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By
Elizabeth Pantley, Author of The No-Cry Potty Training Solution
Potty training
can be natural, easy, and peaceful. The first step is to know the
facts.
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The perfect
age to begin potty training is different for every child. Your
child's best starting age could be anywhere from eighteen to
thirty-two months. Pre-potty training preparation can begin when a
child is as young as ten months.
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You can begin
training at any age, but your child's biology, skills, and
readiness will determine when he can take over his own toileting.
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Teaching your
child how to use the toilet can, and should, be as natural as
teaching him to build a block tower or use a spoon.
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No matter the
age that toilet training begins, most children become
physically capable of independent toileting between ages two and a
half and four.
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It takes three
to twelve months from the start of training to daytime toilet
independence. The more readiness skills that a child possesses,
the quicker the
process will be.
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The age that a
child masters toileting has absolutely no correlation to future
abilities or intelligence.
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There isn’t
only one right way to potty train – any approach you use can work
- if you are pleasant, positive and patient.
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Nighttime
dryness is achieved only when a child's physiology supports
this--you can't rush it.
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A parent's
readiness to train is just as important as a child's readiness to
learn.
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Potty training
need not be expensive. A potty chair, a dozen pairs of training
pants and a relaxed and pleasant attitude are all that you really
need. Anything else is truly optional.
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Most toddlers
urinate four to eight times each day, usually about every two
hours or so.
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Most toddlers
have one or two bowel movements each day, some have three, and
others skip a day or two in between movements. In general, each
child has a regular pattern.
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More than 80
percent of children experience setbacks in toilet training. This
means that what we call “setbacks” are really just the usual path
to mastery of toileting.
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Ninety-eight
percent of children are completely daytime independent by age
four.
This
article is an excerpt from The No-Cry Potty Training Solution:
Gentle Ways to Help Your Child Say Good-Bye to Diapers by
Elizabeth Pantley. (McGraw-Hill, 2006)
Website:
http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth
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