Potty Training My Child - When Do I Start?

When do you start potty training your child? It is a question that only you can answer. Once you know what to look for - the tell-tale signs that your child is ready to learn how to use the potty - you can begin the process. In terms of age, usually children between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four months are ready for learning. It may so happen that you try to teach your child to use the potty when he is even younger than eighteen months, and he may respond to the training - that's great.

Conversely, if your baby boy or girl does not seem too interested in learning while kids in the neighborhood are beginning to pick up basic potty training skills, there is no need to panic. Both situations are perfectly natural. Age is a criterion that varies with the child. Talk to the pediatrician and young parents in the neighborhood. You will surely pick up important pointers on what to do and what to eschew when deciding the right time to start potty training your child.

Remember that you are neither the first parent nor the last one that has to go through the procedure of toilet training your little bundle of joy. The whole experience will sometimes be exasperating and sometimes fun but never dull and at the end of it all you will have imparted to your child a healthy hygienic lifestyle habit that will forever stand him or her in good stead. You will earn a sense of gratification and lots of memories of those three to six months that you can always look back upon with a smile.

Your child will be ready for the potty training exercise once it begins to communicate that it has to go to the toilet. It could be an expression on its face or the fact that it comes and stands near you; if you notice that these actions are related with the need to using the potty then it's time to prepare a training schedule. More often then not, children will first communicate after soiling their diapers and then as they learn to control the bowels for a period of time they try to inform parents that they have to go. You can try to accelerate the process by talking to them; although children may not be able to speak by themselves, they have a remarkable facility for understanding language and the meaning behind words.

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