, she doesn’t ask for them now. Except when she poops. We still give the bigger ones.

In playschool she would say, “Weewee Teacher Beth.” when she needs to go.

We don’t sit beside her now. We leave her there with a book, get a few things done, and wait for her to call us when she’s done. One time she even said, “Don’t watch me.”

Now you might ask why I’m not doing nighttime training yet. Let’s see… We don’t have enough bed sheets to change to, she still drinks a full bottle of milk right before sleeping, and I’m not ready to wake up in the middle of the night to change her.

Seems like I’m the one not ready for it again. Guilty! I’ll soon be. Promise.

Well, I hope this helps! Along with my two previous posts. Best of luck!

If all else fails, here are other strategies that you might want to take a look at: Potty Training Strategies

How about you, how did you potty train you child?

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