(Part 2) Top products from r/toddlers

My son turned 3 last weekend.

My older son had woken up about 3 months before turning three, we hadn't even tried potty training, but he owned a potty and undies, and said "No nappies today Mummy." And that was literally it. He had two accidents over the course of a month, but other than that, he was 100% potty trained from that day.

Well, my toddler is *super* smart, and he loves to be like his older brother and sister and I thought it would be a cake walk, too. Gave him a potty and undies for his second birthday but jsut had them around the house, like with my older son.


Nope. And not only nope, but he wouldn't tell us if he pooped, and would just sit in it until I realised (you can imagine how long that sometimes took with a nursing newborn), so daily I was scrubbing poop off him.


He would RAGE if I asked him to use the potty.


I looked up stubborn potty training tips. Nearly all them started with "Sometimes you just have to wait. 4 is not uncommon."


And my brain panics. My son is in the 2 year old class at preschool but they'll boot him out if he's not potty trained for the 3 year old class and he won't have turned 4 when it starts.


I tell my husband we just have to do it. We lasted a morning, he kept deliberately peeing anywhere but the potty.


Well, last week at story time he picked up this book https://www.amazon.com/Big-Boy-Underpants-Fran-Manushkin/dp/0553538616


We got it Thursday and read it every night. It's extremely cute and funny.


On Monday night he said "Big boy underpants tomorrow!"


And so we did. It has not been the quick transition it was with my older son. He's done 2 out of three poops in his shorts, and an average 66% success rate with wees. The first day was about 50%, the next was close to 100% and yesterday he had three accidents. One he forgot I'd brought the potty outside to play and tried to get inside and couldn't hold it anymore, the second time he forgot to take his undies off, but was actually sitting on the potty (all successful wees he manages himself) and the third time he was 100% being a deliberate jerk.


But! We have gone out of the house with undies a few times, including to a playground and he's asked to go in time and he did three wees at preschool on Wednesday. And yesterday he was in full insane toddler meltdown mode, stopped, used the potty and resumed his tantrum.

Also, he LOVES to stand up at the regular toilet like his dad and brother.


So, I guess my advice is obtain some books and add them to your rotation so it seems fun and exciting.


Also, I cart the potty everywhere. Upstairs, downstairs, outside. The first day I set it up like a little desk, so he could have his toys in front of him and watch TV. It was great that first day, but it wasn't necessary the next two days.

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Copying this and adding some from another place i had posted it

Boynton books like pajama time and wake up are hits
Eric Carle like the very busy spider, mixed up chameleon, panda bear panda bear.
Pout pout fish
Bear snores on
The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and The Big Hungry Bear https://www.amazon.com/dp/0859531821/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_pQtezb6GYSVXT
Dr suess is a hit - Mr. Brown can moo can you, 1 fish 2 fish, green eggs and ham.
We have the 3 in this line because he loved the first one someone gave him so much cool dog school dog, fun dog sun dog, snow dog go dog - link - Cool Dog, School Dog https://www.amazon.com/dp/1477816704/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_2RtezbBD2BBWB
The behavior series in these books are amazing - i used the paci one to quit paci and hands are not for hitting and feet are not for kicking to stop those unwanted behaviors - Feet Are Not for Kicking (Board Book) (Best Behavior Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1575421585/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_v4Hgzb4MFJ4YD

My kid is crazy about planets so we have some on planets too and he learned so much from them
Hello, World! Solar System https://www.amazon.com/dp/0553521039/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_h7HgzbRYET040 (this one still has pluto but whatever lol)
Solar System for Kids: The Planets and Their Moons https://www.amazon.com/dp/1682801152/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_I8Hgzb7V5G69T

Little blue truck

My kid is also really into these wipe clean books and we spend about 45 mins snuggled on the couch doing them - this one is great but the dry erase marker it comes with is not that good, i just use a different one. We just skip the pages with time etc but he has a blast doing them
Wipe Clean: Early Learning Activity Book (Wipe Clean Early Learning Activity Books) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0312499221/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_49Hgzb8D8BE9T



He has way too many books but these are some of the favs.

Little Owl's Night and I Love You, Stinky Face are my son's favorite bed time books. Little Owl is super calming and has a lot of opportunity for sound effects and "can you find the..." type questions. Stinky Face is a silly and fun book that just begs you to do funny voices and faces.

We just had a second baby so my son's favorite day time books all revolve around being a big brother.

