Our Potty Training Essentials – The Things We Found Most Useful

Our Potty Training Essentials – The Things We Found Most Useful

A few weeks ago we started potty training again after a few unsuccessful attempts over the past eight or so months and we have finally been successful. The people who say that when you kid is ready it will work were completely right. Some kids are ready sooner, others later. Our eldest had just turned three and this time was the right time for her.

We stopped with nappies and she understood that she should pee and poo on the potty or the toilet, and did not wee in her pants like she kept doing the previous times we tried to go nappy free. We’re finally there!

She now does her business on the potty or the toilet and only occasionally has weeing accidents when she’s too engrossed in other activities to remember to go for a pee!

We are so happy that it’s finally happened and so proud of our girl for doing so well. There are a few products that have really helped us so I thought I’d list them below in case anyone reading is about to start potty training too!

Our Potty Training Essentials

• Training pants are great while your child is learning not to pee in their pants but also a great backup when you’re out and about as they can catch a little dribble if you’re struggling to get to a toilet quickly enough. We have some from Mothercare, Bambino Mio (review here) and Zoocchini. They all work well but the Zoocchini ones are the softest and thinnest and feel the most like regular pants so I prefer using them if we go out since they fit the best under my daughter’s leggings.
• A potty or two or three! How many potties you need depends on your house layout. You could just have your child go on the big toilet but I think having a potty available gives them the independence to go for a wee on their own when they feel they need to. We have the Summer Infant My Size potty (review here) downstairs and it’s so cute as it looks like a miniature toilet. My daughter loves it and I don’t mind having it out in the living room! We don’t have a toilet downstairs so a potty there is an essential for us as it would be impossible to run upstairs every time, especially when looking after a baby at the same time. Upstairs I try to encourage my daughter to use the toilet more and more but we have a Pourty potty out available for her too. It’s the best potty for pouring the wee out with its clever design and it’s really easy to clean too. We actually have a third potty too that I bought to keep at my mum’s house and I let my girl choose the design she wanted — Disney Cars!
• A wet bag is a good thing to have available in the changing bag but also in the laundry basket so that you don’t have to put any clothes from an accident straight into your bag or with the other washing. With kids, we do washing most days so the clothes usually go straight in the washing machine but it’s nice to have a convenient way to store any wet clothes if you can’t do washing straight away.

We’re finally getting somewhere with the potty training! My best advice to other parents is that it will work when your child is ready. We’ve attempted potty training a few times and this time she seems to really understand it. This is our third day without nappies and we even went out on the first two days – brave! ? We’ve had a Kinder Egg treat/reward/bribe for potty success which worked amazingly. These beautiful and super soft training pants from Zoocchini arrived at the perfect time. They look and feel like pants but have sewn in double sided terry cloth that absorbs any small accidents. Perfect for when you’re out and it might take a bit longer to find a toilet. They are so cute! ? I love he retro design and the cute fox on the bum! The fit looks very comfortable too. ????? There are a couple of more designs that I might need to add to my daughter’s wardrobe too… She’s a big girl now! ?❤️

A post shared by A Mum Reviews (.co.uk) (@amumreviews) on Feb 23, 2017 at 2:35am PST

• Training nappy pants to wear at night. When we stopped with nappies we stopped completely and I didn’t want to put my girl in her regular nappies for sleeping in. We kept telling her that she’s a big girl and big girls don’t need nappies, only babies need nappies and so on so I went to buy some pull ups and found the ASDA Little Angels First Pants which are pull up nappies but they are really slim and soft so feel quite a lot like regular pants. We call them “special Peppa Pig night time pants” and this works very well for us. They seem comfortable and fit really well and we’ve not had any leaks. My daughter seems to be quite good at not peeing much during the night though as we take her for a wee straight before bed and straight away when she wakes up. These are really affordable at just £3.87 for 26 pull ups.
• Extra mattress protectors. With kids, you should always have mattress protectors on their beds but when potty training it’s also a good idea to have a few extra ones to place on the sofa or the floor (if you have carpets!) to catch any accidents. We also keep one under the potty to catch any drips. They’re really easy to wash and take away the worry of accidents on the furniture or having to clean the carpet even more. We have two from The Little Green Sheep — one cot size one and one SnüzPod one — and an IKEA one and used them all in the early days. Now we only use the SnüzPod one under the potty and have the big The Little Green Sheep one on the bed as a regular mattress protector.
• A car seat protector. We have a Summer Infant PiddlePad Waterproof Car Seat Liner to protect our car seat and this one fits our Koochi Kickstart Group 1 Car Seat really well and ensures we don’t have to worry about washing the car seat if our daughter has a weeing accident.

Potty training is much more fun when you get to use these very cool and stylish potty training pants from @bambinomio! Soft and comfortable too of course! Read my full review on the blog now. ?????? #mummybloggers #pbloggers #toddlers #toddler #eco #reusable #bambinomio #pottytraining

A post shared by A Mum Reviews (.co.uk) (@amumreviews) on Aug 3, 2016 at 4:47am PDT

Other Things Not Pictured

• Pants, lots of pants! A good way to get your little one excited about potty training is to let them choose a pack of pants. I took my daughter to ASDA George and she chose some boys’ Paw Patrol ones. We already had some H&M ones at home and I soon picked up another pack of pants from ASDA but this time I went for the 10-pack pastel briefs that cost £4 and they have turned out to be much better than the more expensive Paw Patrol and H&M ones. They fit perfectly and wash very well. They’re the ones we’ll buy from now on.
• More clothes! When potty training, it’s a good idea to have some more trousers and socks than you might usually need. I bought some cheap but comfortable leggings from Primark (two for £3.50) and some more socks too so that I don’t need to worry so much about the washing. Leggings are great because they’re quick and easy to pull down and up for children and adults meaning getting onto the potty in time is much easier than with jeans for example!
• Cleaning wipes. We use cleaning wipes for cleaning most days but they’re also great for cleaning the potty and wiping the floor when there’s been an accident.
• Toilet wipes or baby wipes. These are still very useful when your child has done a poo because of course you want them to be completely clean and a wipe does a better job than dry toilet roll. Choose biodegradable ones if possible and don’t flush them! I never even flush the “flushable” ones as they seem to still cause a lot of problems.
• A step stool. It’s great to have one of these available in the bathroom so that it’s easy for your child to wash their hands after using the toilet. It’s an important habit to teach them as soon as possible. We have one that I bought in the ALDI Baby & Toddler Event ages ago.
• Bribes! Small treats like Kinder Eggs or small toys work a treat for encouraging children at the start of potty training. You’ll only need them in the early days — don’t worry, you don’t need to buy a Kinder Egg for every successful poo on the potty!

Things We Didn’t Use

I’m surprised that we didn’t need to get a travel potty as we’ve found our girl is completely happy using the toilet when out and about and we have got rid of our toddler toilet seat as she’s happy sitting on the regular toilet seat. We also haven’t used a reward sheet or anything like that which I thought we would but it went so well this time so we only needed a couple of Kinder Eggs!

What are your potty training essentials? Leave your tips in the comments below. I’d love to read them!

This article features a few PR samples that I’ve chosen to include myself along with items that I’ve bought.