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Stress Free Potty Training Guide For Parents

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This post is sponsored by Pull-Ups® Training Pants. All opinions are my own.

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When I had my first daughter, I had the regular excitement and fears that come with being a new parent. Was she eating enough? Was she sleeping enough, growing, and meeting all of her developmental milestones?

I also had some other worries…like, how would I teach her to give up her pacifier? How would I teach her to read? What about potty training? Would potty training be as hard and stressful as I heard it could be?

Thankfully, it went really well with not only my first born, but also my other two. Of course there were little hiccups along the way, but we used some tips to make potty training as easy and stress-free as possible for both us parents and our sweet little ones. Plus, we got to have some fun along the way!

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I think that the key to successful potty training is to prepare ahead of time. Have a plan before you start this journey, but stay flexible along the way and use these proven tips from Pull-Ups® Training Pants and their partner, child development expert Dr. Heather Wittenberg.

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Dr. Heather has been a Pull-Ups Potty Training Partner for many years, and she has some great tips to help you too have a positive potty training experience.

Here are some of our favorites:

1. Follow your child’s lead. Don’t rush potty training. Some kids potty train in days, some take a bit longer. Let them lead when to start and give them time to adjust.

2. Start potty training at home. Pick a couple days that you know you won’t be traveling or running a lot of errands, and use those days to start potty training. This will help your child know the basics of how to use the restroom and take the pressure off accidents that are caused just from a lack of an available toilet. In the early stages of potty training, I’ve found that the kids don’t often know that they have to use the restroom until they really have to go… and it really helps to have a familiar bathroom steps away from where they are.

3. Have the right tools on hand and let the child pick them out with you. Pull-Ups have different characters on them to make little ones excited to wear them. Include your little one in purchasing them so that they are even more interested in potty training. Once you are ready to start, and have your Pull-Ups, make sure you don’t switch back to diapers.

Dr. Heather explains why you should stick with Pull-Ups instead of switching between diapers and training pants:

And if you’re still not convinced that you should use Pull-Ups, let me tell you what a life saver Easy Open Sides are, because potty training shouldn’t have to be a giant mess all the time. You can change your little one quickly and easily in case of an accident, and can also just do a quick check in case you aren’t sure. Because accidents happen, which brings me to my next point.

4. Don’t give up if it seems to be taking a long time to potty train. This is a big deal to both you and your child, and becoming frustrated will just make it worse for both of you. Remember – this is a partnership that will set the tone for how you and your child overcome challenges in the future as well.

I love what Dr. Heather says about what you should do if potty training isn’t working after a while:

5. Celebrate successes. Keep stickers on hand or other small treats for times when your child could need some extra celebration for potty training done well.

The Pull-Ups® Potty Partnership has a bunch more really great tips to help parents through every stage of potty training. Dr. Heather Wittenberg helped create the potty partnership based on years of research and observation of personality types in young children, so I know I can trust it! I also love recommending their tips because they are all based on the idea that potty training should be a true partnership between parent and child.

Parents can start by taking a potty personality quiz to identify your child’s personality traits and behaviors, and the Potty Partnership provides tools and advice tailored to how they learn. The partnership follows the same principles that we’ve used all these years – potty training is a fun milestone and a great time to build family partnerships. Plus, the tips, tools and games that they offer are pretty brilliant. My favorite one is the Potty Training Race. I know my girls would have loved playing it and it would have helped make potty training even better for us all.

Each of my girls have such distinct personalities and the potty partnership encourages and celebrates that, rather than trying to go with a one-size-fits-all method since each child is unique and special in their own way.

Are you getting ready to potty train in your home?

Heather Reese
the authorHeather Reese
Heather Delaney Reese is the storyteller and photographer behind the lifestyle and family travel blog, It's a Lovely Life®! For the past decade, she has vacationed over 150 days a year with her family. She is a vegan, and loves being by the water, spending time with her children, husband, 2 Shih Tzus and Cat.

39 Comments

  • My almost 3 year old granddaughter isn’t potty trained but she knows what she should be doing. At preschool she’ll go on the potty but not at my house. I need to study this more!

  • I was lucky enough to never have difficulties potty training the twins. They were so ready to give up the diapers, it was a breeze. Aside from little accidents at night of course! These are awesome tips!

  • I remember my girls potty training days. I use to use these Pull Ups for them too. They just loved them.

  • I’m really glad that we have the potty training period behind us! We used Pull-Ups and the really make the difference!

  • Potty training is crucial as well as the most difficult tasks, but the tips you have mentioned are really helpful. I will definitely share this post with all my friends who are struggling with potty training lessons.

  • Oh, this is very interesting. I remember the old days when my son is starting to potty train.

  • Potty training is a tough milestone for toddlers. Your guide is absolutely awesome!

  • This is a nice guide. I am so glad that there are stuff like this that help us on potty training our toddlers.

  • I am so glad to be past the potty training stages. Those were some rough days. This is a nice guide to help those going through it.

  • It took my son a little over 3 years to be fully potty training and it was not stress free unfortunately. Since it’s just me and I don’t potty like a boy I had a bit of a difficult time training him and simply getting him interested in the potty but thankfully he got to the point where he was tired of his butt feeling icky in diapers and then pullups and started going in the potty. That was a happy day.

  • These are great tips! I can only imagine how stressful potty training can be – I’ll have to share this with my sister in law for my little nephew! Thanks for sharing!

  • My son was very hard to potty train. This guide would have been very welcome in my home!

  • Potty Training was truly the most grueling time in parenthood for me! These are great, I used them a lot for both kids!

  • I think these are good strategies to utilize for potty training. It can be a tough transition so it’s good to celebrate the little accomplishments.

  • I don’t miss the potty training days. That was a lot of stress for me. I am glad that my daughter is grown now. Don’t get me wrong, I love her, but raising kids is stressful.

  • Some great tips for those in this stage. We had twins… who were not on the same page and decided at different times when they were ready. Oh the adventures.

  • This is great! Potty training can be a chore for lots of people! We are in the middle of it right now with my little boy and its going well so far!

  • Pull Ups are a great tool for potty training. We used them for our kids and it gave them confidence. We used to add Cheerios to the toilet to help my Son learn how to aim.

  • We had various potty training experiences with our three children, but used Pull-Ups with each of them. They really gave the kids an added sense of independence and came in handy during those rushed trips to the bathroom.

  • Following the child’s lead is really a good point to start. These are great tips, so helpful!

  • Potty training can be so stressful, but I am glad that there are products like Pull-Ups that help ease kids onto the big potty. We used them with both of our girls and it did make potty training go a lot smoother.

  • These are great tips! Every child is different. I have 4 and they all learned at different ages!

  • There are different ways that you can approach potty training depending on your child’s learning curve. My youngest was so easy to potty train because she was ready. I think it’s important to make sure that your child is open to the idea of using the potty.

  • Based on my own experience, it was easier for me to potty train my sons than my daughter. It did not take them a long time to know that they should use the potty and give up the diapers. I used a reward system to hasten the process.

  • I hope yours goes better than ours did. Looks like you have a handle on it. This tips should help any parent deal with this phase in rearing up kids. Great advice here!!

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