10 Great Tips To Master Your Child's Potty Training

Potty training is all about your child’s confidence and success. And you’re the one who can make all the difference. Stay calm, stay positive and don’t take it personally if your child can’t do it yet.

Here are some basic tips for parents.

Prepare your attitude

Your child needs you to be consistent, and positive. If you are feeling too needy for any reason, take care of your issues before starting potty training. Wait until you can rise above momentary frustrations so your child gets your best parenting.

Is your toddler ready physically and emotionally?

Age doesn’t matter as much as readiness. Here’s a short quiz to help you determine your child’s readiness.

Follow your child’s lead

You know your child best – follow her personality and interest in using the toilet, don’t work against it. Don’t talk too much about going potty, instead create short conversations, ask questions to stimulate her body awareness.

Stay in the bathroom with your child

Make it an experience, not a chore. Let your child see that they have your complete attention. Read to them or play a game or give them a toy.

Praise

If your child just sits in the bathroom without doing anything, praise him. It’s part of the learning process and he is trying.

Potty chair

Let him sit in the potty chair without a diaper every day for a few minutes if it seems interesting to him. It helps to build focus on going potty as an important task that he will do on his own.

Away from the house

If your child seems to like the potty chair, take it with you when you run errands or visit friends or the park. Use it like you would at home.

Respond quickly

When you see the signs of needing to go potty, drop everything to go into the bathroom with him.

Awareness of the need to go

Conversations about noticing signs that she needs to go potty can happen anywhere. Make a game out of it by asking which parts of the body give her a sign. Tell her what your signs are, too.

Relax

If it doesn’t seem to be working after a few weeks, wait a few months, don’t push it. Stay calm with potty accidents – each one will teach her more about how to know her body signs.

As you teach your child new things he will learn how he fits in the world. If you are harsh or punitive he will learn to be afraid of making mistakes and not trust himself. If you are positive and accepting, he will learn confidence in himself, a trait that will carry him through all of the life’s challenges.