Toddler

Fuss-free toilet training tips

Lisa Wachsmuth
September 16, 2009

Toilet training can be frustrating for parents and toddlers alike. Read Essential Baby's fuss free tips.

  • Start toilet training when your child shows he is ready - don't try to set a date by which you want your child trained.
  • Give praise for small steps - don't wait for the success of being completely toilet trained.
  • Go at your child's pace, don't expect too much. If there are any setbacks, give up for a few weeks and then start again.
  • Don't get into battles over toilet training. It needs to be your child's achievement that he can be proud of.
  • Punishment has no place in toilet training.
  • Toilet training takes time - accidents happen, so try not to get cross. If your toddler is wetting the bed, comfort rather than punish or shame them. Put a waterproof sheet over the mattress and try using toddler pull-ups.

Related links
Toilet training: is your child ready?
Night-time toilet training
Toilet training tips

Information sourced from Families NSW.

Do you have questions? Ask Essential Baby members in our Toilet Training forum.

More Related Coverage

Toilet training: time to take a seat

16 Sep Toilet training can be frustrating for many parents, particularly those with little boys, says Illawarra GP Dr Margaret Perrott. Boys make up 90 per cent of the clients at her Figtree clinic where she assists parents with their children's toilet training, bedwetting and soiling control.

Curse of a certain surfer

7 Dec With a three-year-old boy who makes it to the toilet for one poo in 10 and as such believes he is too grown up for nappies, we live in a constant state of anxiety, bordering on terror.

The nappy wars: when to toilet train?

9 Jun Let the child decide is the mantra recited by health professionals to parents considering toilet training their babies, toddlers and young children. It is a mantra that can be traced to the 1960s and leading paediatrician T. Berry Brazelton, who was among the first to advise against the often-harsh toilet-training techniques of the pre-war years in favour of a gentler, child-led approach.