by Peta Ealing Cameron

Created on: July 14, 2008   Last Updated: May 09, 2011

The responsibility of potty training a toddler should not become an annoying and difficult duty. Have a look at yourself and remember that once you were a young toddler. Your parents, and more than likely your mother, guided you to the correct ways of the toilet etiquette.

One of the first and easiest principles to follow can merely be to show your toddler what the toilet is used for first.

Try to make it a pleasant place to visit; this is a good starting point. Make sure it smells fresh always, and perhaps even consider putting up a picture that is encouraging to the child.

Pooh-bear is always a good character to try. His name gets the word right, for a starting a start point. Water images are also good, pleasant themes.

Just as you have pictures you like in the toilet, I am certain children would feel a little more comfortable in a known zone. Make the toilet a territory that is not a scary place to be in and you start out on the right foot.

Children do not have the ability to be potty trained too early. As the brain grows and signals become aroused in the child to know when the urge to need a toilet has arrived, you can be pretty certain they will be happy to get that yucky feeling away from themselves and their pants.

Until a child has reached around one year, they have virtually no control over the releasing of their own waste products. After all, it is just part and parcel of raising a child.

Around the age of two or generally between two and three years old, a child will feel the annoyance of having wet and soiled pants. It is about this time you may find them dropping the nappy or pants, if you are using trainers, quite often.

Aside from the fact it can be very smelly, no child likes a wet or soiled bottom.

Firstly, commence by actually showing the child where the mess goes. Just as you show a child a rubbish bin and teach them to use it, you should empty soil from the nappy into the toilet and allow them to see this.

Once this is done, allow them to flush to toilet. This way they are visualizing at least where that stuff goes and that it is safe and not scary to touch the toilet button.

It is kind of, like any new task to must learn, children are not silly they pick up very quickly. As long as the teaching process is not made to feel scary, the child should quite readily adjust to the toilet.

Low children's potties can sometimes appear strange to kids. If your child wants no part in using one, which is sometimes the case, try buying an insert. I found with my children that buying a ringed insert to place on your toilet, which was soft to sit on, did the trick.

Washing the hands even after disposing of the soil and allowing them to flush the toilet, will also re enforce what the toilet is really all about.

Good luck to all you mothers out there. I have three grown up children and now have one grandson, and he is now just starting to learn the rules of that special room, the toilet.

Rewarding a child for not only using a toilet, but for washing their hands and drying them, can sometimes move the process along, even at a more rapid pace.

Praise the child, even when the event is just beginning, and before long, you will have one fully trained toddler.

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