All About Kids

That’s it! It’s official, we now no longer have any kids in diapers! (Well at least not during the day.)

I have successfully got my youngest (2.5yrs) into underwear during the day, still Pull-ups at night. Here are a couple of tips that have worked for me.

Wait until the child shows some signs of readiness, these could be anything from being curious about the toliet (maybe wanting to watch others, try flushing, or just looking around), to grabbing their diaper when wet or dirty, or even better letting you know when they are wet or dirty.

Once these signs have started showing up, it’s time to start the process. Please don’t get frustrated if these signs don’t happen at an age when you wish they would, every child is different. Although some children can be pushed, for most others this can have very negative affects and you may slow the process down considerably.

The first steps should be to help the child connect the act with where it belongs. A few good ways of doing this are: allowing the child to watch others, (best if of the same sex, girls watch mom or sisters, boys watch dad or brothers, but don’t fret if this is not possible, just making the connection is what is most important here, not really the method,) Disposing of messy diapers, when a poo is made in the diaper a good way to help them make the connection of where this belongs, is to sit them on the potty (or toliet) and then drop the poo between their legs into the potty, that way they can see where it goes. (If you are using a potty you can also let them help you dump it from the potty into the toliet when they are finished.) Then allow them to flush if they desire, again this allows them to see where it goes and helps with that connection. My last great tip for connecting act with location is to get a child on to the potty when they wake up. (this is sometimes the hardest part for sleepy parents but is very effective). Just like most of us who get up and head straight for the bathroom, most children will pee within the first 5min after waking. If we can manage to get our little ones on the potty within that time frame, they can often make the connection between the sensation of having to go and the placement of where it belongs.

The next step is, yes we hear it in almost every area of parenting, consistancy! Whether you choose to use a disposable training pant such as Pull-ups or Easy ups, or you go for the training panties (a little more messy, but depending on the child, maybe more effective), the key is to be consistant. The advantage to the training panty is that if your child does not like to be dirty or wet, with this option they really feel it, however the downside to this is that it is more difficult to be consistant, most of us don’t want messes in the car or the bed so the diaper ends up back on. This can really slow things down! If you choose the disposable training pant, it’s alot easier to stick to it, no messes in the car and there are even overnight versions for heavy wetters, but as with everything there are downsides to this too, for some kids it still feels a lot like a diaper and they will continue to use it as one. (a big key to that is to make sure you never call it a diaper, always a training pant, big kid underwear or pull-up/easy-up, as soon as a kid hears it called a diaper, they are smart and they will use it as one). Another nice thing about the disposables is that you can get them in different types to help suit your childs learning, aka if thet are visual learners they make some where the picture disappears off the front (a nice tool for parents as well) if using this option remember to show the child, they can’t learn from it if they don’t see it! Or if they don’t like being wet or cold there are some that let the child feel the wetness or turn cold when wet to discurrage wetting the training pant. (please remember not to use these at night as the wetness does touch the skin and can cause irritation if the child sleeps through the night wet, in these cases either use the overnight varieties or the original/learning design style.)

The next step is to discuss and reward! Make sure that you take a few moments each day, (ie during morning pee) to discuss and remind the child that this is how mommy and daddy (and any siblings) go to the bathroom many times everyday, and learning to do it as well shows how big the child is getting. It is extremely important to encourage and reward successes either verbally or through some sort of reward system, (my kids liked getting stickers on a chart whenver they were successful), but do not punish! This is a hard skill for a child to understand and master! Even after a child has been trained for awhile accidents might still occur, just remind them where it should go, and try not to show the frustration you will likely feel. It can be very discouraging for a little one who is really trying and may cause more “accidents”.

The most important thing I can tell you is to be patient, you may feel like it is taking too long or that it’s never going to happen, but I promise you, your child will not graduate high school in diapers, they all get it eventually. Some may be 18 months and others may be 5. Some are into double digits before they get the hang of it at night. Don’t fret, be patient. It Will Happen!

Good Luck

Posted on October 26th, 2008 by Terri Lynn
Filed under: Potty Training