Potty Training a Toddler

It is not unusual to dread potty training a child, especially if you have had a bad experience with it in the past. While you are anxious to get your child out of diapers sooner rather than later, you are also often in for a bit of work to actually get completely out of diapers. Of course, the longer you wait the harder it often gets.

With our oldest child, we potty trained him at 1.5 years old. The primary reason for that is because he would have huge blowouts, no matter what we tried. It wasn’t really a lot of fun to deal with, and we wanted to get out of diapers as fast as we could.

For our second, he didn’t have the same problem, so we were content to wait. Another reason we wanted to wait was that he was in daycare, and we really didn’t know how to go about dealing with potty training him while he wasn’t always home. Our first was always at home.

Once we finally bit the bullet and did it though, it went way easier than we thought it would. While we had a few accidents, he took it up really quickly, and was pretty solid afterwards. Here are some things that we’d recommend.

Potty train them early

It was awesome to have our youngest child out of diapers really early on. No more having to carry diapers all over the place, worrying that they’d explode all over, and just save some money.

It’s great to have a young child that’s potty trained as you just have less to stress about when out and about, and they can participate in all activities that require your child to be potty trained.

Potty train them later

Of course, there are negatives to train them early on. They often can’t pull their own pants down, they may not be able to make it through nap time without wetting the bed, and they may understand less of what’s going on.

Our oldest was in diapers during nap time for quite awhile, and he’d often act like he was asleep and just do his poopy diapers during nap time. If we could have got him out of diapers faster after waking up, we wouldn’t have had to worry about that. Our more recent experience is just the opposite. No diapers needed, and pooping on the toilet (after a couple of accidents the first couple of days).

It was also a lot of work going into the bathroom with a younger potty-trained child all the time to help him pull down his pants and take care of going to the bathroom. By waiting longer with our second son, he wanted to pull his own pants up and down, and he wanted to clean up after himself.

Both sides have their positives, but I definitely like the second time much better than the first. Our son is a lot more self sufficient with taking care of himself.

Potty train them over a short period

Once you’re ready to start the potty training, don’t drag it out. Trying to put pull ups on and letting them do it on their own is just going to take a lot longer. A pull up feels so much like a diaper that your child just isn’t going to understand as well that they need to go to the toilet.

For both sons, we put them in underwear, and then we put them on the toilet every 10-15 minutes (depended on how much they had had to drink). We would then watch them very closely if they didn’t go pee when on the toilet.

While this method is a lot of work, it’s also going to be the fastest way to get your child peeing on the toilet. That first time is going to be the hardest - your child is likely scared to pee on the toilet as they’re used to peeing in their diaper. Once you’ve got them to use the toilet the first time, then the next time will be easier (but you’re going to still need to ask and remind them to go on the toilet).

Make sure that you cheer and congratulate your child once they go to the bathroom - they’ll love being praised and it will make it easier the next time.

If they do have an accident (which they almost invariably will), remind your child that we don’t go to the bathroom in our pants and that they should use the toilet. Don’t put them in a diaper - put them in underwear again. By doing this, you’re telling your child that they made a mistake but you still trust them. After an accident, make sure to ask them more often if they need to go to the bathroom. Celebrate when they make it again.

Potty train them when they want to do it themselves

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

This may be the easiest way to know that you should start potty training your child - they start pulling their pants down and try to get their diaper off. If they’re doing this, then you shouldn’t wait. This means they’re realizing when they need to go to the bathroom. While they may not go immediately, they at least are starting to understand.

If you’re not seeing this by about 3 years old, then you should make sure your child is seeing you or someone go to the bathroom. You should also talk to them about what you’re doing. Help them learn why you pull your pants down and sit down on the toilet.

Get a potty chair sooner

Regardless of whether or not you’re going to potty train your child from very young, you should get a potty chair sooner rather than later. By having a potty training chair, you can start sitting your child on it and telling them it’s for going potty on.

This has worked well with both of our kids, but especially our second. We had the potty training chair out from when he was a year and a half, and we’d put him on it every now and then. Since he knew what it was for, he started to pull his own pants (and diaper) down and to sit down on it without any prompting from us. He wouldn’t go to the bathroom, but he was at least sitting by himself.

As such, we knew it was time to start actually potty training him. If we didn’t have the potty chair in the bathroom, we wouldn’t have known he was ready. Once we started, we put him into underwear, and used the above recommendations by keeping him out of diapers.

Encourage and cheer them on

As mentioned above, make sure you cheer them on along the way. They’ll love it. Praise them when they do a good job, encourage them to do better when they don’t.

Conclusion

Potty training can be hard and scary, but it’s something that you can do. The faster you cut them off from diapers, the easier the process will be.