- There are a few mistakes I see parents making,
which makes potty training so much harder
than it needs to be.
Now unfortunately,
the parent doesn't know they're making this mistake
because they are following advice given to them
by friends or family,
which is actually based on myths or old wives tales,
and they are simply not true.
Once you as a parent,
know what these mistakes are and avoid making them,
potty training your child is going to be so much easier.
So in this video,
I'm going to cover what those mistakes are,
and what you can do to fix them.
And make sure you stick around
to my six mistake that parents make,
because this one is definitely a game changer
when it comes to potty training a toddler or a child.
But before we get into it,
make sure you click on that free PDF document
in the description box below,
which covers the toilet training essentials.
The first mistake I see parents making,
is they're taking their child to the toilet way too often.
At around 18 months to two years of age,
a child's bladder increases in size
so that they should be able to stay dry for two hours.
So, if you are taking your child to the toilet
every 30 minutes, every hour and every hour and a half,
what you are asking them to do,
is empty a partially full bladder.
Now this is not a skill that they have at this age,
and they're not going to have it for a few years to come.
So, what you want to do, is only take your child
to the toilet every two hours.
So, just set an alarm on your mobile phone,
and when that alarm goes off,
it's time to go to the toilet.
The second mistake I see parents making,
is they get their child to sit on the toilet
for way too long.
Your child should only sit on the toilet
for a maximum of five minutes.
And that is because,
we don't want sitting on the toilet or a potty
to be seen as a punishment,
which it can be if you make them sit on the toilet
for 10, 20 minutes at a time.
Now, if your little one is sitting on the potty,
watching a TV and they're on the potty
for a really long time,
they are not focusing on what it feels like in their body
to do a wee or a poo.
And basically all you're doing is catching
an accidental wee or poo.
They aren't actually working on that overall skill.
So, I would only recommend that you put your little one
on the toilet for a maximum of five minutes,
and then after that period of time,
you let them hop off the toilet.
The third mistake I often see parents making,
is they ask their child,
"Do you want to go to the toilet?"
Now, this doesn't work for two reasons.
Firstly, your child doesn't yet know
what it feels like when they need to go to the toilet.
So, if you ask that question,
they're not really sure.
And the second reason it doesn't work,
is because you are asking them a question.
Now, going to sit on the toilet is boring,
for lots of children they would rather play.
So if you say,
"Do you want to go to the toilet?",
their response is often going to be, "No!".
What you should do instead,
is when you see your child showing you the signs
that they need to go to the toilet,
so they might be dancing on the spot,
they might be holding their legs together,
they might be holding themselves,
what you would say is,
"It's toilet time."
So you rephrase it as, "It's toilet time,"
not "Do you want to go to the toilet?"
Because that essentially,
does not give them the option to say no,
and then they follow you to the bathroom.
The fourth mistake is getting your child
to do potty training whilst still wearing pull-ups.
Now, for your child to successfully toilet train,
they need to know what it feels like to be wet.
And unfortunately pull-ups or nappies
are simply too good at absorbing away the moisture,
and it doesn't cause your little one any discomfort.
And they can't actually feel that wetness.
Now, if you want to try and limit that mess,
so you don't have accidental puddles all over your house,
you can think about putting undies inside the nappy
or the pull-up,
because then your child will still feel it is wet,
and then the moisture will be absorbed into the nappy.
But really the best approach,
is just going with training pants,
or you can go straight to underwear.
The fifth mistake I see parents making,
is overreacting to accidents.
Now, accidents are going to happen.
Your child is still learning what those feelings
are inside their body that tells them
that they need to do a poo or a wee.
And they also cannot hold it for long.
So, as soon as they get that awareness or that sensation,
they need to go right then and there.
And if you don't get them there quick enough,
then they are going to have accidents.
What's important to know is that,
the way you react to those accidents,
can have a huge impact
on how successful potty training is.
If you're yelling or screaming at a child
or they sensing that you're not happy with them,
it can actually lead to them becoming fearful
of using the toilet and kind of stop
that toilet training progress.
So, when your child has an accident,
which they are going to do,
what you want to do,
is make sure that you keep your face and body and voice
really calm and neutral and just go
through the processes of cleaning them up.
So, you would do that obviously in the bathroom
and just clean them up and put them in new clothing.
This will ensure that you don't inadvertently
kind of encourage accidents,
but also, you don't lead to your child fearing the toilet
or potty training in itself.
The last mistake I see parents making all the time,
is really pushing for that poo
to happen on a potty or in the toilet.
Now, it is really common for children to happily use a potty
or a toilet to do wees but refuse to do poos in them.
And that is something that unfortunately,
we just need to respect and over time,
your child will become more confident and happy
to use the potty or the toilet for poos.
But if you force your little one to sit the potty or toilet
until they do a poo,
what it can lead to,
is your child holding that poo in,
which then leads to constipation.
And if they keep doing that,
then it leads to chronic constipation,
and this is something that you want to avoid at all costs
because it makes toilet training so much harder.
What you can do now is two things.
Firstly, you can give them an alternative.
So, if they aren't yet ready to use the toilet or the potty,
you would give them a nappy to use instead.
And you would tell them that they can do a poo in the nappy,
but in the bathroom where the toilet is.
And this ensures that they kind of get more familiar
with using that space for doing poos.
The second thing you can do,
is make sure that you set up the toilet or the potty,
so it is actually going to support them
when they're sitting on the toilet.
So, it's going to be easier for them to do a poo.
And how you do that,
is ensuring that they have foot support
so that their knees are higher than their hips.
And you also change the size of the toilet seat.
Now, if you want more information on that
and the specific products that I recommend,
then check out this video here and make sure you click
on that free PDF document in description box below,
which covers the toilet training essentials.
And I will see you next week where I'll share
more parenting tips and tricks.
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