Each child is unique when it comes to potty training, and determining if it is time for your little guy or gal to give up the diapers and start using the potty is challenging. Be forewarned, however; potty training (even though many parents claim it is easy) can become a huge undertaking. And don’t plan on junior giving up his Pampers cold turkey. Potty training takes time and patience.

No More Diapers!

Toddlers are an extremely stubborn lot, and this spills over to their toileting habits. There is no cure-all technique or fix-all method for potty training, but it is a mix of trial and error and elbow grease. Moving the child out of diapers is best accomplished when there is tangible motivation and rewards involved. Your reward will be not buying any more expensive diapers and not having to pull diaper duty.

When you get ready to begin potty training, make sure you and the child are ready because there really is no turning back. There is no specific age to begin toilet training, but anytime after 18 months is good. You will know when the time is right for your child; some parents start their child off on potty training even earlier than 18 months, while some may wait until the child is two years old or even three years old.

Training Pants & Potty Chairs

Once you have made the determination that your child is ready to give up his baby diaper for big boy pants, find some underwear style training pants for him to wear – either the disposable kind like “Pull-ups” or the reusable/washable variety. You might even consider allowing the child to be present when you purchase the training pants and allow them to choose which they like best.

Splurging a little bit on the purchase of some underwear that is emblazoned with the child’s favorite cartoon character is also a good idea; this adds more interest to the item from the child’s perspective. When you buy the training pants, don’t look back. Get rid of all the diapers in your home and make sure that the child sees you throw them in the trash.

Reverting back to diapers will only delay the potty training process and may reinforce any apprehension the child has with wearing training pants. You will also want to purchase a child size potty chair, or a special seat that fits on top of your toilet.

Getting Started

Once you have begun to put training pants on your child, it is important that you ask the child often throughout the day if he needs to go to the potty. Expect the child to forget the fact that you’re trying to potty train him; he needs to be prompted for the first few weeks (or months in some children) to go to the potty.

He may not actually go each time, but when he does, be sure to pile on the praise and let him know what a “big boy” he is becoming. The goal at the end of the process is to have the child be able to potty independently without your assistance or prompting, but that can be a long road and patience will be needed to achieve it.

On average, it takes around eight months to fully potty train a child – and some may need a full year to achieve independent toileting patterns.

Tips to Remember

The following tips will help you as you work with your child to develop appropriate toileting skills:

· Let the child feel as in control of the process as possible; this means not dressing them in clothing that is difficult to get off or that has multiple buttons and snaps. Elasticized pants that are easy to pull up and down are ideal.

· Place the potty chair next to the toilet, and have a potty chair for each bathroom in the home that the child might use.

· Consider a potty chair that changes colors in the bottom when the child urinates; kids love to see that happen and will sometimes go to the potty just for that reason.

· Purchase some children’s books on potty training and read them to your child to reinforce the skills you are working on together.

· Create a reward chart and give the child a special sticker to place on the chart when he uses the potty; place the chart down low on the refrigerator so that he can get to it easily.

· Never scold the child when he has an accident; potty training has a learning curve and he will eventually get it right!

Carol has been advising mums on the very best New baby pushchairs to buy for over 30 years. She welcomes all questions on what to buy and why. So if you want to buy Travel Systems please feel free to ask.

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Tips for teaching excellent hygiene during Potty Training. Toilet training is an excellent opportunity to add an additional lesson; an opportune time to teach your child the ins and outs of excellent hygiene. You are already on the road to bathroom independence. Follow these few tips to help the understand the importance of regular hygiene.

• Don’t wait to change soiled pants or underwear. Change your child’s underwear or training pants immediately. Never allow your child the opportunity to feel comfortable with being dirty. This will only make it difficult later.
• Wash it if you can, toss it if you can’t. Filthy underwear falls in only two categories – salvage or garbage. If the underwear is simply soaked in urine, you can wash it to rinse the yuck right out. Number two, not so much. More than likely, the number two will be soft and mushy. In this case, you’ll want to toss them straight into the trash.
• Have your child wipe the seat themselves. Germs can regularly settle on the seat after having splashed during flushing. Have your child wipe the seat with paper and then flush the residue. A habit learned early can follow for life.
• Model proper wiping. Girls must learn to wipe from front to back (thoroughly) to prevent germs moving from back to front. You can instruct your little girl to pat instead of wiping hard so she can reduce to instances of irritation.
• Purchase the proper toiletries. Buy products that are gentle. Children have extra sensitive. Pre-moistened wipees are ideal for young users, as they are both gentle and effective, while providing enough strength and absorbency to do a good job.
• Teach your child how to wash their hands. Hand washing reduces the spread of germs. Model for your child by doing it yourself. Use antibacterial soap with warm water and thoroughly scrub your palms for maybe seconds. Count to ten or recite a rhyme while washing. This can help your child gauge the needed time. Hand washing should be routine.
• Use a bleach/water solution to clean the potty. Regularly clean the toilet, ideally after each use. Avoid cleaning carpets by placing the potty on an easy to clean floor. You can also invest in an easy to wipe mat.
• Children are curious. Your child might want to play with his number two. Try to prevent the behavior without making them feel bad by simply saying, “No. This is not something to be played with.”
• Teach etiquette. Potty training is an excellent time to teach your child (especially boys) to lower the seat and lid when finished. This is a perfect place for dad to model.

