The One Big Reason Your Toddler Refuses To Sit On The Potty!

It might be a good idea to take a break from potty training until you can follow these steps, especially if you and your child are already feeling overwhelmed.
Just as you would prepare your child for his first day at school, you should prepare your child for potty training. Start talking about how great it will be when he starts to learn how to use the potty. How amazing it will be to have his own potty. What a big boy he will be in his new underpants. Set time aside to potty train and let him know when it will be, remind him that soon he will be able to use his potty, and get him excited about starting to potty train.

Make a day of pimping up the potty! Explain to your child that you are going out to buy a potty, and he can choose his design. Let him look online to see all the different types of potty available like this car one. If you’ve already got a potty, tell him you’re going to buy some stickers so he can decorate his very own potty. Let him cover it in stickers like these of his favourite character. Let him go to town at this stage. The more he has to do with the potty preparation, and the more fun he has at this stage, the less daunting and alien the whole potty training process will be for him.

Before you start potty training, it’s good to explain to your toddler that they will be wearing big girl/boy pants like these and let your child pick them out. The fancier, the better! Over the next few days, let your toddler try the pants on and practice pulling them up and down! Make sure you have lots and lots of pants as your child will go through more pairs than you can care to mention during this time as they will have many accidents!

I took a few days off work (it’s easier in the winter), buttoned down the hatches, and just concentrated on potty training until my kids cracked it. It’s easier if you’ve not got to go out anywhere. If your child can follow a routine for a few days, it speeds up the whole process.

Decide what reward your child will receive each time he tries to make it to the potty. Stickers are great, and you can also get special potty reward charts like this one to help your child with potty time!
Having a small treasure chest for your child to choose a reward from each time they use the potty is a great way to get your child excited about starting the potty train. It is also an excellent way to encourage them if your toddler won’t sit on the potty or toilet.
You could keep a box of fun games like this one to play each time your child uses the bathroom to make everything more relaxed and fun.
There are many great ways to help a 3-year-old who won’t sit on the potty to forget about why he’s potty training!

If you plan to be in the house for the first few days of potty training, let your child walk about with nothing on their bottom half. This was a lot less stressful than seeing my child struggling to get his pants down when he’s ready to wee. When young kids need to wee, they need to go straight away, and pulling pants down can be time-consuming! Once my little one felt the wee running down his leg, he made sure he dashed to his potty as quick as he could each time. Keep things as simple as possible at this stage, and give your child one less thing to think about!

There’s nothing like a bit of distraction when your 3-year-old won’t potty train! With both my kids, I stripped them off, sat them on the potty in front of the TV and switched on their favourite programme on a loop! If they sit there for long enough without realizing it, they’re going to wee eventually! That’s when you make a big song and dance about it and give them their reward! My kids didn’t watch much TV when they were toddlers so this was a big treat!
Watching TV on the potty helps them relax about the whole situation and allows you to relax too!

Be prepared to be stuck like glue to your toddler over the next few days. Forget the housework, forget doing any laundry.
You’re going to be the wee and poop police for the foreseeable future.
After the first time your child misses the potty, you will start to notice the warning signs that he needs to wee, and next time you can gently encourage him to sit down for a sticker placing the potty behind him.
You will also need to be close to hand to bring the potty to your child each time you notice they need to go, as quite often, your child will freeze rather than run to the potty for the first few times.

Your child knows the potty is there, he knows he should be using it, don’t nag him or this might make him dig his heels in even more.
Don’t get frustrated or cross if he refuses to use the potty. It’s a very stressful time for little ones who are potty training, and getting frustrated with them will make the situation harder for your child. After every accident remind him how well he’s doing to be out of diapers and remind him about the rewards he can have if he can get it in the potty next time.

Now, I know that I will be leaving myself open to a barrage of abuse about why we shouldn’t give our kids chocolate if they’ve gone on the potty, but desperate times can mean desperate measures!
If my four-year-old won’t potty train and I’ve tried everything else you’re damn right I’m going to bribe him with a small reward when he does use the potty! I’m not talking a huge big chunk of chocolate each time they pee or poop, just a tiny smartie or something of that size. In the grand scheme of things, I’m not going to worry about giving my children a reward to help conquer potty training refusal and you shouldn’t either!

Tell them constantly how proud you are of them now they are trying so hard to learn how to go to the bathroom, even if your child refuses to sit on the potty.

Let your child empty their potty down the toilet! My kids loved flushing their business down the toilet. We used to say we were going to feed the toilet fairies! When your child empties their potty, it helps them learn how to flush the loo and wash their hands simultaneously. All this is good practice for learning how to sit on a toilet.

Your child will not be in diapers in high school! Every single adult in the world was once a child in diapers. Your child will be potty trained eventually, you’ve just got to learn to unlock the key to what makes your child tick. If you’ve got a 3-year-old who refuses to potty train, it’s not your fault, it’s nothing to do with your parenting skills. Toddlers are a nightmare, fact! Toddlers are unreasonable and potty training a stubborn boy or girl can test the patience of most parents! Nearly every parent I know has had a toddler who refuses to sit on the potty at some time.

If your toddler refuses to sit on the potty, as much as the temptation is great, don’t be tempted to put a nappy back on your child. Weather the storm, and you’ll soon come out the other end. It’s going to be hard work, your child will get distressed at times, but it’s something all kids go through and come out unscathed. Your child will, too, with patience, hard work, and determination from you!

This, too, shall pass! Soon your child will be diaper free and using the loo all by himself, it’s hard to imagine while you’re going through it, but you’ll get there!