Potty training is an important step forward for children, in several ways. They gain control over their body, which previously functioned outside of their own will, automatically. Becoming potty trained is the beginning of becoming aware of obligations and of getting things done systematically. In this way, potty training plays a role in shaping the character of children and also in building a strong relationship of trust with parents.

Relaxed toilet training is largely based on the parents’ ability to respond to what their child indicates. In the first year of life, a baby is hardly aware of the bowel activity. producing stool happens to a baby and goes beyond its control: it is a reflex.

Is it possible to start too early with potty training

Yes, that’s possible. For example, between the twelfth and eighteenth month, something often changes in the attitude towards the stool. They may stop doing what they are doing or change their facial expressions, but they are not ready to let heir parents know that they need to go to the toilet. However, if we start toilet training between the twelfth and eighteenth month, there is a danger that they will suddenly resist this. They suddenly seem to have “forgotten” it.

Resistance between 12 and 18 months in early potty trained babies is more common than between 18 and 24 months. It is therefore better to wait with potty training until the second half of the second year. The most important thing is to encourage children when they are ready for it. Then they don’t just do it because their parents want it so badly. Besides that the child must be ready for it, it is also important that the parents themselves are also ready.

When is best to start potty training

In the second half of the second year, most children show clear signs of a willingness to participate in potty training. They are now much more aware of their own body. They interrupt their game or act a little guilty when they have had an accident. They signal or communicate with their parent that their diaper is dirty and that they would like to be changed.

Toilet or Potty

I prefer, up to two and a half years, a low potty which stands firmly on the ground. Children are more positive about having their own piece of furniture that is theirs and on which they can sit without much hassle. Their feet stay on the ground, they don’t have to be afraid of heights. Up to two and a half years old, I would clean the pot and flush out the stool after the child has left. Flushing the toilet can be scary for them. Not only because of the loud noise, but also because “their property” is flushed away with a loud noise. This fear must be taken seriously.

Before you start potty training

Before you start any form of potty training, you must have received one or more cues from your child that he is ready. In addition:

• Your child must have sufficiently processed the initial excitement about learning to walk to be able to sit still now and then;
• Your child should also not be in a clear “negative” phase, in which he tantrums about every proposal that is made;
• It would be nice if he could tell tiy to go to the bathroom, but that’s not essential.

Potty training in 3 steps

• Step 1
  • The first step in the training should not be that you take off his diaper and put him on the potty. That is too strange and too sudden. It is much better to let him get used to it for at least a week, like a nice piece of furniture that is all his and that he can sit on with all his clothes on. Then he won’t consider it as a weird and stressfull thing that his parents want to use to take his property away from him. It is a small effort to take it to the store where you choose the potty.
  • In addition, you can show your little one how you sit on the grown-up toilet yourself. But don’t immediately talk about pooping and peeing until your child feels comfortable and just sees the potty as an opportunity to sit on. One new idea at a time is enough. Let your child get up and leave the potty whenever he wants. Any experience with it is useful, even if it is so short. Under no circumstances should your child regard sitting on the potty as a coercive measure, but as a voluntary act that he fulfills with pride. If he refused to sit on it for a week, give him a little more time.
• Step 2
  • Once your child is comfortable with the potty, you can introduce the idea that he can stool or pee in it. You can explain that you yourself use the toilet for this. you can also let him play with a pee doll and water and sand. After you’ve talked a few times about the possibility that he might be peeing or poopin on the potty, you can take your little one’s diaper off, take him to the potty at a time when he usually does his stool and tell him to try. Don’t force him if he doesn’t want to. Then try another time or another day. When one day his stool first comes into the potty, he will understand much better what the intention is and start cooperating. Continue this daily ritual for about a week. In addition, immediately after he has put stool in his diaper, you should take the diaper off, take him to the potty to sit down, and then show him the stool in the diaper. Explain again that he has his own potty and that one day he will put his stool in it, just like Mom and Dad on the adult toilet. If after a few weeks you have not been able to collect stool or urine, you should let the entire thing rest for a few weeks and then gently try again.
• Step 3
  • When your child begins to understand the point and seems to want to cooperate, bring him to the potty two or three times a day, especially if he indicates he wants to get rid of a urine or stool. If he allows the stool to be collected, for example after a meal or if he has been dry for a few hours, praise him and tell him that he is such a big boy / big girl now. But don’t overdo it.