In this segment we're going to be talking about Potty Training!
💗 Welcome mommies, daddies, nannies and grannies, or anyone just looking for a little information about all things baby! Infants, newborns, toddlers, and children - we're going to cover it all here, it's going to be fun!
Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions! In this segment Part 1 - we're going to be talking about potty training!
Welcome to Miss Jen's Potty Training Boot Camp y'all. Let's get this potty started! Get it? Potty? (cricket sounds)
Welcome to Miss Jen's Potty Training Boot Camp y'all.
Positive reinforcement is going to get you better results faster. Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions. Subscribe to my youtube chanel, leave me a thumbs up. It can be reciprocal, we'll be friends.
Here we go!
As you may know I've been a Nanny and a child caregiver for over 39 years. I've been doing this a long time y'all. I have potty trained a lot of babies. This five part series on potty training is filled with tips and tricks that have worked for me throughout my career.
Through the years I've tried several different methods of potty training and one of my more successful methods is actually a holistic, natural kind of 70s hippie approach... nudist approach. Letting naked baby run around nakey all day or all weekend. It can probably be accomplished in three days if you're really consistent with it. You have to be home the whole time near a potty - preferably a little child sized little potty that sits on the floor that's at their height and their level that they can access anytime they need it all day. Keep it handy. Don't put it upstairs if you're going to be downstairs. Don't put it way back in your bathroom if you're going to be playing in the den or your living room. Have it right there within a few feet away. Even if it means putting it on the kitchen floor right there where you're going to be cooking or making meals.
The idea here is that your little one is running around free and nakey all weekend long no pants, no diapers, no pull-ups and they're gonna have accidents. Try to aim for being in an area that doesn't have carpet. Whether it's your kitchen floor, tile floors, wood floors. Those are easier for wet cleanups and puddles. If all you have is carpet throughout your house this technique might not work for you. So the idea is that your little one is running around pants free and you are - every hour on the hour - reminding them "Hey let's go sit on your potty. "Let's try! Let's see if we can earn a reward. Let's see if we can earn a treat!" Let's see if any potty will come out."
This technique allows immediate access to that potty right when they feel that urge. I would encourage salty snacks, crackers, chips, cheez-its, goldfish, whatever, pretzels. Did I say pretzels? So that they get thirsty and they'll drink more frequently. You want them to be drinking a lot that day or that weekend so that they keep their bladder kind of full and it just means more trips to that potty. More trips to that potty means more practice, more practice, repetition, repetition, repetition.
You're wondering why does the baby have to be naked? Okay here's the theory on that. When baby has a potty accident, it's going to run down their leg, it's going to land on their feet, there's going to be a puddle that they're going to be standing in. They're going to look down, they're going to see it coming out. They're going to hear it hitting the floor. That is giving them awareness of where that pee-pee's coming out of. Where that pee-pee's coming from and what it looks like when it's coming out and where it lands. And oh it makes a mess. This also gives the little one a little bit of control - like if they start to feel their pee-pee coming out or running down their leg, they can stop it. They can cut that flow, giving them control of their body and their bladder.
So eventually they're working up to the point where they realize "Oh there's that feeling I had in my bladder right before I went pee-pee. Oh that means I need to go potty, I need to get over to the potty." Then you walk them over or say "Hey did you go potty? Let's try sitting on the potty." Just constantly reminding them, almost to the point of nagging them: "Do you want to go potty? You want to go potty?" 99.9999 times out of... 100. Most of the time your kiddo is going to say: "No I don't need to go." and then they wait till the last minute because they don't realize how urgent it's going to be at the very end if they wait too long and how long it takes the time it takes to get to the potty. So just constant reminders and asking frequently "Hey do you feel like trying to go potty? You want to go sit on the potty?" Those are helpful little pushes and nudges to help them remember "oh yeah I've got a bladder I've got to think about. I'm not wearing my pants. I don't want to pee on the floor. I don't want to have to wipe it up again."
This also helps with the timing of planning out your trip to the potty because you know if you've got a kid who's in full clothed out at the library or out somewhere in public, at the playground or whatever, they need to go potty and they say "Mommy I need to go potty." almost always it's like they can't hold it. They mention it too late and they don't realize how badly they already need to go and they need to get to the potty. They need to walk over there, they need to plan to get into the restroom, possibly waiting for a stall to be available. Then getting into the stall, locking the stall, pulling down their pants or unzipping their pants or unsnapping their pants. These things all take time and by the time you're getting to that potty time the chance to go potty, they pee. They have an accident. So it helps with the timing of "okay do you feel anything in your bladder? Do you feel like you need to pee? Is there any pee-pee in there? You have any pee in your tank?" You know what I mean? In other words learning: how much time do I have between oh... realizing I need to go potty and actually getting all the way over to the toilet and getting your pants off and sitting down or going potty. You know, by the time they get to that toilet and they've been holding their tiny little bladder for a while and then having to take off their pants or their pull-ups, if they're in pull-ups. Those are all things that add up to time that they're having to hold that little bladder. So you know, it's hard for them! They have small bladders and it's hard for them to hold it for that long, therefore the sense of urgency is quicker or the time span is shorter than what we might have. So if your little one says "I need to go potty." RUN! Get to that potty fast! Get over to that bathroom and get them over there so they can go quickly! You don't want to wait too long and then they have that panic - that urgency and possibly an accident. Those are all negative associations. You don't want them to have negative associations with potty training.
