When I was approached earlier this year by Huggies Pull-Ups to be an ambassador along with Jelly Bean, I was delighted. I really thought that with the right help and support we could make Potty Training happen but that was before all of Jelly Bean’s real issues with his bowel movements kicked in. It was something that we were completely unprepared for and something that we had never even heard of. As far as we were concerned, everybody has to poop it’s a fact of life so to find out that our cheeky little monkey was in fact preventing himself from pooping just didn’t make sense.
Fast forward to the end of the year and at the moment we are still a long way from getting Jelly Bean’s bowel movements to move freely BUT we think we have his medication at the right level now. He has been going a little more regularly so fingers crossed we are moving in the right direction.
One area we are definitely seeing an improvement on are his wet nappies and I think this has come about because he has been wearing Huggies Pull-Ups. When he was wearing nappies, they were designed to keep him feeling dry so he wasn’t aware when he had done a wee. Huggies Pull-Ups are the only training specific pants which feature a special blue Learning Liner which gives them the briefest sensation of wetness before quickly wicking the moisture away. He will frequently stop in his tracks now and tell me “I’m doing a wee wee Mummy” and of course this is my cue to lavish him with praise. I ask him regularly if he would like to try doing his wee on the potty or the toilet, sometimes he agrees although at the moment I’m not pushing it too much. When he does go on the potty we give him stickers for his reward chart and lots of praise.
Occasionally if we have run out of Pull-Ups we have to use the leftover nappies we still have in the house and Jelly Bean isn’t impressed. He will tell us that he wants to wear his ‘big boy pants’ not a baby nappy. He likes that he can show us how clever he can be by pulling them up and down by himself and on the odd occasion that he opens the sides instead of the pants instead of pulling them down, all is not lost because they can be easily be resealed. It also helps that he is a big Disney fan, even if he does insist on calling it ‘Lightning and the Queen’ – he is only 2 years old – girls get Minnie Mouse and the Disney Princesses.
I have now started getting Jelly Bean to sit down on the potty every night before bath time whilst I read him a story, sometimes he relaxes and listens, sometimes he can be a bit of a fidget but the more comfortable he becomes with the potty, the more successful potty training will be with the help of Huggies Pull-Ups, our potty training partner.
If you’re considering starting potty training with your little one then consider whether they are showing the 8 signs of readiness. I looked out for these indicators when Little Bean and Beanie Boy were potty training and it definitely helped to wait until the time was right for potty training success. I would heartily recommend using Huggies Pull-Ups as your potty training partner too, even with our issues we are definitely seeing an improvement which we wouldn’t have seen with nappies or real pants (without a lot of mess).
When you do decide to start, just remember to be consistent with your little one, lavish them with praise and encouragement when they get it right and expect the odd little accident here or there but don’t berate them for it, just let it slide and move forward. Before you know it those nappy days will be long gone!
Good luck!!