potty training the zeltins way

I've had several people ask me how we managed potty training, so I've decided to post it here. Weredesh has been potty trained since the day she turned two (for 6 months now) and we're still going strong. :) And I must say this is WAY better than crappy diapers!!!

First and foremost, be sure your baby is ready for this big step. If she's really curious about the toilet and always wants to be involved when you go to the bathroom, then she's probably ready. I've been told that there's a fairly small window that you need to take advantage of. It's somewhere around the age of two. If you wait too long, it might take much longer to potty train. But you don't want to try too early either.

We honestly didn't have to do very much. I think it helped that she was in school and they worked with her on it too (and seeing other kids use the potty helped). A couple of things we did though:

We always let her join us when we're going potty so that she sees how it's done and talk about it, letting her flush, wash hands, etc. We also use the Baby Bjorn potty seats that go on regular toilets and a step stool. That combination we found to be perfect. At first she needed help getting up on it but got it really quick on her own.

We had her completely naked for a couple of days (we waited until the weekend and didn't plan on going anywhere). She really didn't like it when pee started coming down her leg. And when that happened, we ran her to the toilet and talked about going there instead. Of course big cheers when she actually peed in the toilet. We never had a problem with pooping as I think they can feel that urgency a little sooner than pee.

Also, the first day we set a timer for every 20 mins. Every 20 mins we would ask her if she needed to go and would set her on the potty. If she didn't need to go, we would set it for 20 mins after that and do it all over again. If she went on the potty (again, big hurrahs), we would set the timer for 40 mins later, as we knew she wouldn't have to go just 20 mins later unless she was drinking a lot of water or something. And I think we only had to do the timer thing for one or two days.

Once we gave up the diaper, we COMPLETELY gave it up (don't give in to this one). It NEVER went back on unless she was napping or going to bed at night. We used pull-up diapers for a little while, because when she would be playing with friends or doing something really stimulating, she might have accidents. And with the pull-up diapers we used the pull-ups that have the wetness strip so that she could feel she was wet (I used Mom2Mom brand from Safeway). Otherwise, they have no incentive not to just pee their pants if it feels dry. When she wasn't using the pull-ups (and we ONLY used those if we felt she was going to be put in an accident-prone situation), she wore panties. Panties especially at home, in the car (if we knew she just went to the bathroom at home), and at school. Always make sure she uses the bathroom before you leave too.

I know some of that is really obvious, but it's easy to get caught up in life and forget the little (important) things! :)

Hope that helps!

Now does anyone have any advice for transitioning a toddler from a crib to a big girl bed? This one scares me WAY more than potty training! ;)