5 Steps to Stress Free Potty Training

When I was potty training my first child, it was one of the hardest, most stressful things I ever did.  (A lot of things were that way with my first!  I had so much to figure out – poor little guy had a mom who had no clue what she was doing!)

I learned a lot of things that first time around that have made potty training all the others a MUCH less stressful experience!  When I was contacted about writing a sponsored post for CVS Training Pants I knew it would be a great time to share some of the things I have learned over the course of potty training 4 children!

Here are some of my best tips for a stress-free potty training experience:

1. Relax!  Your child will be potty trained before they graduate from high school 🙂  If you are uptight, your child will sense that, and it will only make it stressful for them too!

2. Let your child lead.  Watch for them to be interested in sitting on the potty.  If they buck at the idea, back off and try again at another time.  Trying to force it will not work! It's fine to try to get your child excited – say things like ” Do you want to go on the potty like a big girl/boy?” but don't make them if they don't want to.  They will want to sooner or later.

3. Make it easy to go potty.  You can either have a separate potty seat for them, or use a toilet seat that has a toddler seat attached to it.  (This is what we use, along with a stool in the bathroom where they can easily climb onto the toilet – it eliminates messy potty seat cleanup which equals less stress for mom!)

  Our toddler potty seat – the adult seat is underneath

Also, be sure to have loose fitting clothing for your child so they can get their pants down easily.  I often find that if I am laid back about potty training rather than trying to force my time table onto them, I will find my child in the bathroom going potty on their own!  This can't happen, though, if they can't get their pants down by themselves.

4. Choose the method that works for you.  You'll find lots of different potty training methods and ideas, and all of them will claim that this is the way to do it! But don't force yourself into a certain method just because you feel that's the way you're supposed to do it.  For instance, I use the “underwear method” where I just let my kids go straight from diapers to underwear.  I feel like it helps them get the hang of how it feels to go to the bathroom a lot quicker.  But some parents might actually find cleaning up messes stressful.  In that case, try a different method that fits your personality better.  For example, you could try putting training pants on to control the mess, but set timers for every half hour to take your child potty.  (I would suggest making sure that if they go in their training pants, that you get it changed right away.  You don't want to let them get comfortable with wet pants or they won't have any reason to go on the potty.  CVS Training Pants have a wetness indicator that will help you visibly see from the outside whether they have wet their pants or not.)

5. Have a plan for leaving home.  As I mentioned earlier, our family usually puts our children straight from diapers into underwear.  But nothing says stress to me like trying to find a bathroom RIGHT NOW when your toddler has to go potty or cleaning up soiled pants when you're out and about!  I make sure that if we're going anywhere I have a pair of training pants on my child.  I still try to take them potty with the goal of their staying dry, but I have the peace of mind of knowing that we've got protection should we not get to the potty in time.

We were sent a package of CVS Training Pants, and it came at the perfect time!  This little girl is SO interested in potty training that she cries if the church nursery workers take other kids out to go potty and they don't take her.  I think that is a pretty good indication that she is ready!  When we got the package of training pants in the mail, I showed them to her and she was so excited!  She said, “I wear it, mommy!” and started trying to put one on immediately!

I'm glad that they have refastenable sides too, because I can definitely see her just ripping it of like she currently rips off her diaper, but I wouldn't want to waste them if she has kept them dry!

So that is how we do potty training around here!  You can use these tips to make the process work for your family – either jump in right away with trying out the underwear method or take a slower, more relaxed approach by letting your child try out the potty here and there over the course of several months or weeks until they really seem excited to jump in full force.  Make sure you have some training pants on hand for outings to save yourself the stress, and that's really all there is to it!

Don't overthink it, and most of all relax and have fun!

This has been a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CVS Training Pants.