By Elizabeth Pantley, Author of The No-Cry Potty Training
Solution
Potty training can be natural, easy, and peaceful. The
first step is to know the facts.
The perfect age to begin potty training is different for
every child. Your child's best starting age could be
anywhere from eighteen to thirty-two months. Pre-potty
training preparation can begin when a child is as young
as ten months.
You can begin training at any age, but your child's
biology, skills, and readiness will determine when he can
take over his own toileting.
Teaching your child how to use the toilet can, and
should, be as natural as teaching him to build a block
tower or use a spoon.
No matter the age that toilet training begins,
most children become physically capable of independent
toileting between ages two and a half and four.
It takes three to twelve months from the start of
training to daytime toilet independence. The more
readiness skills that a child possesses, the quicker the
process will be.
The age that a child masters toileting has absolutely no
correlation to future abilities or intelligence.
There isn’t only one right way to potty train –
any approach you use can work - if you are pleasant,
positive and patient.
Nighttime dryness is achieved only when a child's
physiology supports this--you can't rush it.
A parent's readiness to train is just as important as a
child's readiness to learn.
Potty training need not be expensive. A potty chair, a
dozen pairs of training pants and a relaxed and pleasant
attitude are all that you really need. Anything else is
truly optional.
Most toddlers urinate four to eight times each day,
usually about every two hours or so.
Most toddlers have one or two bowel movements each day,
some have three, and others skip a day or two in between
movements. In general, each child has a regular pattern.
More than 80 percent of children experience setbacks in
toilet training. This means that what we call
"setbacks" are really just the usual path to
mastery of toileting.
Ninety-eight percent of children are completely daytime
independent by age four.
This article is an excerpt from The No-Cry Potty
Training Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Child Say Good-Bye to
Diapers by Elizabeth Pantley. (McGraw-Hill, 2006)
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and book title. Please also send a link or copy to
elizabeth@pantley.com. Thank you.
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