Ever since we have become parents and also when we were in the process of becoming parents, this was one topic I used to hate – ‘To talk about the Poop’. And since Little Miss K’s birth, the topics like ‘how to poop, colors of poop, how many times is healthy poop, when to start potty training, how to make one potty trained etc’ became the tea-conversations.

Switch to reality, its indeed a very important part of making your little one grow up into an independent toddler.

Being a human resource professional, I have mastered the art of developing training programs and delivering them, but this time – I left this training (potty training/toilet training) unto my Mother to master upon Little Miss K. Believe me, it worked really well – outsourcing does help many times!

Little Miss K was pee-trained in 9 months and potty-trained in 12 months. So actually I haven’t spent a single penny on expensive diapers ever since she was 1 year old.

We bid goodbye to the pull on diapers within 12 months! Parents – yes you hear me right!

How quick was that! Yes, even I am happy to share the quick and easy steps to make our new parents at ease with Potty training. Or in the world of IT – lets say I am sharing the ‘best-practices of outsourcing’

1. Its never too early – I contested it with my parents over this and they said with their experience its never too early to start. So she started the training when Kyra turned 8 months and she was able to sit properly. The steps below did look a bit tedious but all of us became so used to it that it looked like simple reflexes for making a 8 month get used to the pee pattern.
   1. Right after you feed and burp the baby
   2. Keep a small tub beneath or aside the crib/baby bed
   3. Hold baby by both hands leaving space for her/him to pee.

After a week of practice and perseverance, Little Miss K waited for this time to pee and started giving us signals to take off the diaper to pee. This depends on how your little one is growing up. Each baby has their own learning curves – do just don’t hang up – keep trying.

2. Comfortable and attractive Potty seats & Pull up pants– these days market is flooded with very engaging potty seats. Yes, they are really useful.

Buy one which is comfortable – how will you figure that out – let your toddler do the shopping. Let them sit on the same and decide if they like it and you ensure it doesn’t hurt by sitting on them for long time or has any sharp edges.
You can choose a variety of them like the chair ones, in-toilet ones etc.

Always buy a spare – We bought two – one for home and one for our travel times. If you are wondering, yes-we travelled continents with potty seat as one of our cabin baggage as she refused to go to toilet if her seat was not there! #newparentwoes

Pull up pants/diapers worked really well with us while on travel and avoided accidents. She also learnt how to pull them up herself after she has done with her pee. It also inculcates a practice of early toilet habits.

3. Make Potty times – Rewarding – Make your child sit on it after food every 15 minutes, read a book, sing rhymes and offer a treat every-time she makes a use of the potty seat. It does works and if you are a parent with no-rewards policy then positive reinforcements would work for you. Any reward for a small step of progress is the key and depends entirely on your parenting style can be a chocolate or a big hug with words of appreciation.

4. Practice and Routine is the key – My mother put her on the toilet seat every 20 minutes, it’s a hard task, but she succeeded in making Little Miss K to be aware of the toilet habits and a routine was set. Incase your child is going to a day care, ensure the routine is followed up there too with the same pattern and consistency.

5. Patience is key – every child is different and have different developmental stages. You child has to be good and ready to take on to this transition of using bathroom. There is no ideal age for the same and many a times I have heard new parents getting worried over – ‘their child not being there even after being a certain age’. Don’t get frustrated if your child is taking a little long to be potty trained, its not a fast process to be learnt. Also it’s a good practice to learn about the in-school process, like I ensured both times – in Delhi aswell as Toronto to visit school and enquire about their toilet usage process and visit their washrooms to know how it looks like and describe the same to my child. Schools in general across North America and Canada prefer Kindergarten students to be potty trained before they start in school to avoid in-school accidents while Indian schools do have in-house helps to help kids with their toilet needs.

I hope that these 5 quick tips has eased out the pressure from our new parents or parents to be or who are currently parenting a toddler. Please do leave us comments to let us know if you have any tips you used to get your toddler potty trained.

Wonderful caricature from my dear friend Nicole @mylifeinacartoon (https://www.instagram.com/mylifeinacartoon/ )

Until then, Keep exploring your parenthood and Keep Sane! ATG