Potty Training Awareness Month on June, 2025: potty training?
June, 2025 is Potty Training Awareness Month 2025. June is Potty Training Awareness Month [ Potty Training Awareness
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There is a line if thinking right now to try and get kids potty trained as youngs as 12 months. However, I think this is a minority point of view. I would not listen to people telling you to try to get a 14 month old potty trained unless you have reason to believe they are ready.
The advice I have always heard is that trying to make kids use the potty before they are ready never really works very well. If the child is showing signs, then you work with them to make it happens. The signs...
- Telling you they are about to or have pooped
- Awareness that they are pooping, such as stopping what they are doing (standing still) while they do it
- Interest about the potty, asking about using the potty, or talking about other children using the potty
- Willingness to sit for a time on the potty
Potty Training Tips please....?
Potty training is a rite of passage that all toddlers (and their parents) must go through. First you need to make you that both your toddler and you are ready to begin. Your toddler should be at least 2 years old, and be able to do such things as walk from room to room, raise and lower his or her own pants, sit independently, and follow a few one-step commands. Children also should have some awareness of and be able to communicate the need to urinate. You also need to be ready to provide consist support to your toddler as he or she learns to use the toilet. Your home life also should be fairly stable at this time (e.g., not in the process of moving or divorce.) Now you know that all parties are ready, here are some tips to help you both survive the process. They are called the 7 Ps, no pun intended.
1. Parent modeling. Frequently allow your child to go with either you or your spouse to the bathroom. Like almost anything else, young children first learn by observing and mimicking mom and dad’s behavior.
2. Potty chair. Give your child a chance to get used to and comfortable with the potty chair. Set it out and let your child sit on it, name it, put stickers on it, and decide (within reason) where to put it i.e. in front of the toilet or by the sink.
3. Practice. Let your child practice using the potty chair. This practice should be "play" practice, with clothes on. The next part may be difficult for some dads, but it’s only temporary. In the beginning, boys should be trained to sit on the potty chair or the toilet, for two reasons. First, sitting encourages bowel movements and so you might get a “twofer,” which is a bowel movement and urination during the same sitting. Second, sitting will help avoid what one might call the “garden hose” effect. Untrained boys have not yet had to stand, urinate, and aim all at the same time and may (will) accidentally spray the room (missing the potty or the toilet). Later, when toilet training is well established, they can stand.
4. Pull-ups. Unfortunately for your child (but fortunately for your budget), to make the program work, your child must go “cold turkey” on Pull-ups, except at bedtime. The reason for this approach is simple: Pull-ups are actually wearable toilets, and your child is unlikely to see much need for using the one in your home when he or she can much more easily use the one he or she is wearing.
5. Prompting: You will need to prompt your child to go to the bathroom and sit for a few minutes multiple times a day. Tell, them when they need to sit on the potty chair. Don’t ask if they need to go potty. The answer will invariably be “no” even as they do the ‘gotta potty’ dance in before your very eyes and a huge puddle forms on the floor at your very feet.
6. Praise. Praise you child for all correct toileting behaviors, Not just when he or she produces a poo-poo or a pee-pee but every time your child does any toileting behavior correctly – pulls down his or her pants, sits on the potty, whatever – be sure to praise him or her. Do this even when your child is having more accidents than successes. Remember, as children enter into the training phase, the training is likely to be way more important to you than it is to them. But if they get the idea that pooping and peeing into the potty is a way for them to get their names in lights, the importance of training will quickly increase for them, along with their cooperation. You can take this a step further and use rewards. One method is to wrap little items – stickers, tiny toys, beads, gum, etc. – in tin foil and put them in jar near the bathroom. When the child achieves a success at any level, he or she gets to grab one prize (not one handful) from the jar. Praise and rewards make the training experience fulfilling, and make it more likely that children will repeat the positive toilet behaviors.
7. Postpone. Here in P #7 we have some really good news. You can always postpone. You can always put them back in Pampers or Pull-ups, declare a moratorium on any discussion about toileting for a few weeks or even months, and then start again. They will ultimately be motivated to be trained, possibly by something other than your prompting. For example, the rules of social life in childhood weigh heavily against toileting accidents in school-aged kids. So the point of P #7 is that if training is going badly, for whatever reason, you can use the time-honored method for winning a war that is being lost – declare victory and retreat.
For more on potty training and other parenting issues, visit our website at www.parenting.org
Counselor C.L.
Boys Town National Hotline
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is 17 months too young to potty train?
Babies in cloth diapers or taught infant elimination cues can be trained around 18 months for day time. Make it a game for your daughter and get her a little potty. Have her sit on it every couple of hours. Don't expect her to necessarily get it, but she might. She clearly has an awareness that the pee comes from her and doesn't like the wetness.