Pee Pee Potty Made Easy

7 October 2008 930 views 6 Comments

It’s time to start potty training our 2 year old daughter. You would think that this would be a piece of cake since she is our 3rd child to go through this process. But it is not!! My mom who’s a daycare provider potty trained our 2 oldest kids…so we are essentially starting from scratch with our 2 year old. I have received various tips on how to potty train from my day care provider, my mom, my aunts and several other people. The one common tip that they all gave us was to read a potty training book to our child that explained the process.

The book that we love the most is “Once Upon A Potty - Girl” (there is also a Boy edition.) This is a great board book that explains the child’s body parts and the process of potty training. It also comes with a CD that includes potty songs as well as a reading of the book. Everyone in the house loves this book. When the book first arrived, my 6 year old read it to me twice from cover to cover. She just loved the story. She giggled when I wrote “Once Upon A Potty” on her reading log that week. She said her teacher was going to think that she was potty training. She then took the CD into her bedroom (that she shares with our 2yr old.) They played the CD and read the book together. About an hour later, my 2 year old runs into my bedroom and says: “Mommy - yucky ….booboo in the potty” as she was pointing to a picture of a potty with “Wee Wee” and “Poo Poo” inside of it. From that day on, “Once Upon a Potty” has been our favorite potty training book. We read the book to our daughter every time she uses the potty. We also listen to the CD often.

Once Upon A Potty gets the BMWK seal of approval. Kudos to the Parent Bloggers for turning us on to such a good find.

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading ...

6 Comments »

Anna said:

What ever works. Nice to see the 6 yr old reading the book to her little sister. Potty training is about the biggest reason for not wanting another baby. Of course they have pull-ups but I put them on a kid (for long road trips or running errands). Other than that is was night time only.

# 7 October 2008 at 2:11 pm

Huemanity said:

My two year old went through potty training boot camp, LOL.

You can train a girl in just a few days, you just have to be very consistent and pretty much stay in the house for 72 hours straight.

Buy plenty of sugary snacks and soft drinks to keep her thirsty and drinking. The more she drinks, the more she goes and the more you can reinforce the potty. Let her run around naked or just wearing a t-shirt. Nothing that she has to pull off or take down. This will only distract and make her nervous. Move the potty from room to room. Never have it further than a few feet. At night, stop the fluids and just let her eat solid foods. It is much easier to catch a bowel movement than urine.

After two full days of this you can begin to watch her from afar and see if she can handle it herself. If she makes a mess, have her help you clean it up right away. I then put her in some cotton undies. The first few times she messed herself she cried. I took them off and went back to following her around. By that night she went by herself completely without saying a word to anyone. We put a pull up on for sleeping and she woke up dry.

It may seem like an arduous task, but it is well worth it. I don’t think that gradual training works and buying training pants over and over is a waste of money. I also KNEW my daughter was ready because she would come to me right before she peed and cross her legs and bop up and down. So those cues can be very helpful in determining if you child is actually ready. Some parents start too soon thinking they have to do it by age two.

Boys are much harder and I thank god I have two girls, lol.

Huemanitys last blog post..Illustrators: Kadir Nelson

# 7 October 2008 at 4:16 pm

BlkSheep said:

OH MY…potty training should have started a year ago BUT since you’re starting now definitely do training “panties” with rubber panties on the outside, it makes them feel that they are actually we unlike diapers or pull-ups. Every time you go “potty” take lil’ mami to the potty too. Forget sugary snacks and drinks - not healthy! Keep the potty in the bathroom so she’ll know that is exactly where she is supposed to go and she will not have to search for the potty. GOOD LUCK!!!!

# 8 October 2008 at 1:38 am

MyBrownBaby said:

You should also try, “Everybody Poops,” a book similar to “Once Upon A Potty.” Both my little ones LOVED this one, and it was a great book to “model” where big girls are supposed to go to the bathroom. And, er um, it’s funny, too (my 6-year-old recently rediscovered it and it’s now replaced “Dancing In the Wings” as her favorite… ha’ mercy).

And, like Huemanity, my girls went through the “potty bootcamp” too: During the course of a weekend, we had them walking around the house naked from the waist down, and whenever they had to pee or poop, they either had to do it where they were standing (just like they would have if they had on a diaper) or they had to find their way to the potty. Both of them peed and pooped on the floor ONE TIME–and we made them clean it up (well, as best they could). The next time they had to go, it was in the potty. I swear to you, it worked for both of them. One weekend. That’s all it took.

Good luck!

# 9 October 2008 at 8:22 am

MissJay said:

Bootcamp sound like a lot of cleaning in my house! LOL We had the help of daycare. Peeing was no problem for the (now)3(girl) or 2(boy) year old. It’s the pooping. It’s easier for the boy now because he’s seen his sister go potty all the time. My fiance has an elmo DVD Elmo’s Potty Time. They LOVED it! You might be better off with the book or bootcamp though. We sure are tired of having to change our boy’s pullups because he won’t go #2 on the potty. LOL

# 9 October 2008 at 11:32 am

ericka said:

We have this book as well…it is super cute! I agree, there is no need to feed her sugary snacks or drinks, simply give her water or natural fruit juice, and yeah, keep the potty in the bathroom. Our little one had a few mishaps along the way, but like mentioned above, just take her in the bathroom when you go..she will put two and two together. And yeah…bootcamp works..we did that for a short while! he got it in no time! Good Luck!!!