Potty Training Tips From Around the Web

Just recently I asked people to post any potty training tips they may have. When it comes to daddies, we aren’t always as open or excited to talk about toilet training. So believe it or not I got a lot more responses from mommies than daddies. But that’s ok. I think of the mommies as the experts anyway when it comes to raising kids and potty training. They have been doing it for centuries. Dads, well… it is a new gig if you know what I mean.

So dads can watch and learn. The following are several articles devoted just to potty training. The last article in the list even teaches us how to potty train those pets. But a collective consensus tells us to start early. But I have listed the articles and a short intro…

Articles:

Toilet Training the Scientific Way
Whether you call it potty training or potty learning and even if you’ve been practicing elimination communication from the start, if you’re a parent, you won’t be able to avoid the task of teaching your child the proper way to use the toilet. In our home, we have two different potty seats, two potty books, and a potty video. We’ve also got a stock of gummy candies–worms, bears, snakes, dinosaurs, and O’s–as incentive.

Toilet Training Frustrations
Stephen has had many accidents during this time of learning how to use the toilet. Now that he’s able to go on his own 90% of the time, the 10% of the time when he forgets and pees on the floor can be frustrating because I know it’s not because he’s unable.

Potty Training 60 Seconds at a Time – (actually from a dad)
Pookie is still undecided about the benefits of potty training. We have a series of pictures above the toilet that explain each step and now he will happily go through the steps, but only sits on the toilet for a couple of seconds before saying that he is done and moving onto the next step.

I decided that he needs to start sitting on the toilet for at least 60 seconds to get any benefit out of the potty training. If we can keep him there that long, he will eventually accidentally go and maybe start to get the whole thing.

Diaper or Nappy Guilt
Call them disposable diapers, nappies, or just Pampers. Depending on the industrialized society you live in, they take up anywhere from 2.5 to 5% of landfill space. According to an article in today’s Guardian, the average child will use 3,796 disposable diapers before being toilet trained.

Top 10 Tips For Potty Training
1. Start early. Begin taking your child to the bathroom at a young age. Some people disagree with this, but oh well. I started taking my toddler to the bathroom recently, and putting him on the little potty seat. The first few times he just sat there, getting up and down, up and down. After a few days of this, he used the potty a few times. He even went in the bathroom, got the potty chair, and brought it to me. We set him on it and he peed in the potty. It was a great moment. So, we’re obviously praying that he will be easier to potty train than our first child. Read 2-10

Puppies, Potty Training, and Entrepreneurship
We don’t have children, but we do have a dog. And I can recall that as I studied puppy house breaking methods, some of the language used gave me the impression that there might be similarities in potty training a human child.