It’s amazing watching our kids grow up and reach new milestones nearly everyday, one of the ones we are hoping to reach before winter break is Night time potty training with A, she has been such a dream with everything when she was little – self weaning from nursing, self weaning from her soother and essentially daytime potty training herself (for real!) but night time routines seem to be a bit of a challenge for her, so we’re enlisting the help of the Pull-ups potty training kit!
Our potty training adventure started randomly with A, one day she just decided that she didn’t want to wear diapers anymore and declared “I BIG GIRL!” and well, if you’ve ever met my child you knew there wasn’t much hope in arguing with this one so we encouraged it instead. When we were home, she was welcome to run around naked – we would gently remind her every so often that her potty was in the living room and to make a pee between playing. After a few gentle encouragements throughout the week, we found that we had to remind less, and praise more!
Unfortunately as much as A would have liked, she couldn’t run around naked everywhere and that’s where Pull-Ups changed the out of the house potty training game. Pull-Ups are super easy for little hands to pull down on their own and back up when they are finished, with cool learn designs kids can tell if they have had an accident, and hopefully rush to the bathroom – all on their own!
After our first week, we moved the potty to the washroom to encourage her to no longer be afraid of using the potty on her own in the bathroom, the “big” potty can be scary for kids so we would try one on the small potty, one on the big potty and eventually we slowly weaned out the small potty and the rest is history! I still laugh when we think back on the first time we heard the toilet flush randomly, realizing she not only had gone to the potty, but wiped and flushed on her own!
So, how do you encourage them to try the small or big potty? Every kid is different and not every tactic works! Some kids will tell you right away when they are ready to potty train, some kids need a bit of motivation (Check out Pullups.com to take the readiness quiz if you’re unsure!). Either way, we found so many of the Pull-Ups Toolkit items super handy for trying a few different ways! If your child loves being praised, then the Potty Partnership stickers are a total hit with the Potty Progress Chart, if your child needs a lovey – Pull-Ups has you covered there too with a soft cuddly friend to share their fears with. Perhaps your little one needs a bit of reassurance that this is not scary and they are not doing it alone? The Potty Book is the perfect daily read to remind them that potty training can be fun – and it makes them feel like a big kid!
I’ve heard from a lot of parents when I talk about the potty training kit that “isn’t that for young kids?” and admittedly – I totally thought the same! That is until I had a peek at what is actually inside, there is so much more to potty training than just a little potty after all, we have been using the sticker chart as a way to show A her progress, to help her be involved with celebrating her dry mornings. Pull-ups have been instrumental in helping her have a bit more nighttime independence, she is big enough now to get out of bed and make a pee if she needs too and Pull-ups make it super easy for her to handle nighttime bathroom trips on her own. Bonus points that they have fun characters on them that kids recognize, making something new just a little bit less scary.
So what worked for us? Patience. This isn’t our milestone to reach, as much as we would have loved to eliminate diapers from the get-go, that isn’t always the best path for every child. We worked with A through her journey, praising her when she needed us to, and comforting her when she felt disappointed. We really loved the Pull-ups Cool & Learn, it helped A to recognize when she had an accident and needed help from mom or dad. Now she wakes up and will declare (quite loudly) that she’s dry, or takes off her own pull-up to put in the trash if she is wet. She knows that each day is a NEW day and a NEW chance to keep trying.
Pull-ups has a ton of fabulous resources available for parents from helping recognize the signs of potty training readiness, to over coming fears and challenges and how to make potty training fun! There’s also some fun printables that can help kick up your potty training game at home from Potty Gift Certificates to celebrate a milestone, to a hand-washing poster to remind littles to scrub those little hands and a printable sticker chart to track their progress!
Whenever your little one is ready, make sure to enjoy the journey with them! This is a BIG DEAL to little kids, one step closer to being like mom and dad and they look to us for encouragement and support. You’ve got this!
Curious what you could win to help kick start your child’s potty training adventure? One lucky fan is going to win a Potty Training Toolkit that includes;
- Pull-Ups® Training Pants
- Big Kid Flushable Wipes
- Potty seat and chair
- Potty training book
- Milestone chart to track progress
- Plush toy to reward potty accomplishments
- $25 Walmart gift card to help you stock up on other potty training essentials outlined in the Potty Partnership Toolkit
Don’t worry if you have a little boy at home, who isn’t quite into pink and Doc Mcstuffins, we’ve got you covered! Want to win? Enter below!
