These potty training hacks will save your sanity:
1. Use cheerios to help your son with his potty training. Place the cheerio in the toilet bowl and ask your son to aim for it. He will enjoy the process of learning to pee in the toilet.
2. To avoid your child freaking out when a public toilet is flushed, place a sticky note over the sensor. This stops the toilet from flushing while your kid is using the toilet. Remove the note once your little one is done using the toilet.
3. If your child wants to unwind the whole roll of toilet paper, put it in backwards (with the end towards the wall) - this makes it harder for your child. You can also place pre-rigged toilet paper in an empty box to prevent your kid from wasting toilet paper.
4. Make a potty training progress chart and let your little one put a sticker on it each time they use the potty correctly. Once they get enough points, they can win a predetermined prize.
5. Put together a potty training kit before you start: sticker chart, juice packs, little rewards they will love and big kids underwear. Show them the underwear before they start training. Explain to them that it is special and they can wear it when they train.
6. At night put a layer of disposable pads or sheets under the sheet, with another sheet underneath. If they have an accident, you can simply peel off the dirty layer and throw it in the laundry.
7. Set a potty timer every 30 minutes to remind your little boy or girl that they must try to go.
8. Use rewards effectively. Some of the best rewards include praise, a small toy, ice cream, M&Ms or jelly beans. The key is that she is rewarded when she sits on the potty and her pants are dry. When you start rewarding for peeing/pooping, it can become a power struggle/control issue.
9. If they have an accident, let them help clean up. Let them rinse their underwear, take it to the laundry room or laundry basket and change themselves. The task often remains in their memory as a boring activity that they want to avoid.
10. Save yourself some back strain by letting your child wash their hands with the bathtub tap. Buying a faucet extender is another option.
11. Place a disposable changing pad on the car seat to protect the seat from accidents.
12. Like everything else in parenthood, don't stress yourself too much about it. Just remember, you're not sending your child to college in diapers.
