Toilet training. Two words that cause much terror and anxiety amongst parents. Often children can be resistant or reluctant to even attempt sitting on a toilet or potty. It can feel quite overwhelming even knowing when is the right time to start introducing the idea of using the toilet to your child when they are down-right refusing!

So, how can you know if your child is ready for you to start toilet training? The honest answer is, It depends! Usually, children are ready to start toilet training from 12 to 18 months but this could be sooner or later depending on your child’s development. There are lots of things to consider such as emotional development, social development, and even physical development. Every child is unique, and like all skills, toileting takes practice. Just like teaching your child to eat from a spoon, teaching your child to use the bathroom independently is a skill. 

As a general rule of thumb, there are some prerequisites you can look out for to know if your child might be ready to start toilet training! Let’s look at what some of the top things you can look out for are.

First and foremost, does your child have regular bladder and bowel movements? By regular we mean, depending on their water intake, do they go to the toilet accordingly and do they have bowel movements around 1-2 times a day? If not, it would be recommended to first consult with your GP to ensure there are no underlying gastrointestinal disorders (GI) issues. 

Next, is your child uncomfortable when their diaper is wet or soiled? If they don’t seem to notice when it’s wet or soiled, then it’s a good indicator that this might not be the right time to start toilet training. 

Check if your child can follow simple instructions. Things like “stand up”, “sit down”, “wait”, or “come here” are all useful in the toilet training process. 

You might want to also reflect on if your child is able to dress and undress themselves. It is certainly not essential for toilet training, but it would be a great bonus to have them know how to dress and undress themselves. This way they won’t always depend on you as the parent or caregiver to help them dress or undress when they need to use the toilet. 

Another useful skill would be if your child can remain seated for up to five minutes. Remember, when sitting on a toilet, they will need to be able to sit and wait until the bladder or bowel movement is finished…sometimes this can take a couple of minutes!

It would be a good general gauge to suggest that, if you were able to say “my child does this” to most of the above then you should be good to start toilet training. If not, then we would perhaps suggest waiting a little until those other skills are developed, to avoid any setbacks in toilet training. 

If you need a little help navigating the journey of how to toilet train, check out our full toilet training course here.