Toilet Training Tips and Advice

Simple, easy to action and effective techniques is often the best!

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:

• Try not to leave your little one’s feet dangling While they sit on the loo, dangling feet can sometimes hinder bowel movements. Put a little box or stool down so that your toddler can rest their feet and make using the loo as easy as possible.
• Try to get your kids to understand dryness Understanding that it’s way more comfortable to be dry instead of wet will add extra motivation.
• Try to gradually phase out nappies Some children hate change and removing nappies from their routine may cause them to regress in their toilet training progress.
• Try to give your toddler privacy Some kids won’t use the loo if someone is watching – try providing privacy when using the toilet as much as possible.
• Make the bathroom environment as welcoming as possible Put in some of your little one’s favourite toys and maybe even a book or toy next to the loo.
• Try making up a lil tune AKA “Look Who’s Talking” and sing it every time your child goes to the toilet successfully. Include generous praise and compliments in the song so that your tot knows they are doing something good.
• Put some food dye into the toilet Your child can enjoy watching it change colour after using the loo. This tip is a huge hit with tots!
• Give surprise treats and gifts to your toddler After using the bathroom, kids need to be rewarded – this positive reinforcement will encourage the use of the toilet.
• Create a bit of buzz around flushing Flushing the toilet is a big deal and make this your child’s special job. In order for this to work, you should try to make your child understand that they can only flush the loo once they have used it.
• Training pants, like Huggies Nappy-Pants can make toilet training quicker and easier.
• Don’t force your child to go If your child sits on the loo for a while (between 2 and 4 minutes) but nothing happens, don’t force anything. It might not be the right time. Just come back to the loo a little later with your child.
• A good tip is to keep a plastic potty in the car for emergencies You never know what might come up. An old towel comes in handy, too!
• Try to ensure that your child has a good diet Drinking plenty of water and eating foods high in fibre ensures bowel movements are easy peasy.

Get the Basics Right

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:

1. Building a Toilet Training Routine

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.

2. Independence

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!

3. Praise and Rewards

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.