Toddlers Potty Training: Ready for Big Kid Underwear?
One of the biggest concerns many parents face when working on toddlers potty training is when to buy big kid underwear. Many parents are so afraid of having potty accidents of any kind, so they want their child to wear the diapers until they are fully trained. Others jump into the big kid undies far too soon, and they end up doing far more extra loads of laundry than they otherwise would have had to.
So when is the ideal in the realm of toddlers potty training to put your child in big kid underwear? Your child should be holding his or her urine and bowels for at least an hour or two, and he or she should be able to pull his or her pants on and off independently. Some parents will transition into the pull-up style diapers, which slide up and down in a fashion that some kids can do by themselves but that don’t run the risk of coming with accidents. Some evidence, however, has suggested that this style of diaper confuses kids because the feel to them is akin to wearing real diapers.
The fact is, with toddlers potty training there will still be accidents, and there is nothing you can do about it. Accidents are what help the child learn. They have an accident and feel the wetness down their leg. This is a feeling they don’t like, and they learn after a few times to associate the need to go with the unpleasantness of an accident, and they start running to the bathroom. However, it is true that if you start with big kid undies too soon, you will be doing laundry more than necessary. So listen to your own child’s cues and make an independent decision based on his or her developmental signs.
Tips for Baby Potty Training That You Shouldn’t Be Without
These days, baby potty training is becoming popular, but a lot of parents are not sure where to start or what to do. This can save money on diapers and wipes, and this is becoming an important point these days with parents everywhere. Here are a few tips to make the process easy for you and your little ones as well.
Familiarize New Tools
This is a great way to get baby to learn about the potty. Get your child their own potty and let them play with it a little bit each day. This can let them see that the toilet is not scary and this will allow them to be more comfortable going to the toilet when they have to pee.
Ask Questions
By asking them short and simple questions that need a yes or no answer, you can help them learn early on how to communicate with you. Asking them if they have to go to the potty is an effective question, and until they learn whether they have to go or not, you can simply tell them, “Let’s go just to make sure.”
Play a Game
This is an effective baby potty training tip to consider. By playing a game with your child, you can give them a small prize for going to the bathroom. This can be anything from their favorite snack or letting them play with a favorite toy. You can decide.
Don’t Pressure
Pressure is not going to do any good and will only make the process take longer. Your child is not going to master potty training overnight or even in a week or two. Patience is key to this and the more you pressure them, the further back it will keep things.
Whenever your child does go, you should offer praise and positive celebration. Clapping and congratulating them lets your child see that they did something good and made you proud. Baby potty training can be a long process, but if done effectively, it can reduce the number of accidents.
What Is the Best Potty Training Technique?
All you need to do is talk to the parents that you know and you will find that each one has what they think is the best potty training technique. They may tell you how they potty trained their child at an extraordinarily early age or how it only took a few days. The truth is that each child is different and although their “technique” may have worked for their child, it may not work for yours.
The best way to learn the best potty training techniques is to go online and read. What you will find is that there is a wide variety of techniques that work, and that by trying one or two, you should have no problem finding one that works for your child. A word of warning usually comes with any of the best potty training techniques and that is that you need to take your time and don’t start too early.
Trying to teach a child to use the toilet before his or her time is a waste of your time and will be frustrating to them. You need to wait until your child has developed all of the skills and understanding that potty training requires. You may not think that it is a big deal, but they need to understand when they feel the need to go to the bathroom and how to express it. They also need to physically be able to hold it in when they have to. This is actually a marker for physical development.
The emotional development that is needed is represented by the fact that they need to be able to put together your excitement and accolades with what they have done. If they don’t realize that you are praising them for sitting on the toilet, then the struggle to potty train will be a long one.
The Benefits of Toddler Potty Training
In the U.S, the average boy gives up diapers on his 39th month. The average girl, on the other hand, does so a bit earlier at 36 months. Now, you’re probably thinking those figures aren’t too bad, and you’re right. They’re not. But, they’re not impressive either. Elsewhere in the world, toddler potty training starts between birth and 4 months.
The notion isn’t very popular in the U.S, where it takes parents longer to get their children out of diapers, but toddler potty training is widely practiced by parents elsewhere in the world—and they swear by it! Here are some of the benefits of early toilet training:
1. It enhances the bond between parent and child.
2. It reduces, if not eliminates, diaper use which in turn translates into fewer expenses for the family.
3. It taps into the child’s first window of learning for toilet training.
4. It prevents diaper rash, and reduces the risks of developing urinary tract infections.
5. It allows the child to achieve reasonable bladder control by the 12th month.
Of course, as the parent, it is entirely up to you to decide when to start giving your child toilet training. You will know the time is right for it when your child
- can stay dry for 3—maybe even 4—hours at a time.
