Is It Time To Potty Train Yet?
Are you sick and tired of changing those diapers day after day?
All you can think of is the day when your child will go to the
bathroom on his own and no diapers has to be changed. Does this
sound familiar and are you wanting to start potty training your
child but don't know if the time is right or how to go about
getting your child out of those diapers.
Getting your child potty trained can be kind of tricky because
if your child is not ready this process can take a long time.
Then again if you wait too long the child may actually end up
resisting your attempts. So when do you start and how do you
know if the time is right for your child? How do you know when
to begin?
First of all you need to ignore many of the ideas you may have
gotten from people around you because each child is so very
different when it comes to what will work for them as far as
potty training is concerned. You might hear from your parents
that your child is very slow in getting trained but in general
kids today do get out of diapers later than what children did
years ago. Some says it is because the diapers today are much
more comfortable than the cloth ones which your parents may have
used for you.
For most children today the age when they start showing signs of
being ready for potty training is between 2 and 3 years old. One
of the first signs that he may be getting ready is when the
child is capable of pulling his own pants up and down. This
along with questions and curiosity regarding the toilet should
give you a clear clue.
Another important physical sign of potty training readiness is
the frequency with which your child urinates. If he is still
wetting his diaper every half and hour or so, he is not ready.
But, if he's going one to two hours between wet diapers, then he
is able to hold his urine, which is critical to being truly
potty trained, at any age.
This is when you as a parent need to start both explaining and
showing how this task is done. First of all let them know that
this is how big people go to the bathroom and that they don't
use diapers. If you have a son it is now important for dad to
take on some of the responsibility by taking his son with him
when he goes to the bathroom so your son can actually see how it
works. Dad, bringing him with you just once don't work it has to
be repeated no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel and
you are the one who has to show him, mom can't.
The same thing goes for mom when it comes to the little girls
and when they do start showing interest for the toilet, there
are several good story books on the market about potty training
that you can start reading to your child at this stage, to help
encourage an interest in going potty. There are books geared
specifically to boys and those geared to girls, which is
helpful.