Potty training

By the time you child has turned two you will probably be starting to think of potty training them. People will start to ask you about it, relatives will almost certainly say things like “i had (insert name here) trained fully by the time they turned two”. The problem is that most children are not ready to be fully trained before their second birthday so the first step in potty training is:

I know from experience that sitting a two year old on a potty and keeping her there is no easy matter. The average two year old gets fidgety after about 30 seconds of sitting still and since the first few times on a potty at this age are a bit hit and miss she will almost certainly have to sit there for alot longer than 30 seconds if you are to have any success. So before you even think about potty training you child has to be old enough and have the understanding to know that potty = wee or poo. Sitting a young child on the potty and hoping they accidently wee or poo into the potty takes a long time and to me seems like a waste of energy and time that could be spent doing far more important things!.

The age at which this happens depends on your child, some are ready for this as soon as they turn two (or even before) others are not ready until they are closer to three, don’t worry if your child is in the second category the age at which your child is potty trained has no bearing whatsoever on their intelligence or the chances of them becoming a doctor or lawyer ! – just like walking they all develop in their own time and their own way.

The second thing and actually probably the most important is that your child has to be able to know before hand when they need to go to the toilet, and again this comes with age. Look out for the signs that your little one needs to go (does she wriggle around more?) and then take her to the potty, hopefully after a while she will realise that the feeling she gets before you take her to the potty means she needs a wee!. If she doesn’t get it after a while, don’t worry she might not be ready just wait a while and try again.

Finally it would be useful if you child was able to talk enough to tell you when they need to go to the toilet, otherwise it could get difficult for them to let you know when they want to go even if they know themselves, this is especially true if your child is in nursery or at a childminders, since they wont know the signs to look out for in your little one.

If you toddler is ready to use the potty there are a few tricks you can use to help them along.

1.       Let them pick a potty themselves. By the time your child is two or three they will already know that they like to get presents and that the best presents are ones they get to pick themselves. Take you little one the the shop and get her to pick the colour she wants for her “special big girl potty”. Dont let her pick anything to big or fancy (not only are these expensive) they are embarrassing to take to others peoples houses while she is training!).

2.       Dont make a big deal of it. Don’t make you toddler feel that now she has a big girl potty she is suddenly expected to use it all of the time, some toddlers get anxious at the thought of not wearing nappies anymore. It is a big transition for little ones to go from wearing a nappy to using a toilet, so let her go at her own pace. At first just put her on it for a minute and even if she doesn’t do anything praise her loads and tell her how big and clever she is for just sitting on her potty, if she is unsure let her leave her nappy on while you are out and most children are not ready to go without nappies at night until they are a little older. Although you can buy pull up nappies, many children find these confusing as they feel just like a nappy and you might find you child will be less likely to use the toilet if she is wearing pull up as well. If you leave knickers or pants on around the house she will be able to tell that she is not wearing a nappy and also see the consequences if she does not use the toilet. It is important not to make her feel bad when she doesn’t get to the toilet, if this happens most of the time and she is not getting better at knowing when to go after a few days, leave it alone and try again in a month or two, she may simply not be ready. Once she has mastered this you can extend knicker or pant wearing to leaving the house although before you go make sure you know where all of the toilets are!