Around 18 months we got her a baby bjorn potty chair. I knew a lot of people who recommended this brand for a potty. I decided to get the one with the bigger backing (more chair like) so she could lounge in it since she could be sitting in it for a long period of time. We kept it in the bathroom. Every time I went, I would bring her in. She would sit in the chair (clothing and cloth diaper still on) while I went to the bathroom. Then she would watch me wipe and put it in the toilet. I would then give her some toilet paper to put into the toilet too (she loved this part) and I would let her flush.
We got to a point where she wanted her diaper off too when I went to the bathroom. So off it came. Then she wanted to wipe herself. And she did and threw it in the toilet. Then we could not get the diaper back on, so she just started to go naked around the house. Seemed easier to get her to go naked. Then the potty chair moved from the bathroom to the living room. She would eat on it and watch something on TV. This seemed to work well. She would sometimes poop on it. Yes we got poop before pee. She was getting to a point where she would say poop run over and sit on it. Awesome! To keep her on it we were trying stickers, m&ms, snacks, whatever. Nothing really worked for her, but we found praise worked the best.
Her day care room was great. She would tell them when she wanted a change - right after she went in her diaper. Then they started to notice when she had to go (grabbing her crotch or her bum). They took her to a real potty and put her on. They let her sit there for a good 5 minutes and cheer when she went. Since she was going on the big potty at day care, we decided to do the big potty at home too. We got a toddler toilet seat at Lowes. The smaller seat is integrated into the regular toilet seat so she is always on the big potty and does not have to worry about falling in.
Every time she peed we would cheer. She would get to wipe herself and clap. Big smiles all around. Her day care room kept up with her and she would pee / poop 3 times a day. They were not a potty training room so they could not always take her to the potty. She wore trainers to daycare once and a while if they had the manpower to take her to the toilet. She was doing good.
Finally she moved to the potty training room (they have a potty room inside the room). She went in trainers all day. The first week she would have maybe 2 accidents a day (during nap and maybe once in the day). That quickly changed within a few days to dry during nap. Now she is having maybe 2 accidents a week at daycare!
About 3-4 weeks ago, we started venturing outside the house in underwear. We would put her in thick trainers so if she did have an accident it would be absorbed. We put her potty chair in the back of the car so we always had a potty with us. I put prefolds under her when she was in her car seat to help absorb any accidents. I brought so many changes with us as well as a diaper in case we gave up. The first week was on and off of accidents. She would use her toilet seat before we got in the car when she saw it. She would maybe have an accident in the car and sometimes not. The past 3 weeks she has been amazing and holding it and using the seat if she has to once we reach our destination. I love having the seat in the car, you never know where you will be and if they have toilets and training toddlers cannot hold for long!
This weekend we had a good day and an ehh day. Saturday she had a few accidents. She didn't want to go on the potty after breakfast so I didn't push her. Then she peed while playing. Oh well. She had one more I think. But was good for daddy when mommy needed some time outside the house (the two year molars another post...). Sunday she was great. She would tell me when she had to go or run to the bathroom. SO PROUD!
She does get distracted sometimes and does not want to potty and would rather play. That is when she has accidents. This only happens at home for some reason. But she is getting better. I would say she is 80% there.
We still do a diaper at night. She loves to have a sippy of water in bed with her. I need to wean her off this and wean her off her massive amount of water she likes to chug before bed. But she isn't 2 yet, so no pushing the bed time training (think we will wait till she is in a big girl bed and we put a potty seat in her room for her to use).
But yeah I didn't believe I would have an almost potty trained kid before she is 2! I really attribute this to her cloth diaper usage. She became very aware of when she would pee and poop and wanted to train herself early.
Some needed potty training items
- baby bjorn potty chair
- AquaDuck faucet extender
- toddler toilet seat
- Baby Bjorn Stool (or whatever stool works for you, I liked the matchyness and Evie likes the bear on it)
- potty seat for the car (we use the chair we used at home since she uses the toilet)
- Many MANY rags to clean accidents (we are lucky we have hardwood and tile downstairs)
- Cloth Trainers - we did a combination of cheapy Gerber and our favorite Blueberry trainers. The blueberry trainers are cute, fit my petite girl well and are VERY absorbent. I wish we had more than 3. I have heard great things about the Hanna Anderson Trainers. I would say no to pull ups, they still pull pee away from the kid like disposable diapers and it just means more laundry but hopefully a quicker training period.
- Underwear (I had the hardest time finding non character ones, finally found some good ones by green dog at Macy's)
- Many books to read while on the potty (worked for my kid)
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