posted by Lilli on advice, bicultural children, Bilingual, family, firsts with children, parenting

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It’s time for the potty training journey to begin with our second daughter and this time we’re a little wiser and a bit more prepared.  Plus, I am happy to share that I have been selected as a Huggies Pull-Ups Madrina del Baño so not only are we “experienced” but now we also have some pretty cool tools including the Every Flush Counts Pull-Ups® Big Kid App and online tools where we can keep track of her potty training success using the Big Kid® Calendar. We can also enter the Party Room and customize a new celebration after each Big Kid® flush, bringing the party to life for her.

I can’t tell you how excited I really am for this new tool.  Our toddler is very familiar with interactive tools like our iPhones and our tablets and she response well to these.  Using this app or the online tools will help her feel part of the strategy and enjoy the celebration. While our daughters are like night and day when it comes to their personalities at least we have a better understanding of the challenges we’ll face while potty training her.

I know, that this process can be frustrating and intimidating especially for first time parents because we’ve been there ourselves.  While our first daughter was not really hard to potty train we approached things in a way that made the process longer.  Since hindsight is always 20/20 I’m sharing my top tips for any parent starting the potty training process.

Set a Potty Training Plan

Get a plan together before you start to potty train.  Decide how you will introduce the potty and how you will deal with both successes and set-backs.  Be consistent with whatever method you pick and give it some time before deciding you should try something different. We knew it was time and one day went and bought our first pack of pull-ups but aside from putting her in them and sitting her on the potty we had no plan.  This was detrimental in the long run because it took a while to find our grove and really start to be effective.

Match the Potty Training Method to Your Child

While there are lots of ways to approach the potty training process you need to understand your child’s personality and choose one that works well for them.  For instance, with our first daughter we tried sitting her on the potty once an hour all day long and not only would she not go when we asked her and then go five minutes after she got up from the potty but she was annoyed that we were interrupting her.

We tried this for a day or two and then switched to asking her if she needed to go.  That didn’t work because she would just say “no” and then still go in her trainers. Finally understanding that she likes to feel in charge and that she needed to feel the wetness we asked her to help us plan a schedule for when she should go and bought the Cool Alert^® Pull Ups to help her.

She was 2 ½ and fairly vocal so we set-up a few different times in the day.  We set alarms to remind us and when she heard the alarm she’d go.  She also enjoyed rewards but they were not motivation enough. We tried the M&Ms as rewards and stickers but ultimately control was her biggest motivator.

We also realized that if we had tried longer with some of these methods they might have been effective but we often switch quickly or combined so we weren’t consistent enough and that made the process longer.

Be Kind and Patient

It’s easy to get frustrated and loose your patience when your child seems to be getting it and then regresses or has accidents or when nothing seems to be working with your child.  As with anything please remember that you will get further with kindness and patience than with anger and frustration.  Keep your sense of humor and be positive with your child.  This milestone can provide you an opportunity for bonding so get creative if needed, use the tools available and have fun.

Of course, if regardless of all you’re doing your child is not “getting” it or shows low interest consider taking a break and trying again in a few weeks or the following months.  We tried with our first at two and wasted a lot of time and energy because she wasn’t ready but we did take a break for a month, talked about our plans, and when we started again she was ready and potty trained in a few weeks.

Take advantage of these cool tools when you are ready to potty train your kids. Visiting the Pull-Ups website where you can customize a digital celebration as a reward for successful flushes and learn more about all of the Pull-Ups® Every Flush tools.  You can visit the Pull-Ups Facebook page for more fun!  Also, make sure to download the Pull-Ups® Big Kid App which is a mobile tool designed to help make the potty training experience a better one for parents and children.

The app contains a wealth of content to enhance the training experience- from games to reward your child for accomplishing Big Kid success, to a Disney-themed Potty Timer and Character Calls to remind your child when it’s time to take their next potty break.   It also has an interative 3D celebration as a reward that is a favorite with my girl.  You need to download the Big Kid™ App in order to enable the mobile experience included in new packs of Pulls-Ups^®.

I’ll share our progress in a few more posts. We are starting younger with her at 18 months because for the past few weeks she’s been pointing at her diaper and complaining when she’s wet so we think she might be ready to try.  Our process includes using all these tools as well as our Spanish Elmo Potty who shares his encouragement when you high-five him.  We are trying to raise our daughters to be bilingual so we use as many minority language tools (Spanish for us) as we can find.  We will be using this app in spanish as well as the reward charts.  Oh and I almost forgot we will also have the big sister teacher which I am sure will be super helpful. Our oldest loves to help her sister and baby sister is always trying to copy her.  I hope her lead will help our toddler have fun with the process.

If you’d like to find more info in Spanish make sure to visit the Pull-Ups page in Spanish (en Español) at: http://es.pull-ups.com and set the language to Spanish on your app.  So this can be a potty training tool and a language learning tool!

Visit http://www.pull-ups.com to learn more!

This is part of a compensated campaign with Latina Mom Bloggers and Pull Ups.  However, all opinions expressed are my own.

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Tags: apps, challenges, fun, milestones, Potty Training, pull-ups, tips