Do's and Don'ts for Potty Training Your Child

Are you looking forward to getting off of diaper duty? Is your child showing signs of readiness for toilet training? Potty training is a milestone in your child’s life as well as yours. So if you think the time is right, here’s some information you can use to help you guide your child to success and avoid the frustrations you may both experience when accidents happen or the training takes longer than anticipated.

Nowadays, experts say readiness for toilet training is indicated more by behavior than age. Although most children start potty training between the ages of 18 months and 3 years, many spend many months without success and wonder why.

Some hints that your child may be ready to start potty training include becoming upset when they soil their diapers, they can stay dry for 2 or more hours, they enjoy to imitating parents or other children using the toilet or they may even tell you or ask to use the toilet. Some children will pull their own pants up and down or simply spend a lot of time in the bathroom.

One of the best ways for your child to learn potty training is to let him/her learn by example.  Allow your child to watch you using the potty.  This may surprise you and work better than you think.

If you think you’re child is ready for training, select a potty to use. Many parents like to start a child with a child potty. Some potties have a soft detachable potty seat, which can later be used on top of a regular toilet seat to make it more child friendly since many kids are afraid of falling into the toilet.  Those fears can be extinguished by using a “flip n flush” potty seat which effectively reduces the size of the toilet hole, thus giving your child the needed confidence to use the big toilet. Parents Magazine has called the “flip n flush” the “most useful potty training solution.” It is also the least expensive solution.

A small step ladder (Freedom Trainer) will give your little-one easy and safe access to the grownup toilet.  By using your toilet for training, you will not have a separate potty to clean.

Once your child has learned to stay dry during waking hours, you will want to start overnight training. This is usually a bit more difficult for children than staying dry during the day. Training diapers help a lot as does patience and understanding.