Day two

BY THE SECOND day of training your chart (see here) should begin to show a pattern of more regular intervals between the times your child needs to pass urine. This pattern will serve as a guide as to how often you need to remind him, and how often he is using the potty of his own accord. Obviously the aim is that he needs less and less reminders from you, and there are fewer accidents. For this to happen it is important that the potty is still kept within full view and within easy reach.

As the day progresses you should gradually go from reminding him to sit on the potty, to asking him if he needs to use the potty. It is important for his mental and physical awareness that you start to allow him some of the responsibility of deciding when he needs to use the potty, even if it means occasional accidents. Accidents will be more likely to happen if your child is playing and forgets or gets excited.

If you can see a particular pattern occurring on your chart, then you should be able to use it to tell when to go from suggesting that he sits on his potty to reminding him where it is if he needs to use it.

Remember to invite a friend for your child to prevent him from getting bored. It is even better if his friend is potty trained; as he will be more than likely keen to show off his potty and big boy pants.

Helpful guidelines for surviving Day two

Do not get despondent if he is still having quite a few accidents. As long as he is still eager to use the potty and has managed a couple of pees in the potty during the second day you can be sure you are on the right track. A few of the children I have trained seem to have endless accidents the first couple of days, then suddenly it all falls into place by the third day.

Try to arrange activities that are not too boisterous and could lead your child to becoming very over-excited and forgetting about the potty altogether.

If playing out of doors it is important to take the potty out with you and place it in a very prominent place. It often helps if you let your child decide where he would like it to be put.

By the end of the second day you should begin to feel that you are getting somewhere with potty training and that your child is grasping what is expected of him.