Prepare Your Child for Potty Training

Hi there in this video, I'm going to be talking about preparing your child for potty training. So typically we look at preparedness as a three-step approach. We want to prepare a child, prepare our home and prepare ourselves. So to prepare your child, there's really, this is something that can start any time.

Uh, I've known parents who have started putting their six month olds on the potty just for a few minutes after they've gone in their diaper, just so their child can get used to. Obviously, you don't have to do that. But my point is you can really start preparing your child for this at any point. So some things you're going to want to have, you're going to want to have some awesome undies and try to include your child in this so that they get really excited about it.

And they obviously pick something that they want and that they're stoked to wear. Also make sure you have some easy on off pants. You don't want. Um, like any body suits where you have to pull buttons up because you want your child to learn how to take their clothes off and put them back on for using the potty.

You're also going to want some distraction. So maybe, you know, having some special toys in the bathroom while they're sitting on the potty or maybe some pie. To keep them occupied. And you might also want to consider getting a travel potty as well. Um, so we've, we talked in our preparing your home video, uh, that you want to have some kind of potty device, like a potty chair that sits on your bathroom floor or, um, a potty insert, a seat that goes on your table.

A seat. So I bring up a potty chair because if you're going to be driving quite a bit, or you take a long road trip, you're probably gonna want to think about having a potty where you can actually like quickly pull off on the side of the road, have your kid go feel really awesome that they were able to tell you and do that.

And then potty or travel. Close up. So they don't spill any of the contents as you're carrying them to the nearest public bathroom to dispose of things, something to keep in mind. And also if you're doing one of those really intense potty methods, like the three-day method, you're probably going to want to have a lot of drinks just to keep your child hydrated.

So they keep going. So you can of course get like juice boxes, things like that. Or you can do something really fun with flavored water that has some fruit chunks in it, things like that. Now, stepping back into, when you want to start preparing your child again, we talked about, you want to really start that whenever you feel ready, but the goal is to just start building curiosity in your child, as soon as possible, you want to, you know, include them in your bathroom trips.

You want to make them curious about this whole potty. Once you've started to build their curiosity and they're showing some interest in it. You're going to want to ask yourself a question you want to know if your child can follow a simple command. So if you told them, Jimmy, can you go to your bedroom and grab your tennis shoes?

If they can complete that command, they're probably ready to start potty training. We say that because you're going to be giving them commands when they go potty are going to say, Jimmy, pull your pants down and sit on the pot. Hopefully they can do that. A lot of times they're probably going to resist, but at least they're able to fulfill or understand that you're asking them to do something.

Now, some other steps you're going to want to take, to prepare your child is to introduce the potty, you know, show them how it works. Let them obviously watch you, or maybe, you know, this time, let them flush the potty. Let them get excited about that. You can also casually talk about. Where pee and poop even comes from, you know, you can maybe bring up that they have a lot of milk at lunch, and now that's why they have a really wet diaper.

Um, same thing with food obviously, or, you know, take them out to watch the family dog after they eat their dinner, you know, in the yard, whatever. Um, Introduce hand washing. So that's a really important step too, because kids are really excited to be able to turn on the faucet uses soap that can really get them excited.

Especially if you say after you sit on the potty, we get to wash your hands. So that's a fun way to just, you know, help them start to put steps together. Um, of course we talked about buying an, these already. Super exciting step reading books on the potty. And then also you can start to include them in the diapering process.

So, you know, if they poop in their diaper, you can say, okay, let's go dump it in the potty and you can flush. And then one day you're going to be doing this too. Um, no matter what step your child does. So if you know, your child does a really nice job washing their hands and then drying off whatever. Give them praise.

What we have learned is positive reinforcement, really, for anything, any step of the potty learning process is so helpful. And that's something that you can carry on as you get more serious about potty training. So if you have any questions or comments, please drop them below the video here, or reach out to us in our community.

We're super excited to hear how you prepared your child or answer any questions you have about getting started on the potty learning journey.

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