5 potty training tips for preschoolers

Potty training can be something that many of us don’t look forward to, but if we’re armed with some potty training tips, we can be better prepared and less likely to put it off.

If you’re thinking of potty training your child, here are 5 potty training tips for preschoolers that I followed when potty training my own preschool aged children, which can be applied to toddlers as well.

If you’d like more information on potty training, here are 5 signs your child is ready for potty training and 7 signs your child isn’t ready for potty training, which I hope help you to decide when to start potty training.

Once you are ready to start potty training, here are 5 potty training tips that I hope help.

Get them used to a potty

Before you’re ready to potty train, leave a potty in any bathrooms you have.

Doing this gets your child used to seeing them, allows you to tell them what a potty is for, and may encourage them to sit on it before you start officially potty training them.

If you have an older child, ask them to show them how to sit on it, and talk to their younger sibling about what a potty is for, which will further encourage their interest in it.

Set aside time to potty train

The hardest part of potty training for many of us is setting aside time to do it, because ideally you need to stay home at the start of potty training.

Staying home to potty train isn’t always possible, but if you can block out a weekend so you have 2 days at home to put your child on the potty often, or when they need to use it, it will make potty training easier.

Once your child has a couple of days to get comfortable using the potty, then having other carers, or getting them to use a potty at nursery, will be easier because they’ll already be comfortable using one.

Praise and reward potty use

For the first few days of potty training give your child praise whenever they sit on the potty, and especially when they do something in it.

This could mean words of encouragement, applause, or letting them choose a sticker from a sticker sheet, because preschoolers and toddlers thrive on praise and rewards, and doing this will encourage them to keep going with the potty training.

Use a travel potty

Using a travel potty is a great potty training tip, because it makes leaving the house with a newly potty trained child less stressful.

The travel potty I use is a My Carry Potty, which is a small portable potty that my son can use whenever and wherever he needs to, which makes going out a less stressful experience for us all.

Be patient

Accidents can and will happen at anytime during potty training, even once your child is potty trained.

Also, it can take your child a long time to poo on a potty, even if they’ve been weeing in a potty for months, and this is something that patience is definitely needed for.

Potty training is a big step for our children, and it will take some children longer than others, but they all eventually get there.

Do you have any potty training tips?