essential items for potty training (apart from potty of course!)

[milkyman]

Are there any recommended toilet seats, potties that anyone can recommend before are start?

A potty is better if you have child who gets constipated once you are toilet training as the low squat is a more natural position.
Although some children are happy to go straight to the toilet other children are scared of the toilet and prefer the potty.

I always bought the cheapest potty and toilet seat then upgraded if needed. In my experience toddlers, playgroups, nursery etc are more likely to have the cheaper versions which can be a pain if your child only likes a chair type one.

Beware of using food as a reward. One of mine would control his wee to get more chocolates. So we swapped to a jam jar which we put a 5p in every time he used the toilet.

Am I slightly mad to try it while pregnant? So far a whole day of accidents and two weeks in potty. Just first day so not too worried about just 2yr old

*two wees in potty

Go tot Asda or Primark and buy a stack of cheapy pants...any accidents throw them away, also reward chart and stickers

Jess My DD hated the potty as well, the hard part was getting her to sit on it and do a wee the first time. Once she did it the first time, she thought it was great. All we did was ask everyday before she got into the bath if she wanted to try the potty, no pressure, just a simple question if she wanted to try the potty. She did eventually say yes, just took time.

Neither of mine would ever use a potty!

Step
Toilet seat
Lots and lots and lots of pants
Lots of washing liquid and a tumble dryer!!!

My DS liked handles on his loo seat. Mothercare do a nice one. It was important to him that it didn't move around too much on the toilet so he felt secure.

I'm another who suggests waiting. I tried early and spent a couple of days cleaning shit out of the carpet before putting the nappies straight back on. Then did it at about 3 and DS got it in a day, and went dry at night too. It was so easy.

Agree with a potty training book, smart pants and your bribe of choice (tractor stickers here!).

Pants - slightly big so they're easy to pull up and down
Reward chart and star stickers
Choc buttons once the novelty of stars wears off (but not for every wee - DD is a week in and she gets 4 choc buttons after a meal if there have been no accidents yet that day)
Step for reaching the sink to wash hands
Old towel to put on sofa or buggy seat
Old sponge/cloth for clearing up accidents

My DD couldn't poo on the loo at first (you try pooing with your feet dangling in the air - it's really difficult!), the potty was much better as its a squatting position.

Potette is handy especially for going to places with no loo, eg the playground.

A toilet seat that doesn't slide around is essential. There are many pretty ones out there that aren't very functional. If a child feels insecure, they won't use it.
The absolute best one I found was a BabyBjorn and a close second, but much cheaper, was a Tippitoes one from Amazon.

We had one of those toilet seats with a small seat as well as the large. That was great for at home.

I used to take a pottette out and about and for in the car. A great invention. The bags were brilliant and it meant no need to clean out a potty when you're on the move.

Generally, I found it easier in the end not to use the potty at home and just go straight to the toilet. Saying that, my two were a bit older when they trained (2 years 8 months and just before 3), so they were able to get up and down off a step ok. It just seemed easier to cut out the middle man so to speak and saved on cleaning.

I'd recommend the Ikea potties as they're easy to empty. Got a couple of Mothercare potties that really take some practice to empty without it running down your arm (sorry )

Wrcgirl potty training while pregnant is better than potty training with a newborn, so I've been told - as you don't want to be handling pooey potties with a newborn/crawler around.

Oh also - weak vinegar solution (about 1 part vinegar to 4 parts water) takes the smell of wee off almost anything. Of course you then have the smell of vinegar to get rid of

Potette plus is great. It can be used as a portable toilet seat (makes using public toilets easy) or potty (life saver if you are in a park with no toilets near by!).

Good luck!!

Carry Me Potty Is AMAZING - pricey but brilliant. My DS loves his ladybird and carries it.
We left it at a services last week, and ended up calling to see if it was there. the lady on the phone couldn't believe it was a potty.
Plus is folds up and holds the contents if you are out and about.

Pants and lots of of them. We used some pull ups with DS (never did with DD) and it was the worst thing we did. Let them choose their pants too - they will be more porud of them.

This time I invested in some mio/bright pots pants - they are exactly like pants, not absorbant like pull ups but do help with little trickle accidents.

I recommend my mum. She nailed it in a day with DS age 2.10. He was ready, she was up for it. Jobs a good'in.

Padded toilet seat with handles on big toilet is what we used. Skip potty stage and straight to big toilet. Lots of wipes, cheap pants and patience. A downstairs loo and wooden floors also a godsend at this stage

Artandco, I'm talking about those first weeks when they give you about 6 seconds notice before the wee comes. By the time you've traipsed up and down the train or public building looking for the loo it's too late. We were always discreet - the couple of train rides I am referring to were not busy commuter trains and I don't think anyone even noticed.

Oh my! This thread is so useful!

Almost forgot, bubbles. Apparantly it's virtually impossible to hold on to a poo if you are blowing bubbles.

Thanks tomuchtooold

Being lazy I left both my kids til they were just over 3, then went cold turkey to toilet, with a step and a toilet seat screwed in. Both got the hang of it the first morning, zero accidents, no fuss. Their nursery didn't use potties so I thought it would be confusing to have them at home. I bought them both nice pants, they came on a special shopping trip to get them and were quite clear that once they were wearing grown up pants they would do their wees in the toilet. Being older they understood, and both were fully ready to toilet train. It's the one bit of parenting that has gone right for me! Several friends and especially my mum, were very disapproving of my lazy approach when they were trying to train their LOs from around 18m plus, but my DCs were more reliable than most from just over 3 onwards. No doubt if I ever had another baby my smugness would be smashed by a DC that was very difficult to train....

I'm always a bit mystified as to why potty training late offends some people so greatly. It was definitely one of my more sensible parenting decisions too.

I did it late too. We tried just after he turned 2 and he just wasn't ready. Tried again at about 2 years 8 months and he got it really quickly. I don't understand the need to rush it.

I agree that a Potette is very useful - we had one memorable occasion when DS needed a wee on the walk home. It's a fairly quiet footpath and he hadn't got the hang of standing up wees yet, so we used the Potette. An elderly lady hurried up to us, convinced he had fallen over. Instead, he proudly announced that he was 'Doing a wee wee.'

Lots of pants and easy access clothes, especially if he/she goes to nursery as buttons are tricky.

I found Dettol laundry stuff really useful too.

I actually wrote a blog post on this not very long ago, hope you don't mind me posting it here:

lifebynaomi.com/2015/06/14/potty-training-essentials/

all really helpful - which is the best seat to fit over a toilet for my ds?

has no one ... ...mentioned (looks around) ... chocolate buttons?
strict mother of 8 is not strict when potty training and out come the buttons!
works for us!