I wrote advice on potty training before my daughter was ever potty trained. It was the generic advice that is given to parents and is a good base guideline for parents to use. Since then my daughter has been potty trained and it was in a completely different way than what people generally read when it comes to starting the potty training process. So I wanted to share some of the things behind what got my daughter potty trained in hopes that it’ll help other parents out there who might be feeling a little frustrated because their own children haven’t started yet.

Age doesn’t matter, wait until your child is READY. Everywhere it says we should start the process around 18 months - 2 years old. I tried and every time I tried she’d rather wet herself than sit on the potty. So I would stop potty training for a little bit, then try again a few months later. Each time it was like that up until right after she turned 3. When I attempted potty training with her that time, she went straight to her potty chair as soon as she had to go. She was ready and it was obvious. Which, because she was ready, it saved us both from many headaches.

Potty training underwear over pull ups. Pull ups are a lot like diapers and your child might treat them as such. My daughter did. We even bought the ones that are supposed to feel cold when the child pees in them. Didn’t bother my child one bit. It doesn’t help that they’re very costly. So not only are they a bit more cost effective, but potty training underwear makes sure the child can feel that they’re wet. So they know that they’re not supposed to be. It turned out to be the trick for us. If you’re not sure what to do, try different approaches. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to find the one that works out the best for you.

Stickers are great motivators. I wanted to make sure my daughter found out how great it was for her to use her potty chair, so we bought a packet of cheap stickers and we’d reward her with one when she successfully went potty. Going poopy was the tough one for her to get through on the potty, so we’d give her something a little extra special when she would. She had 2 or 3 accidents the first week because she wanted to test me, but when she didn’t get stickers after having an accident she stopped having them. She hasn’t had one since.

Move to the toilet when you think your child is ready for it. We were 3 weeks in when we decided to see how she’d do on the big toilet. Setting up the potty seat that hooks onto the toilet for her to go, she took to it like it was nothing. When you think your child is ready for that step, try it. You just might be pleasantly surprised to find that it is a successful move.

I hope what I’ve learned from my own experience will help other parents out there. Potty training can be a tough time but from what I’ve found, letting your child choose when they are ready can make the process go much easier and faster.