Top tips on how to potty train

Hey readers

I am always thankful to find peoples blog-type experience posts really helpful when I am at a lost.

 Therefore I thought I would provide some tips to help with potty training that has helped me.

I knew pre-training the thought of potty training scared me to death; all the scare stories seemed to really make me anxious at the prospect.

I had heard of experiences that had been bad with training their young ones but I think that was down more to the pressure to use the potty. 

Personally, that was not my style but below I have listed what I did to train my child to use the potty. I know this is boasting but it only took me a week when the time was right to do it. 

However, with my second child, it took a couple of months. But you have to play it by ear as each child is different and some take longer than others but that is ok.

 I have listed my top tips below.

Firstly listen to your child and watch out for the signs that they are ready, for example, if your child is holding their genitals or asking about the toilet etc. These are good indicates that your child wants to explore using the toilet.

Let them see you use the toilet; this helps them be aware of what the toilet is and what happens when you use the toilet.

I got a child friendly 'potty book' personally I love pirate Pete one but that is my personal opinion and it is not an ad either.

 With the book, I liked it because the child can interact with the sounds, colourful and simple to understand for my boy to see the process of using the potty.  

Also, it is best to get a gendered one because girls and boys have different anatomy and use the toilet differently.

Be relaxed don't put pressure on yourself or your child, they pick up on the tension and it could potentially cause a delay or regression in the training process.

I started with simply having a potty in the room so that my son could explore it and get to practice sitting on it.

Then after a while when my son got confident with sitting on the potty I give him periods where he would have nappy free time to try out using the potty. 

Now bear in my mind that accidents do happen with wees and poo on the floor but over time with encouragement, they will get used to finding and using the potty. Though, as a parent, you can watch out for signs for your child needing the toilet when they appear to be squatting or holding themselves crossed-legged calmly place them on to the potty.

Praise them for sitting on the potty and don't criticise them when they do little accidents on the floor. Just keep praising the positive behaviour and slowly they will move forward.

Have a reward chart with star stickers- kids’ love getting involved and this really helped reinforce positive behaviour.

Using pull up nappies is essential to help introduce them to the idea of pulling up their nappies/underwear.

Remember every child is different so take your time and though my son took a week to potty train we had months where we would constantly go back and forth due to illness.

Hope this helps and the prospect is not too daunting for you.

What tips have helped you when potty training your child? Love to hear your thoughts in the comment section down below.

Cheers for reading X