Hi everyone.
My name is Melissa and welcome to CloudMom.com.
This is the first blog I'm gonna be doing in a series on potty training.
What are the things you need to know, to have, and to do in order to potty train your child
successfully and without a lot of stress?
And today, I'm gonna be looking at what are the signs that your child is ready to potty
train?
So, I'm gonna be sharing a lot of personal experiences of mine having done this four
times, and if you've got personal experiences, I would love to read them.
So please write them in by commenting on my site.
That way I can see them and other moms can as well, and it will help all of us.
And...
Let me just think.
Okay.
So, signs that your baby is ready to potty train.
Now, first two quick things I really want to mention.
This is one of those areas for moms where you really can experience a lot of stress
based on what other people are doing around you.
Moms on the playground, moms in your play group, they might have chosen to potty train
their child much earlier than you, and this might make you feel really stressed out.
So, you really need to shut that out and just pay attention to your kid and what seems to
be right for him and for your family.
Secondly, I have found that it didn't pay off for me to try to potty train my children
on the early side.
With my boys, I potty trained them at around age three and the first girl I've done so
far I did at age two and a half.
Now, some schools might have an age by which they want your kid to be potty trained.
So, if you're interested in a school in your area, keep that in mind, and one other thing
I have read that I think is very important.
If your family is going through a major transition like moving or God forbid, a crisis, check
with your doctor, but you might want to wait to potty train until things on the home front
are calm and smooth.
So that being said, let's look at some of the signs that your child is ready to potty
train.
I've got these handy dandy, little slides I'm gonna be putting to make things clear.
So, here we go.
First sign that your child is ready to be potty trained.
Your child's diaper stays dry at least two hours at a time during the day or is dry after
nap time.
Second sign, your child's poops become more or less regular and predictable.
Now, this is an important one because you're gonna want to have a sense of when your child
goes to the bathroom because then you can sit them down on the potty at that time, therefore
making it more likely that you're going to end up with a poopy in the potty, which is
a very, very exciting thing.
So, moving on to other signs that your child is ready to be potty trained.
Sort of glancing at my notes here, I want to get it all right.
Okay.
Your child signals by his facial expression that he is pushing.
It's that cute expression you even see when he's a small baby like this.
You can tell that he's suddenly developing a whole sense that his body is ready to go
to the bathroom.
Another sign, your child can follow simple instructions.
I don't know if I've been at this point yet even with my eight-year-old, but you get the
idea.
And then two other signs we have here that I've written down, your child can walk and
help undress himself or at least pull down his pants.
And, finally, your child shows interest in the potty or in wearing underwear.
So, again, these are all signs that are written about by the American Academy of Pediatrics,
which is the gold standard when it comes to raising kids, and they have all been things
that I have looked at and that have really helped me.
Okay.
I just want to check my notes, make sure I'm not forgetting anything.
Oh, yeah.
Okay.
One other tell tale sign for me that was really important.
I could actually tell with my kids that they became very uncomfortable when they had pooped
or had a big pee in their diaper, and it was all wet and soggy.
And they just started coming up to me and saying like, "Mommy, change me!
Mommy, change me!"
And that was an indicator to me that they really didn't want to be carrying all that
around, and they had a sense of it, and that they were really ready to start using the
potty.
Okay.
So, next up in my series on potty training.
I'm gonna be looking at what are the different types of equipment that you need to have on
hand in order to smoothly potty train your child.
So, stay tuned for that.
Please comment into the site with any ideas or experiences you have had, and thank you
so much for watching CloudMom.