Common Potty Training Mistakes

Potty training can get quite stressful at times for parents (this stress is reflected and picked up by the innocent child). Here are some things to avoid if at all possible;

It is essential that you do not get angry or punish your child at the time of potty training. You should not try to force the matter; it will come naturally when the child is ready. You are really there to offer support and to give a little push in the right direction in the form of encouragement and love.

Make sure that you don’t start too early as this could lead to potty training problems. Your child should be capable of telling you when they need to use the potty meaning the child should be developed enough to be aware that they need to use the bathroom, to contain themselves until they get to the potty and to communicate it to you. Potty training for toddlers is not recommended until the child has reached this stage of development.

If your child start to play up on a regular basis and you feel the need to force them to use the potty then this could cause a lot of damage which will be very difficult to undo at a later stage. The child will start to develop negative connotations with going to the bathroom. This may cause psychological problems later and may lead to bedwetting and other emotional problems. Potty training should be fun… Potty time should be a fun thing that the whole household can take part in at one time or another. When it becomes fun the work is taken out of the process and it just happens naturally and relatively quickly too. And as it is a fun experience the parents actually enjoy too and get less stressed.

If you are experiencing a time of stress or emotional upheaval or if there are any major changes occurring in your family / household then it is not wise to start potty training in that moment… better to wait until things become a little more stable. Events to avoid coinciding with the beginning of potty training are; New babies, marriages, divorces, changing in living arrangements (i.e... new house or new household member), vacations, death, any major upheaval in your life or your routine.

Always wait until things become a little more balanced and stable before trying to initiate potty training.

Don’t try to set deadlines or time oriented goals for your child’s potty training. This will put unnecessary pressure on the child and to some extent on you the parents too. This can be a slow process… prepare yourself for this. At the end, it is just that… a process. The process, just like many things cannot be forced. It will happen when it happens and there is really very little you can do to artificially speed this up without creating other possible problems later. There are some who would disagree with the previous statement… for example there is the Dr Phil method which claims to be able to potty train your child in a day (though I believe that this is just really how to get things started in a day..  The process actually takes much longer). There are also various courses and methods available that make the claim, ‘potty train your child in 3 days’. The point here is that every child is different and every child reacts differently to different techniques and methods. The best way to speed the process up is to recognize it a process and have fun with it so your child will have fun too and then it will be easier and shorter for you both.

Potty training books all state that potty training for toddlers can be fraught with potty training problems and recommend calm and tranquility wherever possible. Remember... They WILL grow out of it.

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