Toilet Training

Toilet training is a very important activity in the young toddler's life. Most toddlers are ready for toilet training sometime around or after their second birthday. A good time to start toilet training your toddler is during summer when he has fewer clothes on him.

Signs of Readiness for Toilet Training

Often your toddler will give you cues to let you know that he is ready for toilet training such as:

• Unsoiled diapers for a longer than usual period of time; at least an hour and a half to two hours between needing to use the toilet.
• Understanding the purpose of a toilet and words for bladder and bowel functions
• Imitating your bathroom routines
• Preferring a dry diaper over a soiled one
• Following basic instructions from you to go and come from the bathroom on his own
• Able to pull his underwear down by himself and likes wearing an underwear

Using the Toddler Potty

If you prefer to use a toddler potty, it is a good idea to keep it in the room that the toddler uses most. Also, using this kind of potty seat helps your toddler to get on and off from it by himself. All these factors contribute to giving him a secure feeling. It is advisable to get the potty seat ready a few months before you actually start the training. This gives your toddler time to explore the seat which makes the training easier at a later stage. Usually, boys take a longer time to get toilet-trained than girls.

Sometimes your toddler may want to sit on it initially with all his clothes on. This is because he is trying to get used to it. Do not discourage him from doing so. Once he becomes familiar with it, you can start the actual training. Do not force your toddler to sit on the potty till he completes his job. If he wants to get up without a pee or a poop allow him to do so. He can be allowed to get up after about 5 minutes and you can try again later. Remember that making toilet training an ordeal for your toddler will make him reluctant to learn how to use the potty.

Tips for Toilet Training Your Child

The following are some tips that you will find useful for toilet training your child:

• Explain to your child that what goes in has to come out. Tell him that the potty seat is used to collect what comes out. Most toddlers enjoy seeing the sight of the poop they have just made, as they consider it to be one of their creations.
• Make him go to the toilet without any clothes on.
• If you are teaching your little boy to urinate, you can hang a piece of tissue paper in the toilet bowl and train him to aim on it. But don’t do this in the beginning. It is best to train boys to urinate sitting down first. Later on they can be taught to stand.
• Open the tap and let water flow for a while. The sight of water flowing and the gurgling sound can inspire your toddler.
• As he grows older, your toddler may be afraid of using the bigger toilet seat for fear of falling. Ask him to lean back and offer a footstool for support. If he appears to be happier without a training seat, do not insist on using one.
• Make him wash his hands every time he uses the potty.
• To make cleaning your toddler's potty seat an easy task, pour a little water at the bottom of the pot. Do not apply bleach on the pot. The ammonia in your toddler's urine reacts with the bleach and can cause a dangerous chemical reaction.

Can you please tell me why night-time bed wetting occurs and how I can tackle them?

Night-time bed wetting can extend into your toddler's kindergarten years. One reason is that when your toddler is fast asleep, his brain fails to wake up to the fullness signals from his bladder. Another reason is that he fails to secrete enough of the hormone ADH at night. Usually the amount of ADH secreted increases at night. This helps to concentrate urine so that the amount of urine formed is less during sleep. In some children both these processes (arousal to a full bladder and increased ADH secretion) mature late. If bed-wetting persists after the age of five, then a medical opinion is warranted. However in most cases, bed wetting is rarely a persistent problem and it passes off soon. You can consider the following steps to minimise your laundry problems due to bed wetting:

• Use a plastic sheet to protect your toddler's mattress. Spread a towel large enough to cover your toddler's length over the plastic sheet. Lay the toddler on the towel. This way, you will have to wash only the sheet and the towel. Another option is to use a special sheet (called Quickdry) which is a single sheet with a soft absorbable surface and a PUL waterproof base. This not only absorbs urine well but will save your toddler from lying down on a soaked sheet. This can be laundered during the day everyday.
• You can consider using two rubber sheets so that you will have to remove only one in the middle of the night.
• Keep an alarm and wake up your toddler. Send him to the toilet so that he can empty himself.
• Restrict the liquid intake during evening from about 3 to 4 hours before your toddler's bed time.
• If you are using diapers for your toddlers, try using double diapers when he goes to sleep at night.

It is very important not to scold your toddler for bed wetting. This will make him feel guilty and insecure. Instead you can assure him that he will grow out of this phase very soon.