- has regular bowel movement, which happens at roughly the same time daily.
- shows discomfort over soiled or wet diapers.
- can understand the connection between dry pants and the potty.
- wakes up in the morning or after an afternoon nap completely dry.
Toddlers are far more intelligent than we give them credit for, so do not assume that toddler potty training is a skill your child isn’t yet ready to learn. Try it and see how it works for your little one!
Potty Training Resistance – What to Do When Your Child Says No
Did your child just tell you “No!” after you told him to go potty?
Potty training resistance is one of the most common problems that parents encounter during toilet training. Don’t take it personally—it’s not you; it’s your child. Infants and toddlers say no to just about anything: going to bed, going to dinner, going potty, even going for a walk! To them, it’s not about the activity; it’s about asserting their independence. Here are some of the things you can do the next time you’re met with potty training resistance.
1. Change soiled diapers right away.
2. Never hold your child down to force him to use the potty.
3. Do not scold or punish your child for accidents.
4. Take off your child’s pants and nappies at certain times of the day.
5. Read fun but age-appropriate books about potty training.
6. Use a prize bucket, a ticket jar, or a sticker board as a method for rewarding good behavior.
7. Have your child practice going to the potty.
8. Use a firm, definitive, but calm tone to announce the start of potty training.
9. Have your child wear training pants and clothes that are easy to take off.
10. Observe when your child typically has bowel movement, and put him on the potty during these times.
Do not let your child’s potty training resistance discourage you. The trick to dealing with this stubborn streak is to identify possible motivators. How can you encourage your child to become toilet-trained? Is your child hungry for praise? Pretends to be a grown-up? Respond positively to encouragement and praise? Displays a fierce desire to be independent? If you answer yes to one more of these, then you have just identified a strong motivation that you can use to overcome your child’s potty training resistance. Good luck!
Tips for Easy Potty Training
If you are the parent of a child who is about to start potty training, one of the best things that you can do is research some tips for easy potty training. Many parents who are new to the process often wonder how hard training a child to use the toilet can truly be. After all, haven’t billions of people accomplished this same feat for centuries and centuries? You and your child will surely get the hang of it and figure it out before your child starts kindergarten, as most children do. However, spending time learning tips for easy potty training can make the difference between a faster and hassle-free process versus a process wrought with frustration and stress.
So what are some tips that can help parents new to the process find their way on this path to potty success with their child? First and foremost, do not start the process before your child is ready. Once the child is about 18 months to 2 years old, you should constantly be assessing your child for signs of readiness, so the process can be started as soon as he or she is ready to do so. You should also keep in mind that toilet training is a process. The beginning stages will involve discussing the process and building up your child’s knowledge of what is going on in the bathroom when you make a visit yourself, learning potty words, and so forth. Then your child will get used to being on the potty, which can actually be scary for many kids. From there, your child will need to learn to listen to body signals and go to the bathroom before it’s too late. As you can see, this isn’t something that happens overnight, and as a parent, you should be prepared for your child to gradually transition between the stages over the course of a few months.
Another important tip for easy potty training is to never show signs of frustration. You certainly will feel frustrated at some point or another, but expressing your frustration and disappointed will only cause setbacks and may even result in a battle of wills, which is not a battle you want to get in with your child.
What You Can Learn From a Potty Training Guide
If you have a toddler who is entering the exciting phase of toddler life known as toilet training, you no doubt are excited about the possibility of being free of diaper changes in the near future. You also, however, may be feeling uncertain about what to expect, and this is especially true if you are new to toilet training. Many parents who are new to this process will seek out the advice offered in a potty training guide. Even seasoned pros at this process who have successfully transitioned their older kids out of diapers in the past may seek advice and refresher tips to make the process easier.
So what exactly can you learn from a potty training guide? Most guides, books, and manuals on this topic will begin with tips for spotting the signs of readiness. Beginning the process too early can just cause more frustration for both you and your child, while beginning too late can also cause frustration and stress for the both of you, too. It is important that you correctly time starting the training process, and this is why so many guides will focus on signs of readiness. However, it is also important to keep in mind that each child will go through the process on his or her own time frame, and you should not pressure your child but instead find ways to coax and encourage when necessary.
A potting training guide typically also serves as a great source of inspiration for parents. For most people, this is not a process that takes a few days, but rather months. During those months, your child is developing, growing, and maturing. So as you can imagine, some of the strategies and techniques that worked well for you during the first month or two of training are likely not the same strategies you will need to get over that last road bump and proclaim success. You will need to dig deep into your arsenal of techniques and strategies, and a guide is an excellent resource to give you ideas and inspiration.
