When I was potty training my two young boys, I had to
resort to creative parenting techniques as I discovered
this method of potty training toddlers that made it an enjoyable, yet very effective way
to train toddlers.
First, make sure your child is ready for training,
shows interest, wants "big kids pants" etc. if they show no signs of readiness,
it may be best to let them mature a bit more.
Make this a game, make it fun, get creative, and you will not run into
stubborn opposition (after all it is the child's body). Go out and buy or find
around the house items you don't normally let your child play with. Some
examples might be toys that can be used in water (3 or 4 things), like little
plastic pitchers, balls, tiny cups, whatever, but make them SPECIAL. The only
real rule to this game is these special "potty" toys can only be played with
while the child is sitting on the potty! This is very important; no breaking
this one rule, or it won't work.
Once the child is sitting on the potty chair, fill a large bowl
or small bucket with lukewarm or tepid water, place the new toys in the
bowl and set the bowl of water in front of the child. On the floor if the
seat is low, or if it's a seat that sits on top of the regular toilet, set
the bowl of water on a TV tray or something that provides a step, in front of
the child. When the child places his/her hands in the lukewarm water to play
with the toys, if the child needs to physically go, they nearly instantly go
potty (it's almost an instinctive type of physical reaction), then cheer, cheer,
cheer! Give lots of praise, and if you wish to give some type of a treat, go
ahead.
Let them play as long as they want, as long as they sit on
the potty. When they are done playing, put the toys away for next time. This is
really great because it makes it fun for them so they cooperate, it totally ends
all power struggles, and also no more waiting and waiting for them to go only to
have them go as soon as the diaper is back on. They also feel good
because they have immediate success. Training no. 2 was more difficult I
found, that just came with some time and patience and them learning in their own
space and way, relax, it will happen.
Do you want to know how I got this idea? My husband used to be in the military and when he was young in boot
camp they used to always play jokes on each other in the night by dipping the
hand of someone who was sleeping, into a pan of lukewarm water, thus making the
person wet the bed. It just seemed like a natural progression to use this trick
for good use in creative parenting in the training area and it worked great!
