What if your child refuses to go to the potty?

Look at it from your child’s perspective. Changing a diaper is often a pleasant time for your child. They get your undivided attention, and perhaps a song, a cuddle or a tickle to keep them still on the change table. You do everything for them. You decide when it's time for them to be changed and then you take care of everything. They don’t have to give it even a moment's thought.

Pretty attractive when you put it like that, right? Why would they want to give that up?

Of course, the trick in getting them to move to the next stage is to emphasise how ‘grown up’ they are using the potty.

What if that doesn’t work? How can else can you encourage them to get with the program?

Let them pick out their new 'grown up' underpants from the shop. Make it a big deal and they will too.

Let them see you going to the toilet and talk about how it is a normal thing to do. You could even get out a diagram of how the body works and show them the path food and drink make through the body. This works especially well with older children.

Clean them as soon as they have soiled their diaper and point out how much better it feels to be clean and dry.

Think about whether there is something that is putting them off – a new baby, disturbance of some kind to their regular routine – and if so, then back off until they are feeling more secure.

Get an anatomically correct potty doll and show them how they use the potty – maybe they just don’t understand what is expected. Select from a range of Potty training dolls and toys here: http://www.pottytraininghowto.com/recommends/TrainingDolls

Try some of the great ‘potty’ music around – you could only put it on when they sit on the potty. Check out this audio CD of potty songs: http://www.pottytraininghowto.com/recommends/PottyMusic

Tell them a story while they are seated there. As soon as they get up, the story stops. Make potty training fun for your child with these great books that children will relate to: http://www.pottytraininghowto.com/recommends/FunBooks

Be encouraging about any efforts they make. Focus on what they got right rather than what they didn't do or didn't want to do or struggled with.

Map their progress with a reward chart.
Potty Stickers and Chart for girls: http://www.pottytraininghowto.com/recommends/GirlStickers
Potty Stickers and Chart for boys: http://www.pottytraininghowto.com/recommends/BoysStickers

Kids love watching TV, right? Give them something fun to watch that will help their potty training:
http://www.pottytraininghowto.com/recommends/dvd

The most important thing is not to worry. It will happen…one day.

If you'd like more tips then check out our email series of Fun Potty Training tips. You can sign up using the form at the top of the column on the left on this page.