Top 5 Potty Training Mistakes

All parents would like to potty train their children before they start going to pre-school; however you could make the transition smooth if you avoid the top 5 potty training mistakes.

The top 5 potty training mistakes:

• The first mistake is that parents fail to take the temperament and learning style of the child into consideration and end up with frustration and failure.
  
  
  
  • Understand that an anxious or cautious child may take weeks or months to warm up to the idea of potty training; pushing this child too much leads to fear and avoidance. Giving this child plenty of time and potty choices would help in due course.
  
  
  • Next training an active and impulsive child, who is easily distracted by other things and has difficulty to pay attention to body cues could be best done by a timer and regular cues from parents/babysitter/pre-school teacher.
  
  
  • Next comes the rigid and inflexible child that thrives on routine, consistency, predictability, and control; this child would be best trained with all family members following a visual consistent schedule.
  
  
  
  


• Many parents make the mistake of making external rewards like stickers, inexpensive prize boxes or marble jars as a focus for potty training; it is harmful, instead it would be best to focus on internal motivation like pride, accomplishment, new found independence and self-confidence to focus on an enjoyable toilet training process, regardless of the outcome. One of the great ways is through encouragement, hugs, and fun-filled sharing of time together.


• Haven’t we all heard of the ‘terrible twos’; small children may want to assert their independence and may regress half way through potty training. It is important that you as a parent recognizes that it a normal behavior; do not pay much attention to his/her behavior by chasing, arguing or insisting. This would help take you towards your goal of creating a positive potty training experience.


• Some parents experience anxiety and stress about prompt potty training due to reasons like one’s child is late, he/she needs to be potty trained before going to pre-school, one doesn’t want to be labeled a negligent mother and cleaning diapers with two is too much. Your anxiety could affect your child and delay potty training. We need to respect the uniqueness of each child; some start late and take time to be potty trained.


• Lastly you could be starting to potty train before your child is ready; watch out for signs that your child is ready. Some of the signs are that he/she demonstrates interest in pleasing you and in watching his/her older siblings use the bathroom. Next he/she stays dry for at least 2 hours and at naps, tells you when he/she is wet or has soiled a diaper and is able to tell you when he/she needs to use the potty. Also he/she may play/act  going to the bathroom with his toys, sits on his/her potty and pretends to go and runs to a private place to make poop. Then he/she will not resist being toilet trained.