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Potty training is enough to drive the most patient of mothers to exasperation. Help is only a few dollars away when you can buy anything from musical potty seats to diapers with colorful shapes that disappear when they get wet. There are so many products designed to help parents with this right of passage! Remember the basics and see how simple it can be.
Make this process stress-free by following the three steps below:
1. Don't listen to well-meaning friends or relatives.
2. Watch for the tell-tale signs of readiness in your child listed below.
3. Offer encouragement and praise.
Well-meaning friends and relatives wreak havoc with your emotions, making you feel inadequate, guilty and did I already mention inadequate? Everyone's experience with potty training is unique.
No child trains himself, but he may manage to train the parent. Some parents sit with their child in the bathroom for hours until magically, the child goes in the toilet. Most parents have other things to do than sit for hours with their child in the bathroom waiting for them to relieve themselves. That's not potty-training. It's torture!
The following tell-tale signs of readiness are very simple and easy to watch for:
Regular bowel movements and long periods of dryness, such as after nap-time
Verbalizes that he wants to go to the bathroom
Can pull his own pants up and down
May show an interest in wearing "real underwear"
Follows simple directions
Understands the words pee, poop, potty, wet and dry
Watches you go and imitates you or other family members going to the bathroom
Has a fascination with toilet paper
Act as if they want to please you
Likes to do things by herself with no help
Wants to be changed immediately following a bowel movement in his diaper
Stops with a perplexing look while dirtying her diaper
Lastly, offer encouragement and lots of love and attention during this time. Children will get upset if you act stressed and will associate potty training with these feelings. Do not punish your child if he has an accident. Remember that all children develop at different stages. No two are alike. The child will become potty-trained when he or she is good and rady, and not before.
So, sit back and watch for the signs and tell them what to do when the time comes. It sounds too easy, but it can be if you follow the three simple steps listed above.
"Hey, Grandma. I pooped. In the potty. And over there, too. And there's no more toilet paper. And the toilet won't go down..."
Grandma will be thrilled with your potty-trained child...
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