How Do I Know If My Child Is Ready To Potty Train?

A lot of my friends are talking about potty training their toddler? How do I know if MY child is ready to potty train?

That is a really good question and one that doesn’t have just one answer.

One sign of readiness you often hear is, Does your child wake up dry in the morning?

Well, that is a tricky one and probably NOT the one that you want to rely on.

 Here is why.

 Some children WILL stay dry all night but then will wet their diapers as soon as they are fully awake. But by the time you go in and get them up in the morning, their diaper is REALLY wet. You may be thinking “My child is never dry in the morning!”

But actually they MAY have stayed dry all night and you just didn’t know it.

 So if you are waiting to see this sign - you may just be missing it.

 You can try this to find out if your child is staying dry at night:

• Go in about a half hour early and check your child’s diaper while he is still asleep, and see if he is still dry.

This may tell you if your child is waking up dry.

But what if your child is not dry?

 Does this mean your child is NOT ready for potty training?

NOOOO!!!

 Some children wet the bed until they are 6-8 years old and this is considered to still be normal.

 Are you going to wait that long to potty train your child?

Goodness, I hope not!!

What is really important and what people are really asking when they say “IS your child waking up dry is this:

Can you child hold their urine for longer stretches of time  - like 2 hours or so!

Holding their urine for 2 hour stretches while awake is a much more important skill for potty training than being able to hold their urine for 10 - 12 hours at night.

Staying dry at night is a different skill that will come later.

Other signs of readiness are the development of physical skills like these:  

•  Is your child AWARE that she has gone peepee or poopoo in her diaper?
• Is she bothered by this?
• Does she let you know in some way and ask to be changed?
• Does she let you know that she is ABOUT to go - with facial expressions - like grimacing - and actions - like hiding or stopping what she is doing or squatting?

Development of independence goes along with that physical development as well.

 Can your child pull his pants up and down by himself?

Development of social awareness is also important for potty training.

•  Is your child starting to talk about potty skills?  
• Is he aware that some children “poo poo in the potty” or mommy and daddy peepee in the potty or her friends at school wear “big girl panties”?

What about age?

There is no magic age or time that all children should be potty trained.

You know that the age your child learned to walk was different than your friend’s child, and speech development varies greatly. So does the readiness for potty training. (Potty training has as much to do with parents' readiness as a child's!)

But, if we are just talking about age, most children begin potty training somewhere between 18 mo - 3 years.  

That is a pretty broad range isn’t it?

Looking at the combination of your child’s readiness skills makes for the most successful potty training experience.  

 There are other signs of readiness to look for as well.

 And more importantly there are steps that you can take to HELP your child develop the skills that they need to get ready for potty training.  

 Just because your child has some signs, does not mean that he has the skills to potty train.

A lot of potty training disasters (yes there are some of those) happen because children are just not really ready.

Helping children to develop the skills that they need BEFORE you start to teach them to use the potty helps to make potty training much more successful.

 Unfortunately, a lot of moms and dads look at potty training as JUST putting the pee and poop in the potty but there are so many skills involved than that.

When looking at your child’s readiness for potty training, think through all of the steps involved. 

Does your child have the ability to carry them out?

If not, start teaching them to him BEFORE you tackle potty training.

I talk a lot about readiness skills in my workshop Potty Training Success.

I teach you readiness signs to look for and so much more including:

• common mistakes that parents make 
• some reasons why potty training fails and possibly even the most important thing of all
• (except maybe the steps to potty training!)
• I show you how to TEACH your child those skills she needs for potty training - even if she is not ready now.

I would love to have you join me in one of my LIVE online (or on demand) workshops where you will learn more about readiness and how to get Potty Training RIGHT from the start. Want to learn more?

Oh yeah! So check out the Potty Training Success Workshop here.