Potty Training Tips for Girls

This post is from LMordecai – a mom stay at home mom to two wonderful boys.

My potty training journey began when my eldest son turned 2. I had heard from my friends who had walked the potty training road before me that potty training boys took much longer and was much harder than potty training their female counterparts. I was convinced my son would be the exception. I wanted to be prepared to train him to use the toilet as soon as I saw any cues that he might be ready, so off to the store we went.

It had all the pomp and circumstance of a major life event as I took my son to pick out his first pair of “big boy underwear”. He humored me and chose a pair displaying his favorite cartoon character.

In the meantime, I watched him like a hawk. I looked to see if he was interested when other people used the potty, would hide himself when he needed to use the bathroom or was dirtying his diaper at regular intervals.
After a few months of carefully observing him throughout the day and him telling me he needed to use the potty after he had already done the deed in his diaper, I noticed that he would dirty his diaper after breakfast and after his afternoon nap. This was my first clue that he may be potty trainable. Shortly thereafter, he became very interested in the toilet. Because I knew when he was most likely to need to use the potty, I was able to put him on the potty before he had the chance to use his diaper instead.

Although he was showing readiness signs, potty training did not come quick. We would sit him on the potty, read potty books to him, talk endlessly about using the potty and even showed him how it was supposed to work with the help of his favorite action hero. But, time after time, it seemed as though he was fearful to use the potty.

It was then that I had my A-ha moment. I put a diaper on my son and cut out a patch on the back. When I put him on the potty wearing his altered diaper, he was finally able to use the potty because of the comfort he felt from wearing the diaper. There was so much hooting and hollering and dancing around the bathroom that afternoon that my son knew he had done something special. I never had to do the diaper trick after that day. He has been using the potty and been dry during the day time ever since.

With a little ingenuity and a lot of observation, I was able to help my son make the transition from diapers to underwear.