This is a great question! I'm going to follow all of the recommendations as well, since we recite poetry to our baby. It started out because we were doing it when he was still too little to sit up and be read a book at bed time. Now he loves books so much they work him up at bed time and I still enjoy the poetry side of things as I feel like I've expanded my knowledge at the same time!

I was actually going to just get a spiral book bound with our nighttime favourites, but I'd love to find an illustrated version for later on.

We have this book: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Loved-Poems-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486285537 and we read him anything from Shakespeare to Robert frost. His personal favourite is jabberwocky though :)

I just started reading a book called Peaceful Parents, Happy Kids. I got it from my library. I think it might help your situation. It helps you learn how manage your own moods, and how to coach your child’s behavior so they push your buttons less often. It also teaches you how to build positive connections, so when mistakes happen (and they do), it’s easier to reestablish equilibrium.

By the way, thank you so much for breaking the cycle on spanking! I know that’s not easy to do. That alone will make such a difference in your child’s life.

There is a really amazing book called Lifetimes that I love for this purpose. I’ve been reading it to my daughter since before she could talk. I think it will help her have an understanding of the concept of a lifetime and what being gone means.

A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children

Poetry for Young People: William Shakespeare

Poetry for Young People: Maya Angelou

Read Aloud Rhymes for the Very Young

The "Poetry for Young People" series has a lot of choices, and the editor/ arranger of the first book I listed has at least one other poetry book that I know of. Hope these help get your search started!

The Great Big Book of Families is so wonderful for showing families of all kinds!

Here We Are isn't totally about families but it does address that there are all types of people in the world.

The Family Book by Todd Parr is also a good one!

Hand Hand Fingers Thumb by Al Perkins. https://www.amazon.com/Fingers-Thumb-Bright-Early-Books/dp/0394810767/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Does you daughter like books? There are some good kids books that deal with the transition to their own bed.

The book with no pictures has a great page of nonsense words to read really fast. ( https://www.amazon.com/Book-No-Pictures-B-Novak/dp/0803741715/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=book+with+no+pictures&qid=1574704377&sr=8-1 )

Also This Little Piggy by Tim Harrington https://www.amazon.com/This-Little-Piggy-Tim-Harrington/dp/0062218085/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=this+little+piggy&qid=1574704395&sr=8-9 Really funny for Preschool Read Alouds because of that wall of text to read really fast!

My 20-month-old son can't get enough of Blue Hat, Green Hat.

It's the first book he memorized well enough to "read" a page back to me. Her books are easy to understand and very silly.

Oh this immediately reminded me of this book we have! It's a really lovely one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Papa-Please-Moon-Classic-Board/dp/0689829590

This book was helpful to us in a similar situation.

The Goodbye Book https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316404977/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_eic1DbR6602HV

I love Toilet Training in Less than a Day
It’s based in Behavioral psychology and was developed first for severally mentally disabled adults. It’s an oldie, but a goodie. My kid is 4 now, but we trained at 2.5 and it worked. I’ll be using this book for my 1.5 year old in a little bit.

We're getting my 3 year old these books : https://www.amazon.com/You-Were-First-Patricia-MacLachlan/dp/0316185337. https://www.amazon.com/Big-Brother-Caroline-Jayne-Church/dp/0545688868/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0545688868&pd_rd_r=e463bca1-e694-11e8-8744-d97de4b97d5c&pd_rd_w=MyqwB&pd_rd_wg=EpXxx&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=6725dbd6-9917-451d-beba-16af7874e407&pf_rd_r=5PQB7WKGEGAZ1ARQFR0K&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=5PQB7WKGEGAZ1ARQFR0K

https://www.amazon.com/Alphaprints-Colors-Roger-Priddy/dp/0312517939

My son has this colors books and the illustrations in it are so awesome. The pictures are all made up of household objects and are so well done. Every time I look at it I notice something new.

We just tackled this like 2 weeks ago, and it only took 2 applications of this: mavala stop .

2.5 year old and was very attached to his thumb, so I was surprised at how quick it worked. He still hasn’t figured out how to settle down before naps/bed, so it takes a little more time to get him to sleep.

SkipHop just made one that is a little cloud with sun. It’s what I’m leaning towards for our family.

Skip Hop Dream & Shine Toddler Sleep Trainer Alarm Clock https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07PW2DWK3/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_ksfTDb3X5NYR1

Mavala Switzerland Mavala Stop Nail Biting, 0.3 oz https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000YUXI0/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_YW6TAbC7FM2WW