Is Your Toddler Ready for Potty Training?
Katie QuirkYour tot loves feeding herself with a spoon, knows all the shortcuts to apps on your smartphone, and is a highly mobile, jabbering little person. The next logical move for this thriving toddler is potty training, right?
Maybe, says Dr. Mark Wolraich, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and the author of The American Academy of Pediatrics Guide to Toilet Training. Potty training is one of the major developmental landmarks, like walking and talking, he says, so the timing is going to be different for every child.
What’s the right age?
Generally speaking, most children begin to show signs that they are ready to learn to use the potty between the ages of 18 and 36 months. “Basically, a child needs to demonstrate that he senses physically that he needs to go to the bathroom, has some control over this action, and is interested in doing it on the potty,” Wolraich says. “He has to connect what he is feeling with the ability to control voiding or defecating.”
Top signs of readiness
Not sure if your child is making these connections? Experts say a child might be ready for traditional potty training if he or she:
• Stays for a couple of hours at a time or is dry after naps
• Has regular, fairly predictable bowel movements
• Indicates he or she is peeing or pooping through his facial expressions, movements or words
• Is uncomfortable wearing a dirty diaper and wants to be changed
• Follows simple instructions
• Is able to walk to the bathroom
• Is interested in the potty and/or wearing big-kid underwear
Prepping your baby for the potty
Waiting until your child is developmentally ready is key, says Wolraich, but that doesn’t necessarily mean waiting until your child specifically asks to use the potty or that you can’t start gently preparing your tot for toilet training.
Buying a little potty and reading potty training children’s books, or using the toilet in front of your child and talking about what you are doing is perfectly ok.
Don't rush it
But expecting or pressuring a child to use the potty regularly before he is ready is just setting up for an unnecessary, frustrating battle between parent and child, he says. Almost every child masters potty training, and ultimately, when the training happens doesn’t much matter. “Getting your child trained earlier won’t make much of a difference in psychological/developmental terms,” Wolraich opines.