In fact when I'm in potty training mode I try to have one of those little potty toilet seat inserts. They're small and they fit inside an adult sized potty toilet ring and you can bring those to the different bathrooms throughout your house or even bring them to public restrooms with you. Just make sure you clean that with a disinfecting wipe or something and bring it in like a little grocery plastic shopping bag so you can tie it up and take it home and bleach it. Bleach it or something. Use bleach to clean that! So if you feel comfortable with the nakey baby - no pants weekend technique, just make sure you have lots of cleaning supplies on hand. Paper towels, you know, disinfecting wipes, windex, whatever you're going to be cleaning your flooring with. And make sure you catch them quickly. Again if your little one has an accident and they don't tell you about it, you don't want to be slipping in a puddle or finding it a couple days later. So if we have an accident that's not on the potty there's going to be a mess to clean up and I'm all for handing that baby a paper towel and saying "Oopsie we made a little mess. Oh it was an accident, let's clean it up" and we both get our paper towels and we go over to the puddle and we wipe it up and clean it. Of course not giving them any chemicals or harsh cleaning disinfectant rags or anything that have chemicals on it. Just a paper towel. You do the actual chemicals and cleaning. But giving them some responsibility for that accident... I'm not gonna say repercussions or punishment, just responsibility for what came out of their body that they made a mess and they had to clean it up. It'll just kind of discourage accidents so that they won't have to clean it up every time. It's kind of a chore that they have to do because they made an accident and they have to clean it up. So it's kind of a little bit negative reinforcement... but not really. It's not like saying: "Look what you did now get down there and clean it up Cinderella! (singing) 🎵 "Cinderelly Cinderelly" 🎵 If you're gonna let your little one help you clean up the potty mess with a paper towel, be sure to not do it with a look of disgust on your face. Please don't say things like: "Oh gross!" or "You made a mess!" or "Oh look what you did, look at this look at this gross mess! Oh you you peed on the floor!"
Again - negative association. We don't want them to be shameful. We don't want them to be ashamed or in trouble for having those accidents. Never use words like: bad or wrong or yuck when you're in the middle of potty training. You know you can say things like: "Oopsie we had an accident, let's try again next time." or "Oopsie the pee-pee came out. Next time let's try to get it in the potty." Have a trash bag handy to throw those things away and clean up quickly so that there's not a big huge drawn out drama about the potty accident that they just had. Make it a quick clean-up. Make it simple and easy breezy and move past it quickly so you can get back on track with the potty training part of your day.
Depending on the personality of your little one, if they're very sensitive or easily offended or hurt, you might not want to let them see you cleaning up their potty messes. Or especially not make them a part of cleaning it up and handing them a towel to wipe it up with you. Some kiddos are very sensitive to that and they're ashamed or embarrassed about it and again we don't want to cause potty training regression or back stepping or retention, anal retention. We don't want our kiddos to think that their poo-poo stinks. Like when we're changing diapers - even from infancy. We don't change diapers and then go: "Ugh" or gag or say "Pee-yoo!" I mean... sometimes when it's playful and you're like "Oh pee-yoo you made a stinky poo-poo" that's okay. That's not embarrassing. But don't let them see your face going "oh oh oh that was bad! UGH!" Don't let them see that. They're gonna be embarrassed. Even babies. I have seen babies get a facial expression of shame or embarrassment. They just look at you like "What did I do wrong? What is that ugly face you're making mommy? Why are you saying I stink? Why are you saying I'm gonna throw up?" Don't let your baby see you disgusted. Especially at something that has to do with them and their bodies and what's coming out of it. It's not their fault. It's natural. Everybody pees, everybody poops, everybody's poop stinks!
If any of these tips have ever worked for you I'd love to hear your feedback and how it went. Leave some comments down below, I want to hear what YOUR success story is. We're going to have your kiddos diaper free and potty trained in no time! We're going to do this together. I'm here to help. You're going to get through this Mama, with a little bit of patience, some compassion and a lot of love!
💗 Be sure to read Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 of the potty training series! Or to see my video of this segment on youtube
The links to Toddler Potty Training parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 are down below... __________________________________________________ Toddler Potty Training Part 1: https://youtu.be/goaxRLXdM4w Toddler Potty Training Part 2: https://youtu.be/Fmh6iymN1Ao Toddler Potty Training Part 3: https://youtu.be/Ga7TKnFOoQA Toddler Potty Training Part 4: https://youtu.be/5I-PSudPWYg Toddler Potty Training Part 5: https://youtu.be/wZ2MUhp3M9k
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Miss Jen's Favorite Potty Training products & recommendations:
Toddler Potty Training Toilets:
I’ve had experience working with Toddler Potty Training Toilets that cost $400+ (yes, that’s a thing!) and ones that are only $5 (the cheaper ones usually fall apart quickly). These are MY favorites and most reasonable in price. The kiddos love them - they are close to the ground, comfortable, sturdy and easy to get onto:
https://amzn.to/3wrYVUN
https://amzn.to/3kcp0Vk
https://amzn.to/3jXzwzR
Toddler Potty Training Potty Seat: https://amzn.to/3yDDbXO
Toddler Potty Seat: https://amzn.to/2TNoLoY
Potty Training Insert Seat: https://amzn.to/3dVDrJA
Toilet Seat with Built-in Potty Training Seat for Toddlers:
https://amzn.to/3AMwLax
Potty Training Timer Watch:
Blue: https://amzn.to/3hupSmt
Huggies Pull-ups:
Girls: https://amzn.to/2TXkb7N
Boys: https://amzn.to/3yHmvi0
Night Time Pull Ups - Goodnites:
For Girls: https://amzn.to/2TXlZO7
For Boys: https://amzn.to/3xDII0s
Toddler Underwear:
Girls: https://amzn.to/3xFyI6H
Boys: https://amzn.to/3kdipu6
Potty Step Stool For Kids:
Pink: https://amzn.to/3ks3rk6
Blue: https://amzn.to/36E1zwb
Urine stain remover & odor spray:
https://amzn.to/3BmEr3I