Instilling in children the natural ability to determine where and when their bodily functions will happen can seem to be unnaturally difficult, not to mention stressful. The points to remember are these: 1). Children want to please, 2). Identifying when a bodily function is imminent, much less exerting control over these function, is an ability that takes time and cannot be rushed.
Like kittens and puppies it helps to catch them just as they are about to do the “deed” and transport them to a more appropriate spot which in the case of a child would be their potty seat. Children, unlike pets, can’t be counted on to give warning on a regular basis; children, however, do give clues as to when their bodies are ready for potty training.
Generally after the age of 18 months, a child’s bowel movements will become somewhat predictable and the child will show signs when they commence to soil or wet their diaper. Additionally, they will begin to go through the night without emptying their bowels. This is the ideal time to start potty training.
In our family potty training a child was a family affair. Whenever anyone went to the bathroom to conduct their own business the child in training was taken along and sat on their own pot. The logic was that a child, when the reach the age of beginning to have control over the bowels and bladder, would be more inclined to go when they were sitting and, with enough chances, would “go” simply by laws of probability when seated on their potty chair.
In addition to the child be taken to the bathroom on everyone else’s schedule, they also need to be taken when they show signs of preparing to go in their diaper, right after a meal or snack, first thing in the morning, immediately after a nap and last thing before going to bed. It is important that there be no pleading, scolding, or bribing; if the child does not go that is fine, but if they do it is important to make note and give positive reinforcement for the act.
As the necessity for diaper changing drops, the child can spend increasingly larger portions of the day in underpants; the period of time being carefully chosen to reflect times when the child will be at home and is usually free from soiling or wetting themselves.