Ready for Potty training?

Most children show signs of readiness to begin using the toilet as toddlers, usually between 18 months and 3 years of age.  These signs include staying dry for about 2hours , if your child has begun to tell you about having a dirty diaper ( you should praise him for telling you), having regular bowel movements, being able to follow simple instructions, being uncomfortable with dirty diapers and wanting them to be changed. You should also be able to tell when your child is about to urinate or have a bowel movement by his facial expressions, posture or by what he says.The preparation periode is on going process.... Until he is going in the potty, you can try to empty his dirty diapers into his potty chair to help demonstrate what you want him to do. Discussions of using the toilet are good. Read stories about it. If you haven't done so already, its o.k. to let your child see you and other family members using the toilet (modeling). Let your child know that when she is ready, she can do the same thing. You need pull-ups and a potty chair or a child sized potty seat that fits over toilet seat. Woohoo! Ready for potty training! Only keep him seated for a few minutes at a time. Be sure to go at your child's pace and show strong encouragement and praise when he is successful. Make a sticker board and have a small gift prepared to give them after so many stickers. Sometimes reading books will help your child relax while sitting on the potty. However, this may also end up being a "reading fest" so I would try to limit the book reading to only what's necessary. Sit them on the potty regularly throughout the day,( you get to know there schedule of when they need to go). Frequently watching their fluid intake is helpful. If your child has had a large amount of fluid, taking him/her to the potty 30 minutes to an hour after drinking will maximize success. Every child is different, and some children will be "bowel" trained before being "bladder" trained and vice versa. Day-time dryness almost always comes before night-time dryness and may precede it by several months. Don't be discouraged if you have a few good days followed by a few bad. Again, it's a process that's going to take time! Be patient.