Getting Your Child to Cooperate with Potty Training

If your child has started potty training and is not taking the chance to go on the offensive about it on his/her own, you are going to have to help him to ease into it. there are some things that you can do, so here are some ideas to consider to help him make progress towards getting the process started:. You can start by asking yourself these questions:

1. Am I the one who is reminding him/her to go potty or is he/she reminding me? Remember, that the ultimate goal is to have the child be responsible for doing all the work such as going to the toilet, going potty and then finishing the process.
2. Are his/her pants big enough to make the training process a simple one or does he need my help to pull pants off? If the child needs your help, you must try loose-fitting pants.
3. Have I confused him/her by being inconsistent with the rules?
   basically if you have to help your child pull down his pants and at other times make him do it this could be a problem
4. Are you changing the order of things he should do and confusing the child?  You have to be consistent with the steps of the process so there's not confusion.
5. Do you need to offer better rewards all of the time to reignite interest? If this sounds like you then it is possible that you need to change the rewards. For example, instead of treats, would your child like a chart that he/she can put stickers on to see how many times he goes to the bathroom? Maybe he would be motivated by getting a special treat if he is dry all day or all week just to keep the reward system fresh. Sometimes we stop giving rewards and the child loses their early motivation.
6. If he is forgetting to run to the toilet, get the child to practice.

The way I like to do practices is a lot like sports in that if they look like they need to go potty or they have wet or pooped in their pants, take hold of him and help them run to the toilet.

If they already had an accident, clean up and get them cleaned up as quickly as possible.

A practice is where you take the child to the place where he/she had the accident and then offer some support and not a criticism to the child and ask them to show you how to use the potty.

Next you will help them run quickly to the toilet, pull their pants down and get on the toilet. Then you have to remember to congratulate them. The key to this is for you to make it fun so they are encouraged that they can actually do it. Sometimes, it may seem like a punishment to the child. If this is the case, then it should only occur once or twice. You are going to have to do some practices at neutral times as well, when they are not thinking about going potty, so that they'll learn how to shift from what they're doing to quickly and make it to the toilet. That is why you have to make it fun, have a race, and include the entire family and then everyone can get the rewards together.