Make it Safe To Potty Training
Equipping yourself with a complete understanding of these concepts will help you stay the course.
Your child will enjoy potty training at first, then pretend it was never a thing.
True! In order to grow from toddlers into big kids, the brain is prepped to love learning. This is one of those brilliant ways God perpetuates the human race. As such, your toddler is going to love the attention they get from learning to potty train and the excitement they see in you at their success!
This being said, once those yummy little dopamine spikes die down, your toddler is in danger of not-engaging anymore.
Like - a manipulative kind of "I don't hear you" while sticking fingers in their ears. But it will be masterfully subtle. And on that day you will find little Johnny or little Susie standing at the train table pretending a 10 car pile up is happening, with a full load in their pants. You will smell it at first, and say... No... That little angel KNOWS they should use the toilet. We've ben over it. The mini-potty is right next to them. But yes...
Yes they did.
After a few days of this you may feel the need to call it "potty training regression" and just give up until they are older. But I'm telling you, its a sham - a rouse!
Your child has decided that potty training is simply no longer a benefit to them. It interrupts their playtime and it just isn't the hype it was made out to be in the beginning. It's hard to hold a child's attention for an hour, let alone 2 weeks, or 6 months!
My advice - Friends, don't give in. Go back to the beginning, or if you suspect you have a strong willed child, then that train table is now earned by proving their potty prowess!
I had a strong willed child. I boxed all the linens on the upper shelves of the linen closet, stole my kiddos toys and staged them up on the shelves toy-store style. Surprisingly my boy loved it! He earned a new toy when he went potty. I stole them back when he took a nap. Through this he learned responsibility, and that he could work for what he wanted. If this ever stopped enticing him, I would just change the rules of the game. There's ALWAYS something they want.
Daytime potty training is different then bedwetting
Your child can be daytime potty trained but still wet the bed for years. It's not their fault. It takes the body between three to six months on average to figure out how to not pee while they are sleeping. In this learning phase, we call it night training. After that we call it bedwetting.
Thats why sensory enabling night trainers are so important. Feeling the wetness at night is crucial to building the brain-to-body wetness. Even if your kiddo flat out wets the bed, it is still building valuable connections if your child is well rested enough.
There are two main things to help your child overcome night training and bedwetting.
1. Get enough sleep. If you kiddo regularly wets the bed, push for 30 more minutes of sleep per night.
2. Use cloth diapers over disposables. Super Undies Brain Trainers are made for this. Super Undies makes sensory-based underwear that lets the kiddo feel wet - creating that brain-to-body connection faster
You cannot effectively potty train with disposable diapers, even if those disposables say "training pants" on them.
See my point above. Disposable diapers rob your child of the wetness sensation that is so crucially necessary to potty train. Don't fall prey to the lie.
In most cases it is easier to potty train before or around 24 months old. (before the fiercely independent streak takes hold)
- Promoting some independence in your child outside of the potty training realm will help equip them (and you) for a smoother potty training experience by proving to them (and you) that they are capable of learning and owning new things!
- Using waterproof trainers will hold a high level of wetness on the child's side, while limiting any consequence to the household (wet couches, carseats etc.) They also make sustaining potty training for a prolonged time manageable.