The Pez Potty Training Method
No. I didn’t start a job with Pez. I can’t imagine a world where I would be lucky enough to work in a Pez Factory.
My daughter has recently begun Potty Training and as most parents will attest, the best way to keep them interested in this monumental event, is with incentives.
My son, who was brilliant beyond his years, held out for Diecast Cars from the Cars the Movie. That meant we were paying a whopping $5.99 per poop! If this were possible in the real world, we would all be billionaires!
Eventually, the balance of power shifted back to us, after we convinced him that stickers were just as cool as cars….
Now it’s my daughter’s turn to lower our diaper bills and we made sure to be prepared this time! We knew she loved two things, stickers and candy. After all, what little kid doesn’t love those things?
The stickers were first and failed miserably. They’d fall in the potty, end up on my socks & we never seemed to have the one sticker she really wanted!
That’s when we introduced her to her first Pez dispenser. It was Belle from Beauty & the Beast, a character she was very familiar with, even as a 2 year old. Little Girls and princesses, you know!
In a move much like her brother had pulled, she quickly conned us into giving her waaaaaay more candy than a 2 year princess should ever eat! We had been giving her a candy every time she said she had to go to the potty. You can probably guess what happened next…..
Every 30 minutes she would scream “Pee Pee Potty!!!”, “Pee Pee Potty!!!” and we’d trip over each other like the ice cream man was outside, to get her on the potty! Only to find out that she was using us for the candy. At one point, she even stopped taking the candy out of the dispenser herself, instead opting for the “Daddy Do It!” approach, which I totally fell for.
We eventually caught on to her little game and adjusted the rules for dispensing candy. She would receive 1 candy for what we deemed to be “legitimate” attempts and she would get 1 more candy upon completion of the transaction.
We are proud to report that it has now been 2 full weeks with only one or two accidents and we couldn’t be prouder of our little monkey! We have saved a ton in diapers and wipes, with our only major expenses being Pull Ups and Pez Refills!!
Way to go Girlie!! We’re so proud of you!
And Thank You Pez!
Did you use incentives to help your kids Potty Train? I’d love to hear what worked/didn’t work for you!
Cheers!
I laughed so hard reading this. When I taught my son I used Cheerios int he toilet, you know try to sink them. That worked awesome, and he too was brilliant beyond his years. Our youngest who has special abilities I like to call them, said just today “I know how to go pee I just am tired of doing it” lmao. I’ve also gotten the pee on the floor, doors, walls. Man I prayed for a girl at that time. Pez is cheaper than Magic Erasers!
Tell your youngest that we all get tired of doing it, lol!
Too funny!!! I will have to forward your blog link to my Bro and Sis-n-Law. They have a boy who will be turning two by the end of the year, so I’m sure they’re wanting to start potty training soon. 🙂 My nephew is a little evil genius, and I could totally see him capitalizing on more candy, so will make sure the ‘rents are specific on the rules, LOL.
Hahaha, a little extra candy never hurt 😉 Especially if it helps them feel like they are doing something great!
no incentives over here….I took the wait till ready approach and it worked great…..
with Kyle, not sure – I am tired of diapers so I may resort to bribes with him come the fall
Our kids were ready too, I just wanted to give them that extra push. Diapers do get so tiring, especially when you know they can do it without them.
The Pez dispenser is a brilliant idea…which I had thought of that when mine were little!!
Thanks, plus it affords Daddy the opportunity to add to his secret toy collection! Shhh….
love the pez dispenser what a brilliant idea… and thank you so much for the giggle this morning. 🙂
You’re Welcome! Thanks for visiting!
PEZ,great idea! We R potty training to! Smarties have always been R choice of award! HAPPY POTTY TRAINING!!!
Smarties would work for my daughter for sure but we wanted to start with the cheapest candy we could find and work our way up, lol!!
: ) That’s a very cute idea! With our son, he always wanted 5 chocoloate chips as reward – he even wanted 5 chocololate chips as reward for when his SISTER potty trained – she didn’t care about the reward, but he sure remembered our old trick : ) Yay for the diaper bill going down! We are just using diapers at night now and it’s great!
I love chocolate chips!!! Sometimes when everyone has gone to bed, I may or may not grab a small bowl of them to get ready for a long night of blogging….. 😀
We are on Pull Ups at night too, it feels so good to not be spending all that money!!
We have the same potty! While my first daughter trained at 18 months my youngest isn’t interested, no matter what. So, we take it slow and follow her lead. Stickers, Smarties… works on occasion.
We bought so many potties before we found one they both liked to use. Now my daughter will yell “Froggy!” and we know what she wants, lol!
We’re about to start potty training my son, so I’m always happy to read about things that work. 🙂
It can be a fun adventure! Just try not to get stressed out by it and they will feed off of your positivity!
Hey well whatever works! I used smarties with my oldest girl. She trained fast because she loved them.
@inkscrblr
Ummm, does anyone (other than my son) not like Smarties!?
Money!! My daughter got 1 or 2 pennies for her successes! Plus she didn’t like being wet and dirty and we used cloth diapers and trainers so it was easy 🙂 She was 2!!
Wow, pennies are a great idea! Plus they are going to be worth more later after they disappear!
Ha! I love it! Ours was the “Gummy Worm Potty Training Method”! Little One got one gummy for pee and two for poop. My SIL’s mom sent me an article about “when it comes to potty training, bribery is everything.” Words to live by.
Hahaha!! All these candies being mentioned makes me want to get potty trained again! Gummy worms are amazing!!!
I used treats. Gummy Worms worked best for both of my kids. 1 worm every time they went.
Good luck to you. I’m sure she’ll do great!
Thanks! She’s a total rock star about it and I think we’re only a week away!
Completion of the transaction? Incentives? HA HA HA! What a crafty, smart little girl you have there!
Thanks Gerry!
a parents gotta do what a parents gotta do! 🙂
my 1st child trained the fastest, he saw a skateboard on TV and asked for it. I said only if he went poop & pee on the toilet. Next day he was trained. That as a week before his 2nd birthday.
It wasn’t so easy for child #3… who was happy in his poop until after his 3rd birthday and would go so far as to say, “I like it!” yah… each are so different.
Awesome! My son was about 3 and a half before he decided it was time to start trying. We got him one big gift when he was trained too.
I’m not sure who was more excited about it though, me or him…. 😀
OMG! You have made me laugh!! Too funny! Aren’t children smart. I’m glad you got your transactions worked out though LOL
I’m glad to make other people smile! Thanks!
I shared this with one of my friends who is potty training her son. Sounds like a great way to get it done. Yay diaper free is so great!
We didn’t use any incentives for my daughter. What we did do was get very excited and happy whenever anyone went potty. There was a lot of ‘Yea!!! Daddy went potty!’ Or ‘Did mommy go potty? Yes she did!’
We did this a lot well before potty training started and it all went very smoothly.
We used jelly beans in this house. And we actually bought a Jelly Belly official bean dispenser. Meaning we needed a penny to get the jelly bean out.
Not the most brilliant parenting decision we’ve ever made. especially since it failed miserably — DS also used the situation to just get candy. To this day at age 8, he still picks up pennies he finds.
What finally worked?
We told he could ride the school bus if he went on the potty. He woke up the next day, put on underwear….and marched right of the house to the bus stop. And yes, he got his ride.
unfortunately for him, the next stop was Kindergarten.
we win!
We tried Skittles with our son, and it didn’t work matter of fact it failed miserably. He’s still not potty trained and he’s 4.