Each method is popular for different reasons, but the important thing to remember when doing your homework is that you must identify which method and suggestions work best for your child.

There are core strategies most methods share, but one size does not fit all when it comes to potty training.

Children grow and develop at different rates. If you have more than one chid, it can be shocking how different each child, is in spite of the consistency in parenting style.

When potty training children, choosing the right method can be the key to success. You want to train your child so you can ditch the diaper, hit the potty seat and smile at the success of your parenting.

Here are three ideas to remember in the process.

1. Inch by inch. Capitalize on your child’s desire to learn and grow.  Reading books related to toilet training as a family, picking out the potty seat  and underwear together reinforces the process and goal in mind.
2. Unnecessary Pressure. Don’t put unnecessary pressure on your child to succeed.  If your child is afraid of the seat or toilet, let him sit on it fully clothed daily for a few minutes, then work towards taking the diaper off so he can sit like Mom and Dad. This is a journey, not an event. Part of the process is introduction and planning for pre-training. Children need to feel as though they are part of the process, rather than thrown into the situation with the expectation that he will do exactly what he is suppose to after you read a couple of books and buy the potty seat and underwear.
3. Maintain hyperbolic excitement when potty training. Children desire our approval and this is a motivating tool to use when potty training. However, keep it real because you aren’t going to be able to maintain the confetti throwing party and treat train every time. Praise genuinely and give your child a moment to admire his success to promote the pride you both feel.
4. Approval and Praise. Nobody wants to be a failure. It is job one to ensure that your response is not visibly exasperated, frustrated, or punitive when your child makes a mistake.  Replace saying,That’s not right or you missed again withWe will try again, mistakes happen. This keeps the child encouraged and teaches mistakes are part of learning.
5. Combat of the wills and will not. Oppositional behavior is sometimes a part of potty training children, as developmentally that is where many children are at behaviorally. This is because they are discovering their independence and the power of their own will. Do not get into a power struggle about going potty. You will lose every time and be frustrated beyond belief. If you minimize the issue in front of your child then you are making it apparent that the training is for him, not you. The power is in being tenacious and consistently providing the opportunities until success is achieved.

There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your child take his steps no matter what they are.

Remember, you are your child’s first teacher.

It is the encouragement and safety net we provide when potty training children that allows them to make mistakes and propel their achievement in whatever goals we set together.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!

It is also 100% necessary.

Within a fairly narrow window of time, your child will first learn they have the power to control their waste and then be asked to master the necessary control.

The key to potty training success isn’t simply crossing the finish line, it’s making the experience pleasant for all involved as well. Your child, like all children, has their particular likes and dislikes; things they enjoy doing along with those things they don’t enjoy nearly as much.

By making potty training an engaging experience, you will not only make it easier on yourself, you will make it easier on your child as well. Potty training success, here we come!

Please allow us to introduce ourselves and tell you how we led our own children to potty training success. This blog is co-authored by Sean and Cindy Platt. We have been married for eight years and the best of friends for twelve. For the past three years, we have run a highly specialized preschool where learning is always put first.

Despite some of our students joining class at only three months of age, our school is no less a learning environment for the infant as it is for the toddler.

In our Kinder Garden, we start early and finish strong.

Our preschool is based on the philosophy that everyone is a student and learning begins at birth. It doesn’t make a bit of difference who you are or whether or not you have yet to celebrate your first birthday. Everyone is a learner. This philosophy has not only ensured that even our one year olds can spell their names, it also helps to establish the early habits that make fluid potty training fully possible.

Though Sean’s first experience with potty training toddlers began only after the birth of our daughter, Cindy has been an educator for two tireless decades. Her personal history is flocked with fantastic results because she enters and exits every affair with elevated expectations.

Teaching our daughter was (somewhat surprisingly) a snap. Though we had done our homework and felt we were prepared, we still didn’t know exactly what to expect.

Some things you cannot truly understand until they are actually happening. Fortunately, our first experience benefited from a year and a half of constant communication. We are incessant explainers and our daughter a relentless listener. Once it was time to train our daughter, we articulated our expectations, then crossed our hearts and braided our hands.

The gods of toilet training seemed to be smiling on that particular day as our daughter went to bed as dry that night as she’s risen each day since!

Fortunately, we found our initial potty training success wasn’t a fluke.

The summer when our son turned one was when we opened our pre-school. Our transition was immediate. We interviewed clients, selected our families, and then opened our doors to absorb a myriad of families (and philosophies) all in unison.

With a preschool in full bloom, and a few students already past the prime time for potty training preparation, we quickly decided to decrease the diapers and increase the underwear.

It was time to put our potty training success methods to test on a school full of children.

