Potty training - a guide to getting started
- Raising a Team
- Jan 28
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 14
Toilet training has been entirely different for each child in our house. We had one who got it straight away, one who stopped then started and eventually got it, and one who is taking some time to grasp that he needs to go at all! People have written books or have podcasts on this topic, but I thought I’d share a brief overview of how we did it!
For each of my children I’ve started with books. I think books are wonderful and the key to guiding children through a whole host of new life experiences. We began each time with reading these new books together and talking (a lot!) about wee’s and poo’s.
When I felt they were ready, we then set up a play space in our living room – I covered the living room with dustbin liners (or another plastic sheet) then covered those with towels to make it comfy. The sole purpose of this was to protect our carpet!!
On top of this I collected together all sorts of interesting activities for us to spend time doing together, books, art and craft activities, games, toys. We then spent our whole day in this space where they were free to roam without nappies or pants and with the potty!
Throughout the day they had lots of water to hand – did you know that while a popular choice amongst parents, squash can actually irritate the bladder. I didn’t know this until fairly recently, but think it’s a helpful thing to be aware of!
Every time they did a wee, I’d start by saying “well done! That’s a wee! That’s what a wee feels like! Lets see if we can get the next one in the potty!” because I’m not sure they always know what wees do actually feel like! After a few times I found with my bigger two, they eventually did make it to the potty to get some! or all of the wee in the potty. And I would cheer them on!
If they really weren’t getting any on the potty, we would use it as a seat for one of the activities so that once an accidental wee got into the potty we could have a good cheer! We had two or three days like this and eventually they got it more consistently. We then made sure we had a potty with us everywhere we went!
Of course they continued to have the occasional wee accident, but we’d again keep the language and tone light and positive – saying something like “whoops! Where do our wee’s need to go?” they’d inevitably say in the potty and we’d say “yes! In the potty! Lets try again next time!”
Now poo’s can be a little bit more tricky as they are less frequent, therefore once you’ve missed the chance of it being in the potty, you sometimes have to wait a whole day again to try to encourage your child to get it where needed. Children can also get uncomfortable about poo’s, try to hold on to them or prefer to only do them in nappies.
Watch out for the signs your child is telling you – often its in their facial expressions, or for some they like to find a quiet spot to hide. So turn as much focus to your child as you can in this time. Lots and lots of praise and time really are the trick and again keeping your language light and positive. If they are doing it in a potty, take them with you to put it down the toilet and let them flush – what child doesn’t love this!
Many years ago my mum explained that when teaching children to use a toilet, encouraging them to blow out of their mouth relaxes their stomachs and greatly helps everything flow – follow the link to my magic bubbles trick - https://www.raisingateam.com/post/magic-bubbles-supporting-potty-training
All I can say is keep going – keep calm – and give lots of praise.
If you are finding toileting difficult take a look at the ERIC website – https://eric.org.uk/ they have lots of great advice and a helpline where you can get information tailored to your child’s needs. I can't recommend them highly enough!
Follow these affiliate links for some recommended products to support this stage of your child's life...
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