Is My Child Ready To Start Potty-Training
When is the right time to give potty-training to your child? Traditionally, most parents don’t think they should give infants toilet-training unless they wait until their children turn 2 or even 3 years old. They worry about it would cause long-term psychological damage on their children. Indeed, if early potty-training with too much pushing and infants’ readiness and needs are not taken into account, it would do more harm than good. If a child is not ready to receive toilet-training yet, both parents and their children would feel frustrated and more negative experiences would be built up which in turn would damage the bond between parents and their children.
Having said that, other parents are aware of the fact that the longer parents postpone their children’s toilet-training, the harder their children cooperates with their parents to learn this skill. Especially, it is not easy to train a child when he/she grows into the “terrible twos” stage, a term given by experts to describe a child turns 2 or so characterized with an inclination to say “no” to everything. Thus, there are still many parents wanting to try early potty training skills instead of waiting until their children are over 2 years old.
A growing number of parents want to experiment with infant potty-training because there are many advantages and benefits for both parents and children:
- great savings in the cost of diapers (some families can reach $3,000 dollars a year)
- less guilt about contributing to the 22 billion disposable diapers that end up in landfills every year
- no diaper rash
- increase emotional bond with parents and the baby
If you want to try potty-training with your child, the first thing you have to see if your child is ready or not. Here are the Signs Your Child Is Ready For Potty Training suggested by zipbaby.com
- Expresses an interest in the potty
- Tries to imitate family members
- Expresses the need to go potty or indicates that he or she just has
- Able to pull pants up and down
- Irritated when diapers are wet
- Stays dry for about two hours
- Expresses interest in cotton underwear
- Has predictable bowel movements on a regular basis
- Diaper stays dry more and more often overnight