Potty Training Tips & Tricks That Will Save Your Sanity

For your convenience, I’ve included a couple affiliate links to some awesome things that will help you keep your sanity! My full disclosure is here.

Every parent has their Kryptonite — that one major struggle you face in parenting that tests every ounce of your patience and brings out the worst in you.

For some parents it’s getting their baby to eat.  For others it’s figuring out how to get their kids to sleep.   Or take a nap for longer than 20 minutes.

My parenting Kryptonite is potty training.

Potty training is not easy.  If I can be totally honest with you, some of my ugliest moments as a mother have come out of potty training struggles.

After potty training both of my kids (one boy and one girl) I’ve developed a list of tips and must haves for potty training that have literally saved my sanity.  These tips and key items will help make potty training easier, no matter what potty training method you use.

*This post contains affiliate links.  See my full disclosure here.

Potty Training Tips & Tricks That Will Save Your Sanity

A Good Attitude Is Like Gold

Before you get started, remember this:  one day they will be potty trained.  Your child will not go to high school in diapers.  Take the pressure off yourself and enjoy the little victories along the way, even if they come among lots of setbacks.  A good attitude and outlook will be contagious.  So will a bad attitude (trust me I learned this the hard way!)

Potty Training Equipment

Let me introduce you to the best *potty seat ever.   

This potty seat is worth EVERY PENNY.  It’s a normal toilet seat with a little potty training seat built in!  A heavy duty magnet keeps the little potty seat attached to the cover so it won’t get in the way of adults.  It also comes with a slow close feature, so there will be no slamming lids!  Since you don’t have to take it on and off the toilet for each use, it keeps your hands clean.  That makes this germophobe happy! 

Boys may need a step stool to use a regular toilet.  We use this step stool and love it.  One side of it is curved so it fits perfectly right up against the toilet.

Small Rewards Go A Long Way

For each successful pee or poop in the potty, give your child a small reward to encourage them and make it fun.  My main reward of choice is M&Ms.  I give one for going in the potty and another if they kept their underwear dry.  That way my child has an incentive to do both!  Offer a variety of small rewards to keep it fun.

Reward Ideas:

• One or two M&Ms for a successful potty trip
• Two or three M&Ms for a (ahem) successful defecation in the potty
• Dum Dums suckers (I love these because they’re only 20 calories per pop and they don’t have a lot of sugar)
• Stickers
• Pick one item from a prize box filled with goodies from the Dollar Store
• Temporary tattoos
• Jelly beans
• Coins

Celebrate the success,  no matter how small.  This will keep it fun for both you and your child.  It’s also a time where you’ll be very focused on your child so take advantage and enjoy spending time with them!

Make a party box.  One of my readers shared a great tip on my Facebook page.   She said each time her child had a successful trip to the potty they would bring out the party box, make a big ruckus & have a piece of candy and then packed it away until next time.

Use Unscented Dog training pads to help keep couches and rugs clean.  If my child is going to sit down on the couch for longer than a couple minutes, I put them on top of a training pad so if they have an accident it won’t mess up my couch!

Order dinner out the first night (or have a dinner pre-made) You will be so  tired that the last thing you want to do is worry about what to make for dinner!

Expect lots of accidents.  If you expect accidents to happen, you’ll be much more likely to take them in stride. Children take some time to learn their body signals (the feeling that tells them they have to go potty)

Speaking of accidents…

Prepare a cleaning bucket.  Have lots of towels and cleaning supplies together in a bucket and keep it with you. When the accident(s) happen, you’ll be armed and ready!  Here’s what I have in mine:

• Disinfecting Wipes
• Small towels
• Tuff Stuff Multi Purpose Foam Cleaner (works great to clean soiled fabric, carpet or couches)
• Disinfectant spray (like Lysol spray)

Keep a container of Disinfecting Wipes beside each toilet, especially if you’re potty training a boy.  As with a lot of things, boys can be particularly messier than girls, especially when potty training.

For Naptime & Nightime Success

For the sake of my sanity, I chose to keep my kids in Pull-Ups for nap time and at night while potty training until they stayed dry on a regular basis.  It really kept the whole potty training process much easier and less stressful for all of us.  My children wore regular underwear all day and then put on Pull-Ups for nap time and at night.  

If you plan to use Pull-Ups in conjunction with real underwear, here’s some important tips:

• DO NOT call the Pull-Ups diapers.  If you child equates them with diapers they may go in them.
• If you child calls them diapers, gently correct them so they know they still are expected to keep them dry and clean.  We call them naptime and nighttime underwear.
• Have your child stand up while you put them on.  Don’t lay them down and put it on like a diaper.  Again, we’re enforcing the fact that this is still underwear and the goal is to keep them dry.

Even with Pull-Ups, accidents will still happen.

Have extra bedding sheets and a waterproof mattress cover clean and ready to go.  I keep an entire sheet set and waterproof mattress cover all stuffed inside the pillowcase so it’s ready to go.  I recommend having at least two full sets on hand.  This will be a life saver for those nights when accidents happen at 3 in the morning.

Take your child to the bathroom when you go to bed.  This will offer them a chance to empty their bladder and give them a greater chance of waking up dry in the morning.  

When You Start Going Out

Keep in mind that your child will still be in the potty training stages for awhile.  Stay prepared in case of an accident.

Always have the child go potty before you leave the house.  Usually my kids will say “I don’t have to go!”  I gently tell them that we will always do a potty stop before leaving the house.  If they try to go and they can’t that’s okay! 

Use unscented Dog training pads like this in your carseat to help catch an accident.

Convert your diaper bag.  Make sure you have an extra pair of underwear, pants, wipes and a small trash bag to hold soiled clothes just in case.  

Pooping

I hate to say it but most kids (including both of mine) have major oppositions to pooping on the potty.   It took a long time before my children were regularly pooping on the potty.  So here’s some tips to help make that transition come easier.

• Pick out a big prize you can give your child for his or her first poop on the potty.  Talk it up!  Your child may be willing to poop on the potty for that new doll or truck they’ve really been wanting!
• During the first stages of poop potty-training, stay in the bathroom with them.  Use Poo Potpourri to help mask some of the unpleasant poop smell.  This stuff is amazing & I highly recommend it!
• Offer slightly bigger rewards for successful pooping in the potty.
• For boys: have them pee first, then sit them down to poop.  Otherwise as they try to push it out, they’ll end up peeing all over the floor and you as well! {I’m speaking from personal experience on this!}
• Fiber is your friend.  Fiber can help bowel movements come more regularly and come out easier.  I keep a bag of dried prunes in the freezer and my kids love them!  Don’t give them too much fiber or else they will get a stomach ache and it will backfire.  Usually 2 prunes is enough to get things going.
• Keep them hydrated.  Most times children struggle to poop because they aren’t drinking enough liquids.

After A Bad Day

Remember this–they will be potty trained….some day.  It may not be today or tomorrow but they will go to high school without diapers.  So take a deep breath and try again tomorrow! 

What’s the best (or worst) potty training advice you’ve received?

*This post contains affiliate links.  I only share products I truly believe in and if you make a purchase you’ll be supporting Carrie This Home at no extra cost to you!  You can see my full disclosure here.

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