Potty Training Help for Discouraged Parents
Training your child to go to the bathroom can leave many parents discouraged. It is for this reason that many parents turn to potty training help to get them through this time. One of the biggest things that they run into when teaching their child is the fact that their child should have good hygiene. This is something that most kids do not understand, and parents need to stress to their children the importance of good hygiene with toilet training.
Stay Clean
Staying clean is important. It is for this reason that you should teach your child that if they have an accident, they should get out of the soiled clothing quickly. If they do not, then it could lead to rashes and other problems with their skin. Have them let you know if they have had an accident, and do not scold them for it. This will only make training a negative time for them, and they will not see that it is important. It can even cause them to digress.
Proper Wiping
Another thing that you should do is ensure that they know how to properly wipe themselves. It is important for girls to make sure that they are wiping from front to back, and not back to front, to keep infection risk at a minimum. If they are not wiping well, then they can find themselves with bad odors and also rashes and other problems.
As you can see, potty training tips can be a great asset for parents of toddlers. Taking the time to go over information on proper potty hygiene with your child is something that is very important and will follow them throughout their lifetime. This is something that they will remember forever and is a valuable lesson to learn. Ensure that they know the things that are right to do.
3 Common Potty Training Problems and What You Can Do About Them
What’s getting in the way of your child’s toilet training success? Stubborn refusal not to use the potty? Regression? Power struggle? Don’t fret. These three are common potty training problems that parents encounter. Here’s what you can do to get your child to potty successfully.
1. Refusal to Use the Potty – For the most part, refusal to use the potty means your child is not ready to be toilet trained. But there could also be other reasons, so go over this checklist of things to pay attention to.
- Is your child constipated?
- Is your child afraid of flushing sounds?
- Is your child scared of falling into the potty?
- Do your child’s feet touch the stool or the floor while he’s on the potty?
- Is your child under a lot of pressure to use the potty?
Identify your child’s source of fear or anxiety, eliminate this, and then go over the training process again.
2. Potty Regression – Has your child who has been using the toilet so well suddenly having accidents? Potty regression is one of the most common potty training problems. It’s usually caused by one of two things: a medical problem or an emotional upset of some sort.
Did you go through a divorce recently? Was there a change of personnel at daycare? Did you just give birth to another child? These are emotionally upsetting situations that can cause regression.
A good solution is to keep things as routine as possible, and reassure your child as often as possible that these changes are nothing to be afraid of. Don’t forget to check with your child for physical pain, though. The regression could be caused by diarrhea, urinary tract infections, or constipation.
3. Power Struggle – So you tell your child to sit on the toilet, and he stubbornly snaps, NO!” That’s a power struggle in progress, but it’s typical. Here’s what you can do.
Take your child’s lead. Do not force toilet time on him.
Make your child think using the bathroom is his idea.
Tell your child you need to use the toilet and will be busy in the bathroom for a while. However, you will let your child know once you’re done in case he needs to go, too.
When you encounter potty training problems, don’t get mad and most importantly, don’t panic. Handle the situation calmly and forge on with your training. Your child will thank you for it!
Babies Potty Training: Is It Possible?
The short answer to if babies potty training is possible is “yes.” However, this will quickly be followed by a phrase that says, “… although highly unlikely.” To say that every child in the world will be unable to perform such a feat as potty training before the age of 18 months is ludicrous because of course there will always be those rare few who accomplish the miraculous through the incredible efforts of their parents. However, in most cases, a child will not be fully trained to use the potty independently until age three or even later.
Babies potty training is a popular concept because, let’s face it, who among us truly enjoys changing diapers? They are smelly and dirty. They sometimes wake us up in the middle of the night. They leak in public and cause embarrassing situations. There is just not too much that is fun about them. Yet when you consider babies potty training, it is important to understand that few kids will have the ability to fully “go” by themselves at such young ages, and they will need a lot of assistance from their parents even if they can control when they “go.” They will need help pulling their pants on and off, wiping, and climbing on and off the toilet. Some parents with babies who use the potty watch the clock and their own child’s body language like a hawk because they don’t want to deal with accidents.
When a child is truly trained, these “extras” that involve your assistance in the toilet are not necessary. You may be able to train a child to get out of diapers earlier, but unless your child is truly physically able to do all of the things involved in going potty, you may be trading one set of chores for another. Truthfully, most parents would rather let their baby be a baby and relax in knowing that accidents are taken care of by a diaper than rush their child into something he or she is not yet physically ready for.
