When it comes to toilet training, using simple, easy to action and effective techniques is often the best option.
Read our top tips for toilet training to maximise your changes of success:
Huggies has formulated an extensive list of toilet training tips to help you get started as well as to revisit the basics to get you through the difficult times and get your toddler’s progress back on track.
Consider these key areas and how they relate to your child before reading our tips:
Once you kick things off with toilet training, try and work everything that you and your child do into a routine. This isn’t always so easy, as children’s bladders and bowels don’t always act according to plan! Get a grasp of how many times your child needs to go to the toilet in a day and when, and try to approach toilet training based on what you’ve learned about this behaviour.
Building a consistent training plan will improve your child’s confidence as they will know exactly what to do, where to go and how to do it! Children love consistency and repetition and will feel much more in control of a situation if they know what’s coming up next.
As parents, we never want to see our children struggle with anything that they do. It’s natural for a mother or father to want to do everything that they can for their child. But you need to ask yourself if this is the best way to go about toilet training?
It’s something that parents need to keep a close eye on, because obviously there are aspects of toilet training where children simply cannot do it without you, but you need to teach them independence as well.
Try to take things one step at a time. The more your child progresses in their training, the more you should try to hold off a little bit and let them give it a shot on their own. They’ll soon be wiping, flushing and washing their hands without you even knowing it!
This goes without saying but encouraging your child when they do something worth celebrating goes a long way in toilet training.
Children love to please their parents at this age and show them what they can do, so when they tell you they need to do a wee or poo, or they sit on the potty by themself, give them a high five and a “well done!” to encourage them to do it all again.
Rewards when toilet training work really well too. If a child knows they’ll receive a lollypop or get to play with a special toy once they’re on the potty they’ll be nagging you to use it again and again!
For more handy tips, see some frequently asked toilet training questions.