Fun Ways to Potty Train Your Toddler

Table of Contents

What is Potty Training?

Potty training is the process through which you teach your toddler about their body signal when they want to urinate or when they have a bowel movement, and using the potty chair and toilet correctly. This is important if you are preparing your toddler for preschool enrollement. Potty training success can be achieved easily, despite being the hardest part of baby development, by following certain pointers.

Potty Training Pants and How They are Used

There are two types of potty training pants;

Disposable pants feel and function like diapers. When an accident happens, your child will not feel any wetness. The pants absorb all the moisture leaving the baby dry.
Cloth pants are typically big pants made of natural fibre like cotton. This means toddlers feel the wetness in case they mess themselves.

Different parents have different preferences. Parents who use cloth trainers argue that it does not make sense trying to train a kid from using a diaper he/she has been using for 2-3 years by giving them the same thing.

Besides the cloth trainers are also cost-effective. Parents who go for disposable pants argue toddlers can still jump into them like pants, giving them confidence.

Every parent chooses their training pants based on their view and their goals.

Bonus: Customizing your baby toilet training pants with characters they love can fasten the process. The idea of peeing or pooping on Sofia, Elsa or Persy may motivate them to stay more alert.

What is the Right Potty Training Age?

The right time to train your baby is when she/he starts to show the signs. Most healthy toddlers are only ready for potty training when they are between 18 months and three years old. Girls are always prepared for potty training earlier than boys. Most parents start to train their kids when they are between 2 and three years. This is a perfect time for the purpose of kindergarten enrollement.

However, there is no official age of potty training. You do not even need to potty-train your kid if you do not want to; they can copy what other kids are doing. Your toddler only needs to understand why they should do it and where to do it. Also, if you realize your kid is not ready for the exercise, don’t force them; the timing is different for every kid.

Other parents train the children when they are not even four months old. This is by observing their kids for wee or poo signs and catching them on the potty. However, doctors do not advocate for this method. They say it leads to problems when children are in stressful conditions.

A kid can only control what comes out of their bladder when they are two years old. This is why waiting for the signs is important.

When to Start Potty Training

Here are the signs that indicate your baby is ready for potty training;

They can feel the wetness and try to pull the dirty diapers. They are now aiming at remaining dry.
Your toddler is now hiding to pee or poop
Interest in other people who are using the potty and imitating their behavior such as the use of tissue paper.
Waking up dry after a nap
He/she now has his/her diaper longer than usual before pooing in it.
Telling you, they are about to pee or just did it.

Best Potty Training Tips

Observe your toddler to know their peeing routines. This will be helpful for nighttime training
Substitute questions like “Do you need to potty?” with ‘I wonder if you know how to use the potty now to challenge your kid.
Don’t give your kid a diaper to poop on when they request one. It means they understand the feeling; offer them a potty instead.
No mother enjoys cleaning up the mess in the potty. To make it easier, place a coffee filter at the bottom of the potty before they sit on the potty.
Keep the kid’s eyes to the prize to be won if they do it right for motivation
If your child is the goal-oriented type; track their progress on a chat
Ensure you make a decoration to show a limit of tissue paper to avoid messes. You can see the tissue opens to five squares before the mark.
Kids need to wash up their hands after using the toilet. Make it fun by creating a fun soap bottle to entice them.
Ensure they cannot reach the water. Instead, use a shampoo bottle to create your faucet extender for them.
Have an open mind about the timing. Be patient with the potty training process.
Make it a fun coloring session. One mum says her daughter would not sit on the white toilet; she bought markers and erasers and stuck a paper on the lid for her to color when peeing.
Buy your kid interesting story books to read when pooping to make them stick to the toilet bowl and not mess the whole bathroom.
Be prepared with a portable potty when traveling to create a small toilet for your toddler when you are on the go. You can buy a potty seat.

How to Create Potty Training Schedules

Clear your schedule. The first step of training how to potty is to have free time to be in the house for the training session.
Set a time to take the kid of sitting on the toilet every 20 or 30 minutes. In most cases, kids fail or forget to listen to their body because they are having too much fun.
Incorporate rewards and charts in the potty training session.
Stretch out the timer. Start with 30 minutes to 1 hour, 2 hours and so on. Before you realize it, you will not need a timer.
After a few days, plan short trips around the house like the grocery shop for 20 minutes. You will be nervous during the first trips, but you can do this!
If you realize that deflecting from the schedule is causing more accidents, go back to the schedule. This will prepare for a preschool programme.

Final Thoughts:

Potty training is a major time in your baby’s life. You are teaching him/her a big part of independence. It doesn’t have to be messy, boring and stressful. By employing tips from this article, it will be fun for both you and the kid.

Remember to wait for the signs before you start potty training sessions. Every baby has their right timing. Also, be ready to exercise a lot of patience during the process. Every life milestone is supposed to be fun and exciting.

Good luck!

Or, Preschool here would be able to help you on this.