6. Books
There are many books about how to toilet train aimed at educating parents, and there are also books to read with your child. Books about pirates or princesses and more – they help to engage your child and de-mystify the toilet training process. Diane has written three books herself in a bid to explain to the child what is happening with their bodies, in words they will understand. With titles like, “Why your bladder is like a balloon” and “Be Brave like George” (George is scared of doing a poo), she believes the more the child understands about what their body is doing, the easier it is to train.
7. Reward Charts
You either love them or hate them – but with toddlers and young children, they do work. You can reward using the potty or washing hands or trying to get there on time, as well as actually doing a wee and a poo. Keep things simple and reward the effort rather than the result. Reward small steps and make the reward instant. If the reward is larger, e.g., after one week of no accidents, you get X, that can take a long time to achieve and can be disheartening. Toddlers do not have long attention spans. Instead, instant rewards like stickers, jellybeans, M&Ms, etc., means the behaviour you are trying to train is rewarded at the time. It really reinforces it.
8. Wet Wipes / Hand Sanitiser
When you are out and about, being prepared makes life so much easier. Most toddlers cannot give you a lot of notice of when they need to wee, it can be instant. If you have your wet bag with dry clothes in it, add some wet wipes and hand sanitiser. It just means wherever you are, clean-up is easy and fast and takes away so much of the stress of accidents when out and about. Remember, whatever the packaging of your wipes say, please don’t flush them. They do not break down and cause millions of dollars in damage to our sewage system. They need to be disposed of in a rubbish bin.
9. Enthusiasm
Toddlers love being the centre of attention. We always did the potty dance which meant anyone in the house had to dance when a wee or poo went in the potty. There was clapping, dancing, great joy! We would phone Daddy at work and ring Nana, tell the dog. Make a wee or poo in the potty/toilet into a huge deal.
10. Patience – get the timing right
Be prepared for lots of accidents; it is how your child will learn. Don’t start potty training just before a new baby is due or before you move house. Give both yourself and your child the best chance of success and start when you have the bandwidth to deal with accidents.
Remember, it is a stage of life like learning the alphabet or how to ride a bike. For some kids, it is quick and painless; others will take longer. It isn’t a competition, nor is it a reflection on your parenting skills. Your child will get there in the end.
For mum-of-two, Diane Hurford, nighttime toilet training became a hassle. Completely stripping a wet bed at 2 am became a long-winded affair, especially the bottom bunk where every night she would hit her head. She designed a Brolly Sheet, started making for friends and family and went on to sell them at local markets. That was in 2006 and since then, she has designed many products to make day and night training potty training that little bit easier on parents. She has big solutions for wee problems!
