Pants when they are ready
Do not start because a childcare form has a box. Start because the child is showing you they can.
Raising Children's picture guide is short, which is a mercy. Ready looks like dry nappies for two hours or more, and pants they can get up and down. Interest in the toilet.
Wanting to watch you. Telling you the nappy is wet or dirty. If that is happening, try underpants or training pants through the day.
Sleeps, day and night, stay in a nappy or on a protected mattress. Night dryness is not the same skill as a daytime wee. Do not bundle them.
Clothes are elastic waists. Buttons are a puzzle they will lose to. Watch the body.
A wiggle, a hand in the crotch. A quiet reminder, not a cross-examination. A poo is more likely about half an hour after food.
Sit them then. Three to five minutes. Longer becomes a power struggle with a bathroom.
How they sit matters. Feet and legs apart, lean forward, back fairly straight, feet on a stool so they are not dangling. You wipe, or you help, front to back, especially with girls, and the page says front to back for the child generally.
Ask them to lean forward so you can actually do it. If wee hits the floor, clean it up without a speech. The speech is what they remember.
Hands get washed. A bit of praise for using the toilet is enough. A parade is not required.
Accidents are the training. If you treat each one as defiance, you will get a child who hides in a corner to poo. Calm, dry clothes, move on.
If you are worried about pain, constipation, or a child who was dry and is not, talk to the nurse or GP. Worry is allowed. A boot camp is not on the page.
You can run the sits. Same words each time. Same stool.
Same lack of drama. She does not have to be the only one who knows how this child wees. Tell her what happened in a sentence, not a report that makes her manage your feelings about a puddle.
Keep a spare set of clothes in the bag and stop apologising to other adults for a wet seat. Readiness is uneven. One good morning does not mean you throw out the night nappies.
If childcare is pushing a date, tell them the signs you are actually seeing. You are allowed to wait.
Source: Raising Children Network