Toilet Training

Toilet training can be a daunting time for parents, but doesn’t need to be.

Here’s some support for you and your child, from the time you start to talk about toilet training to time your child manages toilet time all by themselves.

Check out our top tips for more advice on toilet training. Below, you’ll also find activities you can try at home.

Top Tip

Accidents will happen. Remember to stay calm and if they’re ready, get them to help you clean up.

1. Ready

You can start this as early as you want, but we would recommend from 18 months.

While changing your child’s nappy, talking about wee and poo helps normalise the conversation.

Monitoring your child’s bladder and bowel health is really important. They need to
drink plenty of water, and eat lots of fruit and fibre to pass soft poos and dilute wees.

If you change wet or soiled nappies quickly, it will teach your child that being dry and comfortable is best.

2. Steady

Your child may still be in nappies at this stage, but ‘no nappy time’ will help them to progress.

Choosing the right time and avoiding busy times of year or times of change is a good start. Good times to sit on the toilet are just after they wake up, 30 mins after mealtimes, or when you recognise they need to go.

Have you learnt the signs that your child needs to go, like crouching or finding a quiet space? If they’re not aware of when they are wet or soiled you can help by adding a toilet paper lining to their nappy, or wearing pants underneath.

A personal hygiene routine and encouraging them to do things by themselves, like pulling up their own
pants is great for their independence.

3. Toilet Time

It’s time to say goodbye to nappies.

You have prepared and practised. You’ve got this!

Setting a date for the change from nappies to pants and explaining that their wees and poos will go in the toilet from then on is a great start.

You can help your child to be independent by dressing them in clothes that are easy for them to pull down or take off.

Praise doesn’t need to be a sticker or a sweet treat. Children are actually really motivated by being able to do things by themselves. Encourage them and tell them how happy you are that they’ve tried it.

Top Tip

Changing your child standing up in the bathroom helps them learn where they go to the toilet.

Things to try at home

There are lots of things you can do at home to make toilet training fun. Here are some ideas for you to try.

Role play

Pretend play (role play) is a great way to show children how to do something. Putting their favourite teddy, doll or action figure on the potty or toilet and talking about what they are doing and what they need to do next helps children understand the toilet routine.

Decorate their potty

Your child will love decorating their potty with stickers to show it is theirs.

Sing a song

Sing a song! Children love to learn through song and rhyme. It can also help them to sit on the potty or toilet for a period of time before getting up.

Where to start

Toilet time bag.
Toilet routine strip.
Share stories about going to the toilet.
Blowing bubbles – blowing out through pursed lips will make them push down the muscles in their abdomen, which will give them a similar feeling to when doing a poo.

Thing to try next

Asking your child to tell you what come next when using the toilet.
Independent wiping – tie two balloons together at the back of a chair to create a ‘bottom’. Give your child tissue to practice wiping in between their ‘bum cheeks’.
Use a spray bottle to aim into the toilet. Give your child a target to hit.

How to adapt

Keep your child busy whilst sitting on the toilet to get them used to sitting for longer periods of time. This could be done by reading/singing to them, keeping a box of their favourite things to look at, taping a sensory bag their feet can play with to the floor (or a step if they can’t reach the floor) , etc., whilst sitting on the toilet.

Please see this printable toileting sequence strip on the Eric website:

Toilet visual schedule (eric.org.uk)

Learning bottom wiping: a step-by-step guide – ERIC