Sean Platt is a dad and teacher who runs a preschool with his wife and potty trains plenty of toddlers.

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If possible get everyone else out of the house and don’t have visitors while the training is taking progress as this will make it heaps easier to focus on the toddler and get the job done.

Diet is also an important factor in preparing for potty training. You need to give the toddler lots of water and heaps of fibrous food. This is not the time for constipation and if it does happen you’d be better off starting at a later date. A hard poo can be painful and will make the child hesitant to pass it on the potty.

Keep the potty in the same area that you and the child are playing in so it is easily accessible. Carry it around with you about the house. Keep re-inforcing to your little one that they need to pee and poo in the potty and wear big person underpants.

Would you like to be diaper free. Download Potty Training Secrets Exposed and learn how to be diaper free in 1 to 3 days.

When your child does manage to go in the potty make a big deal out of it. Go crazy, dance and sing as you need to re-inforce the behaviour with positive actions. Probably more importantly do not show your frustration or scold the child when accidents happen. Make sure the child knows that it’s OK and they’ll only get better at it with practice.

Just stay focused and remember that your child wants to learn to go to the toilet on their own. Children love to embrace new things and want most to emulate us big people. We teach our children to go in a diaper from birth. Potty training is a process of breaking that habit.

A key point to remember is that they don’t find it easier to pee and poo in the diaper it’s just that it’s all they know. Would you find it comfortable to have wet pants? Didn’t think so. Do your child and yourself a favour and potty train them as soon as you think they are ready. You’ll save yourself thousands of dollars and give your little person a major sense of achievement in the process.

Would you like to be diaper free. Download Potty Training Secrets Exposed and learn how to be diaper free in 1 to 3 days.

Handy Folding Potty Liners

Kids learn fast by way of example and sometimes the best way to do that is to do some roleplaying.  Here’s a neat roleplaying session you can have fun with when you think your child is ready to potty train.  Grab one of your child’s favourite dolls or teddies and put a diaper on it. Call it by whatever name your child calls it. For this example we will call the doll Daisy.  Now tell your child that you are going to teach Daisy to go to the potty and that she won’t need to wear diapers but will wear big person pants  because she can do wees and poos like a big person.  Then change the doll into some underpants.

Give Daisy lots of water. If you have a doll that  can drink liquids this exericise will be much easier but if not just pretend that she’s drinking.  Then jump around and tell your child that Daisy needs to go to the toilet and rush to the potty and teach Daisy to go potty (after you have removed the underpants of course). Again, if you don’t have a doll that simulates this then just use a syringe. Get excited about Daisy doing a pee in the potty and then make a big deal about the underpants being dry because Daisy used the potty.

Do the motions of cleaning the doll with toilet paper so your child knows that needs to be done as well.  Then go to the toilet and flush the potty contents all the while congratulating Daisy on what a great job she did. Don’t forget to wash Daisy’s hands.

Do this a few times as children learn most by repetition. Your child can put a star on a chart for Daisy to congratulate her on her accomplishment. Make a real song and dance about Dolly being  potty trained, your child will love it.  To make the sessions more realistic occasionally let Dolly have an accident and get your child to touch the wet pants to show how it feels .

Do this exercise about three days before you start potty training your child. Once they have the routine down then it’s time to start teaching your child about using the potty themselves. Your role playing sessions have just re-inforced the required routines and they will feel more comfortable using the potty themselves.

Learn other tricks about when and how to potty train your child.

• Don’t fight them. That will only increase their phobia.
• Get some stickers and decorate the potty together. Make it fun. You can get stickers that change color when you wee on them which kids love.
• Pop a teddy bear on the potty and pretend that it is going to the toilet.
• Maybe try some training pants. Cloth ones so they get to know the sensation of being wet and uncomfortable. they’ll soon learn that they can avoid those feelings if they go to the potty.
• Draw a face on a ping pong ball and float it in the toilet. Your young male toddler will love trying to aim at it.
• Don’t close the toilet door when you use it. Let them know what it’s for. If they understand it they won’t be so afraid of it.

Would you like to be diaper free. Download Potty Training Secrets Exposed and learn how to be diaper free in 1 to 3 days.