Potty Training Your Child

Potty training your child can be challenging. Here are some tips to making the task easier.

Rewards

It is important to offer your child rewards for their successes. In my last article, I mentioned the various types of rewards that you can do with your child to have success.

Games

Playing games with your child or reading special storybooks while they are on the potty can be a great way to encourage your child to stay on the potty. If you are not too grossed out by it, you can even have playdough for the child to use while on the potty. You can either buy the playdough or mix together 4 cups flour

1/4 cup salt, 1 1/2 cups water, 1 tablespoon oil and some food coloring together to make your own. There are other versions of homemade playdough available online as well.

Quick Reinforcement

As always, it is important to offer the reward to your child as quickly as possible. A quick reward and praise will go farther than when the praise or reward is delayed. If you want your child to go again, be sure to give the praise to your child quickly.

Graduating to Big Girl/Big Boy Underwear

Graduating to Big Girl or Big Boy Underwear a little sooner than you would normally do it will help. You will have a few messes to clean up initially but it will definitely help your child learn at a faster rate.

Schedule

Having a Schedule is a great way to encourage your child to go. Set the timer for once every 1 or 2 hours to encourage them to go. When the timer rings, take them to the potty. Also, do your best to try and figure out the time(s) of day your child goes "big potty" then place your child on the potty at these time(s).

Flag It

Better than a schedule is flagging times to take your child to go. This is easier and takes less self discipline (on your behalf) than a timer. You can flag when to take your child to the potty with a variety of different things including (but not limited to): before you go on a trip, before bed, when your child wakes up in the morning (run to the bathroom in the morning), when you go to the potty, before and after a meal, before a bath, before brushing teeth or whatever else is easy for you to remember. Having consistent times to take them will help you remember to take them to the potty. This tip is a tremendous help!

Patience

Potty training takes place in phases. Sometimes we expect the child to be able to complete all the phases at once. This is unrealistic. Your child may get good at going "little potty" first and then graduate to "big potty" later. Your child may not tell you they need to go for awhile but may go if you have them on a schedule. Each step is a phases and there are many phases to potty training. Therefore, patience is of primary importance.

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