Helping Your Child Know When to Go Potty

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5 Minutes for Mom contributor, Jen Haas aka Plain Vanilla Mom, is here today to share her experience with potty training her boys. This post is sponsored by Pull-Ups® Training Pants.

Potty training can be a struggle, can’t it?

We recently started potty training with our three year old. I’ve known he’s been ready for a while. The tip off was when he began to loathe his diapers. I mean he really didn’t want to wear them anymore.

Knowing he was ready for potty training was easy for me, but by far our biggest struggle has been helping him know when he needs to use the bathroom to begin with.

He’s slowly getting there but early on, the best he would do was a great job of telling us just as it was too late!

That’s when I remembered how much we loved Pull-Ups® Training Pants with our other two kids. Pull-Ups are the best!

To my son, they are his “underwear” because hey, they really look and fit more like real underwear after all.

I love the stretchy sides which makes the sliding on and off really easy when you have a child who needs to go to the bathroom in a hurry. Plus, Pull-Ups teach him independence and allow him to practice the skills he needs for when he’s finally ready to make the transition to real underwear. The fact that they’re designed specifically to teach potty training skills is really what sold me in.

In the video below, Pull-Ups partner and child development expert Dr. Heather Wittenberg explains why you should allow your little one to switch from diapers to Pull-Ups when potty training.

{video embedded here: FAQ #5 Why should I switch to Pull-Ups training pants? }

I found the best thing we’ve done to help our son know when to use the potty has been to encourage him to use the bathroom at certain times throughout the day.

Pull-Ups also has a Time to Potty App that helps you and your child learn the importance of taking regular potty breaks. It reminds you of when to go, but also automatically adjusts based on your child’s potty progress.

Interestingly enough, based on his potty training personality, is just the right approach for him.  

What’s a potty training personality you ask?

Based on research and observation of personality types in young children, Pull-Ups teamed up with Dr. Heather Wittenberg to develop five potty training personalities: the Puppy, the Owl, the Bear Cub, the Turtle and the Squirrel.

Find your child’s potty personality by taking the short personality quiz at Pull-Ups.com and get tips, tools and advice to help and support you and your child as you partner together and learn throughout the potty training journey.

I really love that everything in the Potty Partnership is specific to my son’s personality, including potty charts, stickers and games.

My little guy is a Bear Cub, by the way.

He’s totally free-spirited and would rather be playing and exploring than settling down to do anything else. He’s friendly and relaxed when meeting new people and trying new things but boy does he like to do things at his own pace!

I have to say the quiz and results were heartwarming, helpful and spot on so definitely check it out. There’s lots of helpful information and answers to questions like “Should my little guy stand while peeing?” This is something that as a mom, I just wasn’t so sure about so I’m relieved we had advice from Dr. Heather Wittenberg on this one!

Encouraging my son to go potty at certain times throughout the day goes a long way towards keeping him dry and building good habits. On the days where I’m religious about prompting him to go, he can stay dry all day. Now, if someone could just prompt me to remember to prompt him we’d be all set!

True to his Bear Cub personality, he’s easily distracted and unlikely to pipe up if he needs a change, so we need lots of reminders. I learned A TON about how to handle this specific part of potty training from the Pull-Ups Potty Partnership, which has an entire section dedicated on helping my little Bear Cub know when to go to the bathroom.

Here’s a little look at our potty training schedule. I will typically prompt him to go:

• When he wakes (if he’s not already wet)
• In the morning when we get dressed.
• Before or after morning snack
• Lunch time
• Before or after afternoon snack
• Before bath
• Before bed
• Anytime we are leaving the house for an extended amount of time.

As time goes by, he is getting better at telling us when he needs to go and giving us enough time to get him to the bathroom.

I’ve found that reading his body language was key in helping him recognize when to go. When I bring it up to him to build awareness of his body’s cues, I know it’s helping her in the long run.

Accidents still happen, especially when we are not at home, so Pull-Ups Training Pants have been an integral part of our potty training journey.

Are you getting ready to start or in the midst of a potty training journey with your child?

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