This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Huggies Pull-Ups. All opinions are my own.
So far in my Huggies “Potty Training My Little Monster” series, I’ve written about my worries about starting the potty training process and a few tips to help make potty training a little easier.
In today’s entry – the final in a three-part series about the joys of potty training – I’ll offer a few tips on how to make potty training fun. That’s right, fun. It really can be fun, at least fun for your little one, if you want it to be.
USE CHARTS AND STICKERS – One of the biggest incentives for our little one to use the potty is the promise of being able to add a sticker to her potty training chart (that’s it below). Each time she sits on the potty, she gets to add one sticker. Each time she makes wee-wee, she can add three stickers. And each time she makes poo-poo, she can add five stickers. (We’ve only added five stickers once, but it was a quite a celebration!)
USE REWARDS – I’m not above bribing my child to get her to do what I want. Within reason, of course, but potty training is a great opportunity to use rewards as an incentive. Just like her potty training chart, after each successful trip to the potty she gets to choose a reward from either the trinket jar (filled with little plastic toys and jewelry) or the candy jar (currently filled with M&Ms, which my husband claims he should also be entitled to each time he uses the potty).
GET EXCITED – If your little one sits on the potty, get excited about it. And if they actually go potty, get REALLY excited. Like over-the-top, throw-a-parade-in-the-living-room excited. It might seem a little weird, but your tot will feed off of your excitement and do whatever it takes to make you excited over and over again.
GET THE PULL-UPS BIG KID APP – I mentioned this briefly in my last Huggies blog entry, but the easiest way to make potty time fun is the download the Pull-Ups Big Kid app. It makes potty breaks easier and more fun with games, tips, tools and more. You can even schedule phone calls from your little one’s favorite cartoon characters. Below is a video of our little monster getting a phone call from Monsters University’s Sully.
As always, Huggies Pull-Ups training pants also help with the ups and downs of potty training. Pull-Ups help take the scare out of potty training by making it fun and easy with new Monsters U character training pants! You can help make potty training easier by staying consistent and using rituals like the potty break. Make it a game and ask your toddler, “What does a little monster take?”…“A Potty Break!”
Visit Pull-Ups.com and “like” Pull-Ups on Facebook for more potty training tips and resources.
great tips I am trying to potty train my daughter
My own mother swears by m&m’s. 🙂 Potty training is tough. I am not entirely sure how I made it through!
Great tips. Good luck on potty training your little one!
Ohhh I can’t wait for potty training! (Not)
I will bookmark this so that I remember it when the time comes!
I wished all these tips and tricks were around when I was potting training my now 11 year old son
Thank you for this post! I got a kick out of your daughter being so excited about getting a call from Sully from Monsters Inc. – so cute :). I also found it hilarious that your hubby wants a potty reward with M&Ms too lol… I can so imagine my hubby being this way. My daughter is only 8 weeks old so we have a while before we are potty training, but your tips are very useful. I’ve bookmarked this page for future reference… thanks! 🙂
I’m working on Potty Training my soon to be 3 year old! I don’t know what it is, but I’m having a hard time with this one. My older daughter was potty trained by 18 months! It just goes to show how different each child is.
Great tips for when I have to start potty training my little guy!
Definitely sharing this one with my fans! Thanks!
I have never really seen rewards as bribing. The two are distinctly different in my mind. Rewards are used for teaching, bribing is done when someone knows what you want, but won’t do it without a bribe. My youngest loved sticker charts. He just loved seeing that row of stickers expand when he used his potty. I also would read to him while he was on the potty. It kept his attention long enough for him to sit there, and now, at 20 years old, he still loves to read.
These are such great tips. And I want my not even 1-year-old to start potty training now just because of those adorable Monsters Inc. Pull Ups!
Great tips, I Like the candy opinion!
Great ideas! We will be potty training my littlest soon! I’m definitely going to keep these tips in mind!
Great post and very helpful- I’ll bookmark this as I have my 17 months old whom I am planning of potty training soon.
I have been debating on starting to potty train Carly. This is useful information. Thank you!
Great ideas! We used M&M’s in my house too, since my kids saw that it I think it seems to go smoother.
Great ideas! I am going to potty train my daughter. Just on time! Thanks for the tips. Hugs!
My mother used m&m’s on me! Great tips, will share this with my friend who is having issues with her boy!
My son has some of these and loves them.
Oh my goodness! Pull ups have come a long way since my boys were little 🙂 How cute are these? I’ll be passing along your tips to my youngest son and DIL to help them when the time comes for potty training the lil peanut!
You have some great tips here. One thing I did a little different was to use gummies as treats. That way, I could slip a couple of vitamin gummies in there as a “treat”! 😀
I love the potty sticker chart — in our house we used Hersey Kisses….
I’m cracking up at your husband’s comment that he should be able to have an M&M every time he goes potty, too! LOL!! Your daughter is so cute in that video.
We used a cute Pez dispenser for an incentive. Only gave one candy when we needed an award. it worked great! Cute training pants!!
This has some great ideas. Potty training can be hard from what I’ve heard. I don’t have kids yet, but when I do, I’ll use these tips.
The sticker calendar is pure brilliance!! I’m sending this along to my brother in law – they are having trouble with potty training their daughter. The other day she had three accidents at the park within an hour and we had to change her three times. !!
I remember the old day when I was potty training my children. I am glad they are gone!!! I hope you enjoy this time.
Potty training was the hardest thing for me and my kids. I’ve seen this sticker calendar too from the “Nanny” show and it works great.
My kids were night & day with potty training. My son took 2 years and my daughter took 2 days!
My one and a half year old is going through the potty training phase and it has not been that bad actually. My son was worse! It took me a longer time to potty train him! I tried the m&m, jelly beans and cheerios on him and it didn’t work. I think every child is different so I am just taking it easy with my second and it’s actually working 🙂 Although I have to say, she might like those stickers 🙂 thanks for the tips!
i love pull ups, but my oldest got too big for them. he needs to be potty trained. in the past year, i got him to at least pee in the toilet.
One thing with the rewards…you have to make sure the reward is your child’s “currency”. I used m&Ms for my oldest and it worked amazing. But for my 2nd…the M&Ms just weren’t doing the trick. It took some time finding his “currency” what he valued, but it ended up being simple like stickers! Yeah! He was potty trained within two days after I figured out what he really wanted.
Great tips – I will have to pass these along!
Best of luck! I need to train my little monster soon too! Great tips
We’ve been potty training my son and the treat idea works amazing! I don’t use pullups though since I think we might as well use diapers if we use pullups. Thanks for the tips!
Those are super cute!!! I want someone to give me chocolate when I go potty too!! lol
I can tell you from experience that your tips work. I’m done with potty training, but am always happy to help other moms going through it with their toddlers.
There is a lot of great tips here that will be helpful to so many mothers. I don’t have children going through this at the moment but would have liked to have known some of these in past years.
My daughter would have flipped if she got phone calls from her favorite cartoon characters. That is awesome.
Fun times. I admit I am glad to be done with potty training.
Love this! Whatever it takes, I say. I do like the Huggies brand as they were the name brand that we used in our home. I trusted them for both of my children. Potty training is not easy, but you have taken it head on!