Toilet training is a great time for you and your toddler, especially when all the hard work is done and you both get to reap the benefits-that is until your toddler begins to regress and fall back into the stages preceding potty training! This time can be difficult for both you and your toddler because she may not understand what she is doing wrong, and respectively, you may not know how to fix it! You made it this far-don’t give up now just because your toddler is having a bout of toilet training regression!
Toilet Training Regression
Toddlers often go through bouts of toilet training regression in an effort to hold on to those last little things that make them feel like they are still your baby. Think about it-you take away the bottle, then the diapers, and then you make the little one use the toilet which in turn takes away from their free time! It’s terrible right? Not really, but this is how children look at it, so in an effort to gain back that free time they often regress back to using the bathroom when they want, where they want-even if that does mean that they go in their pants!
There are some things that you can do to help with the toilet training regression and to stop it in its tracks! First thing first, bribing your child (as bad as it may sound) is a great way to stop the potty training regression. Children want something and when you offer them what they want in return for doing what you want it’s a win win situation. Try offering your toddler a grow up only type item-such as staying up a few minutes later at night if they go potty all day, or allow them to do something that they have to be “grown up” to do if they don’t regress and use the bathroom when or where they are not supposed to. Rewards are a great way to get your toddler back on track in no time-as long as you are offering rewards that are mutually beneficial!
Another important thing to remember when you are dealing with a toddler that is regressing after potty training is that punishment equals resentment! Do not make your child resent you! Punishment for not going to the bathroom will likely only make the regression worse and harder to kick so this is not a good idea! Instead, use positive reinforcement and use it often. If you notice your child go to the bathroom on his or her own-reward him or her for it! Do not wait for your child to tell you what she did right, tell her that you noticed what she did! Give positive reinforcement for every good thing you can when it comes to the right things that you child is doing in terms of potty training. Try to pay little or at least less attention when he does the wrong thing or regresses.
Sometimes children are only looking for attention when they go through toilet training regression. So to recognize the right stuff and not pay attention to the regression will show that this is not a way to get attention. The way to get attention is to do the right thing, the thing that your child knows how to do and not to do the wrong thing like go to the bathroom in his or her pants!
With my daughter, she really wanted to go to school with her big sister and she didn’t quite understand why she couldn’t. So my husband and I told her that as soon as she started using the potty like a big girl she could go to school like a big girl too! This worked great and she was potty trained in no time but shortly thereafter, she began to regress and start going in her pants. We quickly turned things around by telling her that if she continued to go in her pants then she would get sent home from school and would not be allowed to go until she learned how to go potty like a big girl. This got things right back on track and although we sort of bribed her, we all got what we wanted out of the deal-she got to go to school and we got a potty trained little girl who is bound and determined to make it to the bathroom when she’s got to go!
