Pull-Ups Giveaway and Saving While Potty Training!

I don’t know if you have heard but I am having a contest that ends very soon! In two days! I am happy to be giving away two packages of Pull-Ups to one lucky reader!
This is my first contest and I hope that you are excited about it as I am. I know that when my son was in diapers and pull-ups, a great deal of my budget went to those little devils, money suckers that’s what they are! If you have not entered you can do so by CLICKING HERE, and then all you have to do is leave me a comment. That is it. Hurry though because the contest ends 3-13-10.

Since I was able to end the potty training madness at my house, a few folks have asked me how I did it. If you ask any Mom how they potty trained their child, each Mom will tell you a different story. Hey, all kids are different! What works for one kid even in your house will not necessarily work for one of their siblings! So it is nice to get other ideas from Moms out there.

This is mine:
First how do you know when is potty training time? With my children it is when they could walk and talk. They can’t really tell ya that they have to go it they cannot talk yet! Once they are walking and talking I started talking potty. “Potty talk” as I like to call it, is not as much fun as having a potty mouth, but you have to make it fun for the kids.

I just took my kids into the bathroom with me (and Dad did too) and they sat on their potty as we sat on ours and we talked about what was happening. You know what is happening but they need to know how big girls and boys do it! Really that is the key for my kids, because they wanted to be bigger to do fun stuff. So I would tell them this is how their favorite uncle does it, or how their big brother, whoever is their favorite big person! Maybe it is You!

Don’t make it hard instead make it a game or at least fun. Basically no pressure for them to try and they don’t even have to take their pants and diaper off. But you have to ask each and every time, if they want to do it like the big person.
Then when they started understanding and talking the potty talk too, (that is when they start talking potty with you and repeating on their own what you have said) Take their bottom clothes off so they get to spend the day in a shirt. We always had the potty in the room that we are in, but try to make it to the bathroom when ever possible. They tinkle in the pot easier when they don’t have to deal with the hassle of clothes.

Also go potty every hour and then before you lay them down for bed.
At this point we are only concentrating on one thing going potty. So if you go somewhere they wear Pull-Ups. If there is something else going on, do not expect them to remember. It is so new to them; they cannot have anything else going on except their regular cartoons, and toys, just a normal day to them.
I typically wait until warm weather for this step but I have done it in the dead of Maine winter with my last child.

Warm weather is better because we can be outside in the yard more often and if there is an accident it happens in the grass! (Less clean up for you!) It will also save you money because you won’t have the heat up so high to keep their little butts warm!
Once using the potty is mastered you add clothing one piece at a time until they are fully dressed again.

It worked for my three kids. I only buy pull ups for when we are going to a store or out to someone else’s house that won’t understand a wet spot here and there!
Dad would sometimes get lazy and put a Pull-Up on one of our kids when he was watching them. But it was not that big of a regression. The more they have the Pull-Ups off the faster the whole process is though.

So I saved money buy not having to buy but maybe three or four packs of pull ups and the whole entire process only lasts about two weeks tops depending on the child. In the beginning when they are just starting they wear a Pull-Up while sleeping so you don’t have to change the sheets so often. But when they are confident all day and you don’t have any accidents, take that Pull-Up off at bed. Limit their drinks two hours before bedtime and most kids will not have a problem. This process works better if they are not used to having a wet or dirty diaper on.

I hear other Mother’s saying how it was so much easier to potty train girls than boys but I don’t agree. Not for me anyhow. My daughter could not go pee in the grass as easy as my son’s could she was just not built that way! Plus if we were out somewhere we had to find a bathroom and sometimes she would not use it, because it was too “ugly”. Meaning it was too dirty or gross looking. Boys can pee right behind your car door or just about anywhere else. I don’t think grown men should do it but a little boy who is potty training seems alright to me.

My daughter also took longer because other things were going on, that made potty training a distraction, a new brother was born, and we moved in the middle of it all. So she kept regressing because her day to day was not routine. I will swear by that, routine it is key. The days we just stayed at home and did not go off of our routine were the best potty training days. I never gave candy for a reward, just verbal praise. If you make it a big deal, it will be a better reward than candy. Tell everyone that comes over, or when Daddy comes home and you will see how proud they are on their face when you tell the great success story.