Here are some steps and suggestions that should take the tension out of toilet training for both you and your child:

1. Keep a sense of humour. This is one of the most important things to remember, not only for toilet training but for parenting in general.

2. Stay relaxed and remember that it should be no big deal — the more of an ‘issue’ it becomes, the greater the manipulative power the child has over you, and the greater the chance of hassles and disappointment on both sides.

3. Wait until you and your child are both ready. For you, the parents, this means when you are logistically and psychologically ready and prepared to be committed to it, not when someone else tells you ‘It’s about time’. For example, it is not a good time to start when the bathroom is being renovated, or the family is going on a camping holiday, or you bring a new baby home.

For the child, this means not starting before about 18 months to 2 years of age — children are simply not ready physically and neurologically before this time, no matter what stories are told of youngsters being trained before their first birthday. Parents can often see clues that the child is ready. He may object to his nappy being dirty, or begin to take an interest in the parents’ or older siblings’ use of the toilet. He may begin to develop an awareness that a bowel movement is coming, sometimes revealed by his facial expression, or by his becoming very quiet, or going to a corner or another room.

4. Allow him to follow you into the toilet, and explain to him/her what you are doing. Create an interest for the child in the idea of going to the toilet.

5. Buy the child a potty chair or potty, and allow him to help in choosing it, making it very clear that it belongs to him, but downplaying at this stage any expectations that he should begin to use it immediately. A potty chair seems preferable to a special child’s toilet seat. The child is able to sit on it without the parents’ assistance, and the sitting position, with the child’s legs resting on the floor, is a better physical position for the child to open his bowels.

6. Put the potty near or next to the toilet and encourage the child to sit on it, initially fully clothed. Allow the child to sit on the potty at any time, but it is a good idea to make a point of the child accompanying a parent to the toilet and sitting on the potty while the parent sits on the toilet. Praise the child for sitting on the potty, but do not make a fuss if the child does not want to do it, or only does it occasionally, or only sits momentarily.

7. At some stage — the exact timing will vary with the child, and indeed the child may even suggest it — sit the child on the potty with his nappy off. You may wish to time this when it is likely that the child may have a bowel action. This is easier to predict in those children who are regular and predictable. After a meal is sometimes a good time to suggest it, or when the child indicates through his behaviour that a bowel movement is coming.

Again, do this with no expectations, and in a very low key and relaxed way. If the child resists it, or does it only intermittently, that is fine. Allow your child to dictate the pace.

*124\90\8*

Related Posts:

• VITAMINS FOR HANDS AND FEET
• SOME PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR MARRIED PEOPLE
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BOWEL DISORDERS: INTUSSUSCEPTION
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BOWEL DISORDERS: INGUINAL HERNIA
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH/BOWEL DISORDERS: HAEMORRHOIDS (PILES), HICCUPS AND
• YOUR CHILD’S HEALTH CARE/BOWEL DISORDERS: GLARDIA
• AIDS – HOMOSEXUALITY
• EXERCISE – GOOD POINTS
• CAESAREAN SECTION – NEW FORM OF ANAESTHETIC
• HOW TO KEEP YOUNG WITH MIRACLE FOODS FROM THE BEES

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.