Overview
Has your baby started walking? Is your baby trying to remove the diapers often? If these are some of the new changes that you have noticed, then most probably it means that your baby wants potty training as he/she is growing, and that another milestone is fast approaching.
Has your baby started walking? Is your baby trying to remove the diapers often? If these are some of the new changes that you have noticed, then most probably it means that your baby wants potty training as he/she is growing, and that another milestone is fast approaching.
Some toddlers don’t display any of these signs (mine certainly hasn’t), don’t be afraid to start them early though, we started training ours at the age of 9 months, as soon as she started sitting properly.
Though toilet habits are not a big area of conversation for most people, pooping will be the dominant topic for some years to come so be prepared!
A baby using a potty indicates a developmental, physical and behavioral milestones for your child. It is an exciting milestone, one you will be proud of for years to come!
What is potty training, really?
Potty training or toilet training is basically a process to teach your child how to use a smaller toilet shaped chair/device for both number 1 and number 2.
The modern day potty training
The modern day potty training is focused more on achieving this milestone in a mutual way. Let me explain this; nowadays parents are advised to train their children by positive feedback, appreciating the achievements of the child instead of forced teaching approach and scolding when the child does accidents/ mistakes.
Parents need to be attune to the signs that indicate a child might be ready to be potty trained, these could be strange noises, or simply calling you before he/she does the business.
Signs that your baby is ready for potty training
- The easiest one to identify is when your child is not willing to wear a wet diaper or removes it.
- When the child tries to imitate sitting on potty to copy the parent.
- When you notice that your baby’s diaper is dry for 2 hrs or more as it is suggestive of an improving bladder capacity of your child.
- When your child shows interest.
- When your child can sit comfortably and find the bathroom alone
- Starts hiding when he/she has to pee or poop
- Gets up from sleep with a dry diaper
How to potty train?
When you start seeing the signs of potty training, start doing the following:
- Bring your child to the potty seater every 15-30 minutes and make him/her sit for some minutes over the chair. Keep the child playful so that the baby remains comfortable being on the chair.
- Appreciate your child with applause so as to keep the child interested in this.
- Make sure you make your child sit over the potty chair for few minutes before going to bed.
- Stop feeding your child with liquids half an hour before going to sleep.
- Do not wear diaper
- Start using underwear instead of diaper
- Continue the routine for some more days
- Keep a routine for your child
- Buy the equipment which your child is most comfortable with
- Keep patience and don’t try to impose, give the child his/her time
- Keep the training in a playful and interesting way
Use these aids when potty training
Potty chairs
They are miniature versions of a regular toilet. It has a sitting portion and toilet portion. Usually it comes as removable ones to clean the toilet easily.
Potty pots
They are similar to regular toilets but slightly different from the potty chairs. These are slightly less expensive when compared with the chair varieties.
How to choose a potty chair?
Choose a chair that is both comfortable, anti skid and not scary. It should be something attractive to your child, so as to make the potty training more interesting.
Some tips to ease potty training
Lastly, the most important factor that should be kept in mind is patience. Do not hurry, let your child do it in his/her own time period.
The most important factor to achieve this potty training milestone for your child is patience .
Always keep the child happy, praise your child for all the small achievements of milestones and this will also have an amazing impact on the personality of the baby to face the developmental milestones in playful way.
Final Tip
When your child is sitting on the potty, occupy him or her by reading their favourite book, enough books for 15-20 mins. This has worked wonders for us.