Potty Training
Well …for the past 2 weeks I’ve been potty training and needless to say I haven’t been in touch for a couple of weeks. Lily-Mai is of the incredibly headstrong variety and having now potty trained two toddlers successfully, I am starting to really get my confidence at this. So bring on the production line!
Here’s my top tips that really worked for me and from years of experience of my advisor (super childminder) …
1. Before you start introducing the potty, talk about the potty, read books about the potty and tell them about how big girls and boys don’t wear nappies and that they are getting bigger now.
2. From the day you decide to start, spend 2 days in the house without going anywhere. This may sound extreme, but it’s worth the effort in the long run as it gets them used to the idea of the potty without too much else going on to distract them. When they’ve got other things going on, they’ll just let go.
3. Be headstrong without appearing so. Your toddler will most likely have a desire to win the battle of wills. Here’s how I handled it that made a very strong willed and determined toddler take to the potty like a dream…
- When they don’t want to go on it don’t force them. It will only make them more determined not to. It generally seems to get a better reaction to say “whatever you do don’t you sit on that potty”, or ignore the fact and let them have a few accidents.
- be determined that you are not going to revert back to the nappy as reverting back can confuse the message about whether they need to be thinking about the fact that they are ‘going’ or not and if you revert back they have won the battle of the wills.
- stay very relaxed and calm when they have a little accident. After all a carpet can be cleaned, but if they have any emotional difficulties with the fact they have accidents, then it can lead to psychological difficulties later on. Freud had a theory on adults regressing to a stage in their childhood. If you buy his theories, developing anxiety at this stage could link to regression back to the anal stage and I’m sure even the best of us would never want that.
- Expect a blip. Lily-Mai walked round for a whole day (around day 5) and completely ignored any existence of a potty. It was tempting to give in. My mindset was that you will either go on your potty or have an accident. I was very tempted to give in, but persevered.
Perseverence and remaining very calm are definately the key. After 2 weeks she is now asking to go to the toilet. We have not tackled night time yet, but the plan is to stay in nappies until she is dry at night which seems to be on it’s way.
