Mother of seven offers potty training tips

The key to potty training success is starting when your child is interested, willing, and physically able. This was a real challenge for me; the timing. I had the entire potty schedule in place, potty training chart, reward stickers, and celebratory treats for the December holidays. 

I think it’s safe to say, my timing sucked big time as Zaeem was just not ready for this leap and not even a smarties bribe worked this time. I planned this over the December holidays, and it was not working. It could also be that I had the twins to look after and most of the time we didn’t make it to the toilet in time. My two elder boys were fully potty trained at daycare and by two years old they were both off the breast and nappy. 

I know some kids who were as young as 18 months who were potty trained. And then there is Zaeem, potty trained well past his third birthday. Honestly, there’s no point in trying to get a head start if your toddler is not ready. Zaeem only really started after his 3rd birthday and it was not such a train smash, it was smooth sailing with very little accidents and less stress on us both. 

So how did we know and how did I encourage this? 

Here are a few things I did to motivate my little boy. 

Run around naked

One morning Zaeem just woke up with dry nappy from then on, I would immediately take him to the toilet and made a big deal when he urinated. I let him run around butt naked and I took him to the toilet every 15-20 minutes. This is time-consuming, but it worked and he would tell me that he either wanted to make a wee or not. 

Buy fun underwear

And by fun, I mean character underwear. This is a no brainer. I mean besides motivating him with cool underwear, it is just the cutest to see a little boy in underwear. I let him choose whatever he wanted and for sure he chose dinosaurs and batman. At first, the underwear used to go over the nappy, I think this was a brilliant strategic plan for a three-year-old. 

I would also tell him not to wee on batman as he would cry.

Have a dance party

Do a happy dance every time he goes to the potty. 

Without a doubt, there will be a few accidents, but eventually, he will enjoy the accomplishment of weeing in the potty. I celebrated every moment as if he was in the Premier League and scored a goal, a full-on fan celebration with dance, scream, and whistling. 

Be easy

There are a few things I did to make it easier for Zaeem to go to the potty by himself. I dressed him in loose-fitting clothes that he can easily take off himself. So no denim or buttons or zips. We had some giggles when pants were put on back to front, it was super cute. 

The night shift

Once Zaeem was dry all day, I slowly started with the night routine. I only started the night routine once he no longer had a wet nappy in the morning. His teacher’s assistant also indicated to me that he no longer wore a nappy during nap time. At the school they let all the kids wee before nap time and after nap time. I decided to do the same for the night potty training. I made sure he weed before bedtime and in the mornings he would wee as soon as he woke up. 

I hope you and your little one success with your potty training journey. We now only have two babies on nappies and I intend to use the same training strategy for the twins real soon.

Zeenah Rahim is a mother of seven children, five on earth and two in heaven. She is a Parenting and Lifestyle Blogger who shares her parenting experiences in her blog Mother of 7.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.