Having just moved house, I am surrounded by boxes but I have found a small cosy spot between the unopened IKEA flat pack furniture and the dog’s bed to sit down and write the follow up to my last blog post: Can you really potty train your toddler in one week?
As promised, I have put together a list of all the things I would recommend stocking up on prior to starting your amazing potty training adventure.
(The sense of humour is optional, but I found it particularly useful for our potty training journey).
1. Potties
I bought two identical potties – One for upstairs and one for downstairs. I bought the Baby Bjorn white potties (see image) as they had good reviews and Mr E wanted something that would ‘blend in’ with the bathroom. (I haven’t shown him the bright orange duck toddler toilet seat yet…)
Tip: I chose 2 identical potties, as I read that kids can sometimes develop a preference for one potty over another if they are different.
2. Pants/Knickers (x20)
Yes thats right 20 (I actually got 25 pairs just in case, but that was just me getting carried away).
While you can get away with less, I didn’t fancy washing and drying underwear constantly throughout the day (a girl’s got better things to do right?) but I didn’t want to Fee to run out of underwear halfway through day one either.
Tip: Choosing underwear with a cartoon character that your child likes helps with compliance. We went for…you guessed it, the wonderful Peppa Pig.
3. Pull-Ups
This is a controversial one as I know most books say to never put your little one back into nappies when you start potty training. However, I wasn’t sure whether Fee would stay dry overnight and during her nap, so I would put her in pull-ups whenever she went to bed.
It worked for us (and she did stay dry overnight from around day 3) so there wasn’t a problem of her regressing when she had a pull-up on, but its entirely up to you.
4. Waterproof Mats
I bought one for the car seat and one for the buggy. I chose this one from Amazon (see image).
They were invaluable in protecting the car seat and buggy from any little accidents and they are machine washable.
5. Disposable Changing Mats
I found that I used these a lot when Fee wanted to sit on the sofa to watch TV. She would often get so engrossed in Peppa Pig or Ben & Holly that she would forget that she needed to use the potty, so this saved me having to wash the sofa cushions!
6. Flushable Antibacterial Toilet Wipes
You can get these from most supermarkets and they are brilliant for wiping out the potty between uses.
7. Stickers & Sticker Books
We did try using a potty sticker reward chart for Fee (as recommended by both of the books I read) but I found Fee quickly lost interest in the charts and was more interested in playing with the sticker books whilst on the potty and decorating her potties and/or mummy with the stickers.
8. Non-Slip Step Stool
We bought two of these white Tippitoes non slip step-up stools, one for each bathroom so that Fee could reach up to the sink to wash her hands.
9. Fun Tap Extenders
As Fee is pretty short in the leg department (like her mummy), she found it difficult to reach the taps to wash her hands after using the potty, so I got a couple of these tap extenders which worked a treat and fit to most standard sized taps.
From the moment we put these on the taps Fee was desperate to wash her hands and it turned the otherwise boring ‘handwashing’ routine into a novelty in Fee’s eyes. They come in a pack of two which is handy.
10. Travel Potty
This has been an amazing bit of kit. It gave us the freedom to leave the house, safe in the knowledge that we had a potty nearby at all times.
It also helped avoid what would have been a very embarrassing incident of mistaken identity when Fee was looking for somewhere to relieve herself in the bathrooms department of our local B&Q store. – How do you explain to a toddler that the toilets there are for display purposes only?!
It is also pretty compact which means it fits into my bag.
11. Plastic Table Cloth / Picnic Sheet
I bought mine from a pound shop and used it for when we ventured into carpeted areas of the house. Fee was quite happy to sit on it and pretend to have a picnic in the sitting room with teddy and I was quite happy in the knowledge that I wouldn’t need to wash the carpet if she had an accident.
12. Activity Materials
Fee and I spent the first few days confined to the kitchen and hallway (where there were no carpets!) and so I had made sure that I had a few activities lined up that would keep us both from going stir crazy. These are the things that worked well for us:
- Books (colouring, sticker, normal)
- Baking
- Peppa Pig / Ben and Holly DVDs
- Play Doh
- Puzzles
- Stacking Blocks and Big Lego
- Painting
I also found some mini marshmallows in the baking cupboard that…I confess, I did use as potty bribes on occasion.
13. Toddler Toilet Seat
I have put this last on the list, as we haven’t used our toddler toilet seat yet. Fee preferred using the potty from day one, but some kids (and their parents) prefer using a toddler toilet seat particularly if they are a bit older. It also does mean you don’t need to wash out a potty.
I bought this bright yellow/orange Fisher-Price duck one, as Fee loves ducks and it would fit to most toilet seats. It is currently sitting patiently in our new bathroom cupboard, waiting for Fee’s next step of using the big toilet and hiding from Mr E – who thinks everything in our bathroom should be white…
Well, to all those of you planning your potty training adventure, I hope you find the above list helpful, Good Luck and may the force be with you!