We started with the oldest and went straight down the line, piling packages of unused diapers as though our preschool was an annex for BabiesR Us. Because we were dealing with different parents each with their own style of parenting, we did face some early resistance. That resistance evaporated like midday dew however, once those parents found themselves surrounded by the success of others.

Potty training isn’t magic, it’s a process.

You must start with a strategy, then proceed with the will to make it happen. Anyone who says potty training can be completed in a single day without fail probably isn’t painting an accurate picture.

With a proper plan, certainty in your method, and the conviction to see things through, your potty training will not only be successful, but it will be a rewarding experience for all involved as well.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!

Most parents start asking for  potty training advice just as their child is approaching their second birthday, some start much sooner. Books are opened, questions asked, and a ton of  potty training techniques are tabulated. Everyone seems to say something slightly different and the majority of moms and dads are still left wondering when to start potty training.

This seems like such a difficult question because the proper potty training age cannot be determined by a specific formula. Though, “What is the proper potty training age” is a perfectly legitimate question, the answers are as varied the people responding. Depending on who you ask, the best potty training age is said to be from anywhere as young as six months to approaching three years. That’s quite a chasm to cross. Obviously, the best age for potty training must be determined less by months on the calendar than by your child’s emotional readiness and mental comprehension.

Before you can move to toilet training triumph, your child must have a bladder, capable of carrying out the responsibilities of toilet training alongside a mind willing to do so. As soon as you witness your child able to stay consistently dry for longer stretches of time, they are at the right potty training age physiologically.

If they understand what is happening, and what is expected of them, then they are at the proper potty training age emotionally as well.

Once your child is both physically and emotionally ready, you can start toilet training with a smile on your face. Just know, all the potty training tips in the world will never make it happen without consistency behind them. Potty training is a process, not an event, and it takes place between you and your child.

Like most things worth getting through, toilet training will most likely not happen overnight. It is best to enter the process with reasonable expectations. Don’t believe that just because your child has reached their optimum age for potty training, you will have a single, easy potty training day and that will be all.

Life is rarely so simple.

It is not a rarity to see claims of  3 day potty training. It is far rarer to see them successfully unfold. Unreasonable expectations lead quickly to impatience, impatience to discouragement.

Know what you are doing, and that potty training isn’t likely to happen overnight, and whatever potty training age you choose is likely the best possible decision.

Potty Training…AWAY!!!

Potty training tips vary, but the timeframe most often offered by potty training advice wielding experts is between one and a half and three years, though age isn’t near as relevant as readiness.

When your child can tell you they have a dirty diaper, they’re probably ready. If  they can properly articulate a need to be clean, they’ve likely been ready for a while.

Toilet training is difficult, toddler toilet training especially, yet it is one of the first major  chasms we must cross as mom and dad. Toilet training our toddlers involves us every bit as much as them, and must be carried out by careful thought. The potty training process isn’t just about ditching the diaper, it’s about gaining the personal responsibility that comes along with it. Starting with the proper  potty training techniques is the best way to experience early success.

Allowing your child to stay swaddled in their diaper after they’ve shown they’re capable of doing otherwise (simply because they are hedging on their next step or stagnation makes it simpler for your schedule), then you are also allowing our child to draft the household decisions, and thus plotting out a poor precedent at an early age.

Even worse, you are teaching your child that you are comfortable cleaning up after them until they decide different.

You’re probably thinking,  “But my daughter’s only two!”

Sure, but she’ll soon be five, then ten… then fifteen. She’s learning who she is right now and the first years couldn’t be more important.

For some toddlers, toilet training hits a home run without a lot of effort, easy as slipping wheat germ in the cake batter.  Other children find it a trying time when they feel they must assert their will. Though the process can be difficult, you can not be detoured.

Remember, it’s called toilet training for a reason. You may have a few extra loads laundry, but the battle is brief. When it’s over, your child will be stronger and so will you.

Written down in black and white this all sounds perfectly pragmatic, but many a practical parent appears to lose all perspective when the subject falls to toilet training your toddler.

When to start potty training is a delicate subject – either you hedge because of the anticipated struggle, or you are afraid of possible damage to their psyche if we push our toddlers too hard.

As far as warping your little one’s childhood, no one is suggesting you wrap your child in chains until they can properly use the potty. Simply take the time to observe your child, for it is you  who know them  best. Be realistic. Few children glide through potty training.

Day by day is the best design.

Of all the toilet training tips, here’s the one that takes the prize: Once confident your child understands what is happening and what they are required to do, you have no excuse to straddle the road any longer. Toddler toilet training doesn’t start the second we come home from the store with a few dozen pairs of underwear. Toilet training is an awareness that you can build from the changing table forward.

Toilet training toddlers starts with us, but it finishes with them.

Potty Training Power…AWAY!!!