Potty Training my 3 year old…

Well, my SOON TO BE 3 year old, (tee hee).  My Chica’s birthday is around the corner (a little over a month away, eek!) and as an early birthday gift for her I want to give her the freedom from having to wear diapers.  Yay!  Her favorite Character is Dora the Explorer, so I made her a potty training chart.

My awesome hubby, Tan, got our girl stickers as a reward when she goes poo or pee.

MY EXPERIENCE IN POTTY TRAINING:

I have to say that this is not my first time potty training, since my chica is the youngest of three I kinda knew what to expect.  But since each one of my girls are different I knew the experience will be unique! 😀

First thing I did was buy panties from her favorite character -Dora.  I showed her one panty and said “You’re a big girl now and I want you to wear big girl panties”.  She was so excited to have her very own pair of Dora panties.  She didn’t hesitate to put them on and prance around the house and show her 2 sisters.  Next- I showed her the potty chart and told her that she will get a sticker every time she goes potty.  She thought it was cool and couldn’t wait for the stickers.  Then off to potty she went.  As expected, her first experience in potty training was more accidents than actually going potty.  She would sit on her potty while I kept her company and we would wait, and wait and wait some more.  She would eventually give up and go play.  No sooner did she leave, she would have an accident.  I think it was the stress of having to go for me.  I told her no big deal sweety if you can’t go now we try again later.  and that seemed to help.   Today though we had success!!  She awoke this morning with no need to go, but after a while of playing, eating her breakfast and snack, she finally went potty!  It’s such a great feeling having your little one go potty.  She was so proud of herself and is so happy.

WHAT I DID:

First I got her panties-  no pull ups. ( They look and feel like diapers, and in my opinion, it confuses them and they will have set backs- I tried using pull ups before with my Rockstar as well as with my Chica and it did not work.  It took way too long for them to understand the difference between diapers and pull ups.)

Next I gave her the chart- she likes it but was more excited about the panties.  I think it’s because it’s something she can have right away.  Where as the stickers she has to finish a task, haha.

Another great thing to do is to have the entire family participate in her potty training experience.  My two older girls were more than happy to help their baby sister.  Whenever she had to go potty the girls would get so excited for her (like cheerleaders) and that would further motivate Chica to use that potty.  When Tan got home he too would help, whether it was potty time, sticker time or just a big hug, Chica would be so happy.

MY ADVICE:

I’m not an expert, but I do want to help all you potty training mamas out there.  So here are some guidelines on what to look out for when Potty Training your kiddo:

• Goes long periods without wetting diaper
• wakes up dry
• can undress him/herself without problems
• asks to go potty
• showing interest when you go potty

Keep in mind, that even with these signs some kids are not ready.  You know your kids best and even if Aunt Susie or your BFF Brenda’s kids went potty at 9months or whatever doesn’t mean you should pressure yourself or your child.  They’ll go when they’re ready.  Period.

Be Consistent.  You can’t flip flop from diapers/pull ups to undies.  It confuses your child and will further set them back from the goal.

Don’t Get Angry or show frustration.  Just because they had accidents doesn’t mean you should get angry.  After all it was an accident.  It will embarrass them and make it harder to have an enjoyable potty experience.  Instead don’t make a big deal of accidents, just clean and keep going.  (My Chica had the play room like a splash zone full of pee and her new dora panties had to be washed over and again from her accidents.  I felt overwhelmed but didn’t let her know, we just cleaned and kept trying.)

Last but not least, Don’t stress over it!  Keep Calm and Cool and your kid will potty in no time and then you’ll both be proud and happy.  Good Luck Mamas!~