Feb 18 2009
Potty Training Tips, Part II
I was talking to fellow parent of a toddler this weekend and she stated that she was thinking of starting the transition to potty training her son. Upon thinking of something to write about today, I came across some tips to successful potty training. I thought I’d do a follow-up on potty training ideas, as this is one of the biggies when it comes to having a 2-3 year old.
One of the first things you need to make sure of is that your child is ready, not just kind of ready, but really ready. They should be showing an interest in the bathroom and watching others go potty. They should be able to tell you or indicate when he has to go or when he has just went. He shouldn’t show any tolerance to having a dirty diaper.
Here are some other tips to making the transition a little bit easier:
1.) Give your child lots of praise and attention, lots of positive reinforcement, love and affection, and show pride in your child. Make a genuine big deal out of every attempt and success made by your child.
2.) Try bribes, give a few M&Ms each time your child goes.
3.) Target practice with cheerios when your child is learning to pee standing up. I wouldn’t recommend starting this until your child has enough balance and coordination to stand elevated on a stool and then concentrate on aiming into the toilet. That is, unless you enjoy mopping up pee and having your bathroom smell like urine.
4.) Put stickers on a sticker chart every time your child goes potty. This will give your child the chance to really see the success they are having and to show off all the stickers they have earned.
5.) Buy the big boy underwear and just go “cold turkey”. Don’t forget to protect your furniture. I made my son sit on a nice thick blanket folded up several times whenever he got on the couch.
6.) Put your child on the potty frequently. Every 20 minutes is a good place to start until you get a better idea of how often your child actually needs to go. However, do not force your child to go to the potty if he doesn’t want to. The last thing you want is for him to resent the potty and for the bathroom to end up as a battle zone.
7.) Keep your child in just underwear at first. This makes it easier to go independently.
8.) Patience and persistence on your part. You can’t give up the first time your child has an accident.
9.) Put the potty seat where your child spends most of his time. Seeing the potty seat should remind him to go more often.
10.) Travel with a potty seat. Many children are scared of public and unfamiliar toilets and having a potty seat with you will just be more convenient and less stressful for you.
There were several other tips that I found, but these ten were one’s I had actually used when potty training Sam. They worked for us and hopefully they will work for you also! Good luck!
