Dr Phil Potty Training

The well known Dr Phil potty training method is supposed to be a ‘potty train your child in just one day’ method. It is one of the better known potty training techniques often used for toddler potty training. The basic idea is outlined below.

You will need;

• A doll that drinks and wets (preferably anatomically correct)
• Training Pants for the doll
• Training Pants for your child
• Party material

Step 1: Teach the doll how to use the potty.
First let the child give a name to the doll, then let your child watch as you teach the doll to use the potty... let it drink, walk the doll to the potty with your child, pull down its training pants and then let it use the potty... This should provoke your child to make the effort.

Step 2:  Make a party for your doll
When the doll successfully uses the potty then you should throw a party for the doll, make it a big event, and include all the family if possible with hats and streamers, the full party. The idea is to make a big fuss of the doll so that the child thinks that using the potty must be a good thing. Let your child know now that when they use the potty there will be a party for them too.

Step 3:  Get rid of the diapers
From the time you put the training pants on your child then you should make the commitment to continue with the process and throw out all the diapers. To change back in the middle of the process to diapers for your convenience is detrimental and will set back any results that you may have achieved and all the work will have been futile.

Step 4: Give your child a lot to drink
Give your child a lot of liquids so that they have to use the potty sooner and more often and the party can begin soon after. Keep up with the liquids so that the process can continue and the child can work on learning to hold it in.

Step 5:  Trips to the potty

Ask your child frequently if they need to go to the potty. If they say no then that’s ok because due to the fact you are giving them more liquid they should need to go sooner or later.
If the child has an accident in the training pants then you should under no circumstances get cross or snap at them, instead you should do the following;
Take the child to the potty, pull down there underwear, have them sit on the potty, then get up and pull their pants up. This should then be repeated ten times. Go back to where the child was at the time of the accident then take the child by the hand to the potty for a second time, pull their pants down, sit them down, stand them up and pull up their pants and go back to where you were. Do this again and again, then go to another part of the house and make a sprint for the potty from there, pants down, sit down, stand up, pants up again, now to another part of the house…. 10 times in all.
This is to create what is known as muscle memory in the child. If the child is cooperative then it should only take 5 – 10 minutes to do this. If the child starts to throw a tantrum then let them finish and get over it then resume from where you left off.
You should repeat this 10 times to the potty exercise every time the child has an accident. This will help the muscle memory and also encourage the child NOT to have any more accidents.

Step 6: Party
Don’t forget that when the child actually uses the potty successfully to throw the potty party for them.

The Dr Phil potty training techniques are ideal for toddler potty training in general.

Return to the top of Dr Phil Potty Training