Potty Training Time with Pull-Ups®

I can’t believe my Pull-Ups potty ambassadorship is already coming to an end! Potty training my toddler has proven itself much more challenging than I could have ever imagined, but I can confidently say that Wito has made huge strides in learning to use the toilet. I am very confident sending him to preschool in underwear and knowing that he will not have an accident.

To say that I’ve learned a little about my parenting style through these past several weeks would be an understatement. Here are my top 5 snippets of advice for all of you future potty trainers.

Lower your expectations. Sure, you have a friend who potty trained their child in one day. Or maybe you read the parenting books claiming that you can potty train in one weekend, if it happens to be the “right one.” This does happen, but not as commonly as you might think. I do believe that waiting for “the optimal time” can help quicken the process, but for many of us parents who are sending our children to preschools where potty training is a requirement, we just don’t have the luxury of waiting for that moment.

Don’t expect to fully potty train your child in a couple of days. For most kids, it takes much longer and the additional pressure of high expectations doesn’t help you or your child. Trust me on that one.

You might lose your cool. While every expert and book will tell you it’s super important to keep the entire process positive (and it is), there might come a time when you begin to think that your child’s 12th accident on the living room floor is on purpose. I remember thinking to myself, “You could read the entire alphabet at 17 months old! How can you NOT understand how to pee in the potty at 37 MONTHS?!”

You will get frustrated. And you might even raise your voice with your child. Don’t be so hard on yourself – we are all human! Just take a moment to breathe and focus on how to keep cool in the future. Staying positive is the quickest way to get to your goal!

Remove valuables from the scene. As a wife to an interior designer, our home interior is kind of important. While in the thick of training, we rolled up rugs and removed some other objects to keep from any additional future cleaning. Let’s just say that our favorite living room rug would have definitely become a casualty had we not done this.

Pull-Ups are your friends. Some may claim that Pull-Ups are a crutch and that you should move directly from diapers to underwear. Personally, if I had followed that advice, I would have been chained to the washing machine for the first couple of weeks. Seriously. For active moms who are constantly on the go (who isn’t these days?), Pull-Ups will keep you from many messy predicaments, which I am convinced is because of the easy open sides.

Every child is different. Some of these tips and tricks might be extremely beneficial to your child, while some might completely backfire in your face. The potty training learning curve will be different for everyone, and obviously, you know your child best. Just stay focused and victory will be yours!

Thanks to Pull-Ups for keeping me on track with great expert advice and helpful information! May the force be with you, fellow potty trainers!

I am being compensated by Pull-Ups for my role as spokesperson, however the opinions and feelings expressed here are my own.

Wito started preschool this past week! Which means I spent the week nervously fidgeting around my house, thinking of the worst when it comes to potty scenarios. Will he have an accident? Will he go in the potty without my help? Only time would tell.

Upon asking him if he would use the potty at school, he declared that he would ONLY go potty at home. Hmmm. School is 4 hours long with snacks and lunch…does he stand a chance? Can he hold it THAT long? IS THIS REALLY MY LIFE, CONSTANTLY WONDERING ABOUT MY CHILD’S BLADDER CONTROL?

Things on the home front have been pretty successful thus far. Wito has only had one accident in the past few days, and is completely aware of his body’s signals. (Now, whether or not he acts on those signals is another story. Let’s just call him Wito the Great Withholder.) He wears underwear around the house and on outings, but I still keep him in Pull-Ups for naps and nighttime. He refers to the two as “day underwear” and “sleeping underwear”, and frankly, I’m not in any hurry to replace the Pull-Ups until he is waking up in the morning completely dry. He obviously loves the Learning Designs Pull-Ups because he can drape his body with Lightning McQueen images!

He has also started to stand while going potty, instead of sitting. This pleases me greatly because I no longer have to hold his 38-pound body above public toilets while the auto-flush mechanism menacingly threatens to suck him into the sewage system. His apprehension has greatly decreased in regards to going potty in public places, most likely because of the aforementioned issue. Down with auto-flush!

However, NO ONE prepared me for the “hits and misses”, so to speak. For every drop that lands in the toilet, one lands on the floor, the back of the toilet, the wall…uh, you get the picture. I walked into the bathroom yesterday, only to immediately yell, “MY GOD, I LIVE IN FRAT HOUSE.” So there’s that.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to pick up my son from preschool. Fingers crossed that he’ll be wearing the same dry Cars underwear that I dropped him off in this morning! Bets, anyone?

I am being compensated by Pull-Ups for my role as spokesperson, however the opinions and feelings expressed here are my own.

Wow. Let's all collectively sigh together. What a difference a few days can make! As I mentioned before, Wito and I were locked in a major power struggle. He had good control over his bladder, could recognize his body's signs, but refused to go on the potty because frankly, he didn't want to do what his mommy was asking him to do. (Although, he might disagree with the term "asking him.” I think his assessment would be that I was "forcing him." Potato, potahto.)

However, I can see clearly now the error of my ways. My son is as stubborn as a mule and wants all ideas to be "his." Like Jen Singer and my pediatrician told me, Wito wanted ownership of his potty training, and the harder I tried to force my ways on him, the harder he would resist.

My new focus was to erase the bad memories we had created from the previous week entirely. I didn't mention the bathroom or diapers or Pull-Ups or any potty-related issue for a full three days. He wore Pull-Ups during the days and I didn't make an issue if he had an accident. The minute Wito realized that the issue wasn’t CONSUMING MY EXISTENCE any longer, he turned into a new boy. He asked me to wear his big boy underwear, and when he would start to do his little squirmy dance, he would willingly walk into the bathroom after a little prompting by me. And he peed. HE PEED IN THE POTTY! SEVERAL TIMES A DAY! (I haven't been this excited since I found out about the leaked manuscript for the 5th Twilight book, and that's saying something.)

Currently, he is light years ahead of where we were 2 weeks ago. I am comfortable with him wearing big boy underwear around the house, and he wears Pull-Ups on outings to decrease the chance of accidents that might make him (and me) uncomfortable. I was so proud of him last week while running errands. He visibly needed to go potty while in the car, but held it the duration of the drive because, according to him, "only babies go to the bathroom in their undies."

Excuse me while I re-attach my head. WHERE WAS THIS CHILD TWO WEEKS AGO?? Ah, parenting.

Now, this isn’t to say that we don’t still have our challenges. He wants nothing to do with public restrooms and still needs prompting (read: bribing) to go while we’re at home. In the upcoming week, I plan to take another step back. Instead of asking him to take a trip to the bathroom, I am going to let him take the reins. Bring your raincoats; this might get a little messy.

I am being compensated by Pull-Ups for my role as spokesperson, however the opinions and feelings expressed here are my own.