Raise your hand if you know the signs of potty readiness. Good.
Is your toddler ready for potty training? Not yet? That’s totally fine. It’ll happen soon enough.
In the meantime, there’s tons of things (17 things in fact) that you can do to get your toddler ready for the eventual diaper-ditching.
Potty training doesn’t happen in a day, and don’t believe any person or book that tells you otherwise.
Look at it this way: If you want to learn a skill, how do you learn it?
- You watch other people do it.
- You read a book about it or watch a YouTube video on it.
- You get the stuff you need to do it and you practice.
Why is potty training any different?
Why You should prepare Your kid for potty training
The five steps in teaching an employee new skills are preparation, explanation, showing, observation and supervision.
Bruce Barton
What do you do when you start a job? You get trained by someone who knows how to do the job.
Think of your toddler as your new employee. As the quote says above, you’ll go through these five steps as you potty train your young employee:
- preparation
- explanation
- showing
- observation
- supervision
“Observation” is when your kiddo sits on the pot and tries to get something out for the first time. “Supervision” is when they start going by themselves but you wait nearby to make sure they do it right.
How do you get to “observation” and “supervision”? Preparation, explanation, and showing. That is what this post is all about.
Whether or not you’ve started potty training, here are 17 ways you can prepare your toddler for potty training success.
Welcome to potty prep 101.
17 WAYS TO PREPARE A TODDLER FOR POTTY TRAINING
1. Let them do more independent activities. For example, getting dressed or undressed by themselves (a key potty-training-related skill).
2. Use pants that have nice, stretchy elastic waistbands. Buttons and zippers will only get in the way when your toddler has to go…. NOW! Practice taking pants off and putting them on.
Our daughter lived in a skirt when we were potty training, and that made it so easy to potty train. I would highly recommend getting a few dresses and skirts when your girl ready to potty train! You can find other basic gear I recommend for potty training in this post.
3. Change diapers in the bathroom. Some kids need a little time to get used to the bathroom. Changing diapers there (on a bathmat or towel if you don’t want to bring the changing pad in) will serve the dual purpose of getting them comfortable being in the bathroom and associating getting clean and dry after poops and pees in the bathroom.
4. Explain what the words “wet” and “dry” mean, especially in relation to wet and dry diapers. This can be really fun if you include an activity involving water.
I’ve always thought it was fun to dye water and let them pour it on a clean diaper and see the difference. Kind of like those maxi pad commercials. Too much?
5. Reinforce that it’s good to keep diapers dry and clean. Praise your child whenever they have a clean and dry diaper. And use those specific words: dry and clean.
You may need to explicitly teach the meanings of “dry” and “clean” if your toddler is very young. Let them feel a dry (unused!) diaper. Show them the difference between a dirty and clean diaper.
6. Heighten your child’s awareness of the need to poop or pee. Talk about the urge to go if you see that she needs a diaper change. Ask her if she needs to go if she shows signs of needing to potty.
7. Celebrate when your child communicates the need to poop or pee. This helps create positive associations with going to the bathroom and talking about going to the bathroom.
8. Name it. What will your family call the actions of pooping and peeing? What will you call the toilet? Get the other members of your family on board with the lingo and begin teaching your child these new words.
9. Show how the toilet works, and maybe let them flush it. Keep in mind that this could backfire if they suddenly want to flush allll. the. stinkin. time.
10. Invite your kid to sit on the toilet. It’s OK if he’s not ready. Don’t push too hard (also great advice for pooping), just let the offer stand.
11. Let your kid watch you (or an older sibling!) use the toilet. (Pees only, please. Don’t make it all weird.)
12. Praise and reward often for all good behavior, and especially for staying dry!
13. Read books about using the potty. Here are my top three favorites:
Potty by Leslie Patricelli: Sweet little book about a baby wondering where to go potty. He finally goes in a little potty chair and celebrates with his parents.
Big Girl Panties by Fran Manushkin: A lighthearted, positive book about a little girl who is proud of being old enough to wear big girl panties.
I Use the Potty: Big Kid Power by Maria van Lieshout: A simple, brightly colored book celebrating a toddler’s transition from baby to big kid who uses the potty.
14. Get a potty-training doll (one that pees and comes with a little toilet to pee in). Use the doll to teach the basic concepts of going to the bathroom.
15. Start limiting drinks an hour or two before bedtime. This will help your child begin to wake up dry if he’s not doing so already, and set a good habit for when he’s finally nighttime potty trained.
16. Watch and make note of your child’s elimination patterns. Kind of weird, yes, but once you officially begin potty training, you’ll be able to note the best time to get your child to the toilet.
For example, some kids need to pee 20 minutes after drinking a full glass of juice, or other kids poop at the same time every day.
17. Set a date and talk about it. I think it’s only fair to give your child a heads-up that hey, life as you know it is about to change.
We prepare our children to visit the zoo or go to Grandma’s house, and those are fun things! Sit your toddler down and tell them, “When you turn two, you’re going to start wearing underwear and peeing in the toilet.”
It helps to name a big event that’s going to happen around the same time, even Christmas or a vacation would be helpful, as toddlers can’t tell time. Explain that when this big event happens, potty training will happen, too.
No big events coming up? Turn the start of potty training into a party! Toddlers love cake. If we can associate cake with potty training, I’d say we’re off to a good start.
MOre on Potty Training
As you can see there’s tons of stuff you can do to help your child get ready to potty train. Some of them are pretty fun!
Now let’s switch gears and get YOU ready to potty train. Sure, you’ve been using a toilet most of your life, at the very least your entire adulthood, (though I could be wrong), but how do you teach someone who’s never done it before?
Well, I’m here to help you out. Here’s a list of posts about toilet training on EYT. Check them out and get ready to potty train your toddler!
