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Potty Training Rewards

Using some sort of a reward system is a good way to motivate your child to use the potty.

I will give you examples of what I have used as a parent. It is going to be up to you to figure out how to use the techniques that I have used and come up with your own reward system.

You know your child better than anyone else, so you should know what his or her motivators are. What might work for one child will not work for another one. In other words, for some kids, McDonald's is a good reward to get them to act. Other kids could care less about McDonald's.

Now, one of thing I used very well was psychology. The rewards I used were part of the psychology. In other words, I would tell my son, “hey Lorenzo, do you want a cookie?” He would answer yes. So then I would say. “Sounds great, let's go get a cookie.” Before getting the cookie, I would make sure we pass the bathroom. Then I would say, “Use the potty first so we can go get the cookie.”

So what I did was I diffused the refusal of the child of wanting to use the bathroom. At that moment in time, he was thinking about the cookie, not the potty. This is a technique that worked extremely well for me that I would say as a parent you should definitely try it.

If I offered Lorenzo to go to McDonald's, we would actually get dressed, get the keys and get ready to go. As we were going out the door, I would say, hey, let's use the bathroom before you go so Ronald McDonald's does not see any accidents when we are there. I have never used this technique with my son where he has said no or given me some form or resistance.

Sometimes you can even take the rewards system that you create and bring it to the bathroom with you so the child knows and can see the reward. This works well and can be a great motivator to get the child to act fast.

So rewards are a very good thing to use, you just have to know how to use them properly to get your son or daughter to react. Some parents find that even with rewards the kids do not act or want to be motivated, but I would also venture to say that these kids are closer to three and four years old and there are other issues at play here besides potty training or rewards.

You will have to find out what is motivating your child at the age of three or four and what would get them to act the way you want them to.

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