How we potty trained + ethical kids underwear

Back in mid- April just before Hephzibah’s second birthday it suddenly crossed my mind that lockdown was the perfect place to potty train.

Hephzibah had shown zero signs that she was ready to potty train. She hated having her nappy changed, seemed unaware of when she needed a poo or wee and would have happily hung out in a diaper with either of those in all day!

I thought it was worth a shot though and we decided to give it a very low-key and low-expectation approach. I used to nanny before having Hephzibah and had helped in the journey of potty training a number of the kids that I looked after, as well as speaking to friends who had told me of their experiences. The biggest thing I had learnt from what I saw and heard was to PLAY IT COOL; The more expectation you placed on it the more unfair it was for them and I didn’t want disappointment to come in for anyone if it didn’t go like I’d planned.

We started the process by telling Heppy that soon we’d be saying goodbye to nappies. We showed her our underwear more and spoke more about the process whenever we were using the toilet and then, after lots of research I found this potty and we gave it to her for her birthday (is that mean?) and started potty training the moment she opened it with such excitement all over her face!

I purposefully made sure not to read any online blogs or books…(my usual go to) we just decided to try her on the potty every half an hour or so and we were super surprised!

That first day she said she needed a wee, we took her to her potty and she did one. She didn’t always tell us throughout the day but by trying every half an hour, she managed to get all her pee’s in the potty.

The second day she did all her pee’s bar one (too busy watching peppa and I forgot to check in with her) in the potty and a poo (!!) and we extended the time a little between each try on the potty.

From there on she did every wee and poo in the potty. By the third or fourth day it was clear she wouldn’t sit on when we wanted her to, and it was clear she knew when she needed to go so we just followed her lead. By day 7 she was taking herself off to use the potty alone.

Things were super smooth but the biggest hurdle was poo’s in the potty which I am probably sure it is for most kids who are potty training. At around day 4 after pooing successfully in the potty before then, it was as if she got a little constipated. A few days passed and then she did a poo in her nappy at night before going to sleep but was really distressed about doing so. It was less that she wasn’t comfortable doing it in the potty and more that she just couldn’t get it out! We loaded her up with fruit and veg and things improved a little but she is still pooing far less regularly than she was- I don’t know if this is just normal as they get used to it but (let me know if you have had any experience of this!)

When we started potty training we continued to put nappies on Heppy at night and nap. In my head I thought she may be using nappies at night for another 6-12 months but by day 3 she was dry every night and nap so we stopped using them. (SIDE NOTE: OH MY GOODNESS it feels AMAZING not to use nappies AT ALL any more!) 3 weeks in, she’s been dry every night and cried once in the night for the potty, I’ve got her up put her on and she’s gone straight back to sleep. If she hasn’t gone for a wee right before bed, I tend to wake her up before I go to bed to try her on the potty then!

Before having kids, I always thought I’d reward them with an apple slice or date every time they used the potty (who did i think I was haha). That definitely didn’t happen, and we used mini marshmallows and smarties as a reward. Honestly, Heppy seemed zero percent fussed about them and never usually asked for them once she’d finished on the potty. They were a bit of a novelty though because we don’t usually have sugar in the house. They didn’t seem to motivate her to go even though we tried to use them as a motivation device hah! She just knew when she wanted to go and knew when she didn’t!

With poo’s on the potty we did decide to bring in the big guns to attempt to motivate! This is where I introduced Hephzibah to the world of eBay and said she could pick something (within reason). We landed on a used George soft toy from Peppa pig and I think is the only thing of colour beyond colouring pencils to actively enter our home hah! BUT! Receiving that toy brought Heppy so much joy even if it didn’t seem to motivate her!

The part Heppy was MOST excited about was when we bought her her own pants! We decided to do this once she was potty trained as before that she was mainly running around naked and we just wanted her to be free to use the potty rather than having to figure out how to pull a pair of pants down too!

I wanted to buy pants that were organic and ethically made. There was a fair amount of choice but nothing exactly what I was looking for apart from an Australian website called Nature Baby that did the most beautiful and ethical underwear but was completely out of price range. All of the pants we bought were on sale to make this work for our budget…otherwise, I would have been going second hand (which I wouldn’t of have a problem with!). Ideally I was looking for a pack of knickers. Before being concerned about how clothes were made I would have gone to Tesco and bought a £5 pack of 5 knickers (no shame to any one who has done that) the price of that continues to tempt me, but yes, I was looking for a box of knickers or a pack—- niche in the market someone!? but couldn’t seem to find any! Anyway, overall, there seemed to be three main brands for underwear from what I could see..

These are the 3 brands we tried:

FRUGI

frugi packaging

Frugi have an amazing code of conduct wanting to be ethical, honest and transparent in all they do- and I love that everything is made from organic cotton. I also absolutely LOVED how the pants were packaged when they arrived- in fully compostable packaging! While I love the brand, I’ve never personally bought from there except some bodysuits when Heppy was tiny as their clothes are a little brighter and louder than we usually go for (while I can still be in control of what Heppy wears we go mainly neutral)! But bright and loud pants- NO PROBLEM! We went for three different pant designs from Frugi I (You can see them on the washing line above minus the spotty ones) and found the star ones to be the best fit so we then went on to buy more.

They usually sell for £6 and we got them for £4.20 here in the Babipur sale.

JOHA

Another incredible company, all of Joha’s products carry the Eu Flower label guaranteeing no harmful chemicals and pollution in the process and Joha was the first company to create wool underwear for children and has been leading the European market for the past 35 years.

I randomly founds these pants (spotty pants on washing line pic) on a website I’d never seen before called Niddle Noodle, and they happened to have Heppy’s size. They are super soft and simple and fit Heppy really well.

They usually retail for £6.50 but were on sale here for £3.00

MEYADAY

I’d never heard of this company until I saw them listed on the Babipur website. Their underwear is ethically made with 95% GOTS organic cotton and 5% elastane under fair trade conditions- I believe they are a sister brand of Maxomorra.

Meyaday only start their underwear from 3years- I found this with a lot of underwear companies I was looking at actually which massively limited choice but Heppy was so set on the seahorse ones we went for them in the 3-4! I love the style of these but there not as soft as the others we bought and more expensive overall so I wouldn’t buy again! The pro is they have LOADS of designs!

They usually retail for £6.90 and we got for £4.83 in the Babipur sale.

Dilling may also be worth a look at, they have great underwear but only start from 3-4 and it’s plain underwear. I thought for Heppy’s first ever underwear she’d appreciate something a little fancy!

So that’s a little roundup of where we’re at! We’ve just moved on to trying to go on the toilet instead of the potty- I hadn’t really considered how this transition happened and she seems okay with trying it, so if the potty isn’t around and I’m closer to the toilet I encourage her to go on that! If i’ve learnt anything in this time it’s that every child is so different and has different needs but encouragement is key! They are learning and trying and figuring out something so new…what a bizarre thing to experience…so yes, encouragement encouragement and praise even if things aren’t going as you planned- it’s so easy to feel disappointed when it doesn’t go the way we plan and then even easier to transfer that disappointment onto them! I think we’ve happened to have a very straightforward process…hallelujah! But I also know alot can still change! But I hope you guys have the same! Also, when do you say your child is potty trained?!

I would love to know your potty training stories….so please share below!