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Making Sure You are not an Enabler

This article deals with things that you, the parent, can do that will keep you from being the cause of your child continuing not to be potty trained

I see this quite often. The parents spends more time letting the child know it's ok vs teaching the child what is the correct action. Yes it's all right to let the child know it's ok, but you also have to let them know what are the correct actions.

The first thing in making sure you are not an enabler is to make sure you get rid of the diapers. The diapers make it too easy for them to dirty themselves.

The second thing you want to do is get yourself mentally prepared. When you realize what you have to do to have your child potty trained, it might seem like a daunting task.

If you have a take-charge attitude that a parent should have, that child will know the difference. Thus, you are not enabling that child to continue going in their underwear or diaper, but you are getting them in the right direction.

Thirdly avoid absorbent diapers. Absorbent diapers are great because you don't have to change them too often. They do give the child the notion that the potty is supposed to go into the diaper.

Even at an earlier as a few months before you start potty training, make sure you stop using these super-absorbent diapers. What you want to do is get them used to not liking being wet by using diapers that are not absorbent.

So what you want to again make sure is to use these diapers that are not absorbent so that your child continues to want to stay dry and hates the wet feeling.

Fourth, when your child has an accident, do not clean up your child. Let them clean themselves up. Make sure you supervise the cleaning process. Just don't do the work.

Take them to the bathroom, put on a pair of gloves and tell them they have to clean themselves up. Now you will be there to make sure they do a good job of it, but who would like to clean poop off their own leg. No child does.

So, this is one trick that we have used that helped our child realize that he is not going to poop in his underwear. If you have a child who is wetting the bed at night but not during the daytime then this technique works as well.

Don't get up and change their sheets after they wet the bed. Let them do it themselves. Again, this is a technique that once we implement it, our son stopped wetting his bed at night within two days.

So that is an easy way to keep the child from wetting himself.

Another way to avoid being an enabler is asking the child try to go to the potty.

Don't ask them to go to the potty. Tell them.

Johanne Cesar
mailto:supportstaff@thepottytrainer.com
203-404-7178