If you are in the middle of a season of potty training regression, then I don’t have to tell you how frustrating things can get.

You’ve already watched your patience and flexibility fly out the window. Maybe more than once.

I understand as I have been there. I have potty trained four children of my own and potty training regression has been an unwelcome visitor at my home on several occasions.

Let me share with you what I’ve learned so that you and your toddler can move on quickly and with a minimal of fuss.

– Stop everything.

Truthfully, I think I caused several sessions of regression just by pushing my children too hard at the potty training process. See, no one told me that potty training IS a process – not an event.

Subsequently, if my child was not moving in a straight line forward, I panicked. Needlessly.

Toilet training regression is very normal and quite common. Once you know that, your first instinct is usually the correct one: stop everything and take a break.

By taking a breather from structured potty training you are able to keep the frustration levels down. By the time regression happens, usually there have already been a few tense words and your child gets the idea that Mom or Dad is less than pleased with his performance.

Unfortunately, that’s the path to a full-blown power struggle; the nemesis of potty training.

To avoid this nonsense, we want to interrupt the cycle. Temporarily stopping structured potty training and taking a step back, is a sure way to diffuse the situation.

How do you do this? Tell your regressing toddler the truth. Tell her that everybody needs a break from practicing potty training and the two of you are going to take a few days off.

During this time, be sure and give your toddler lots of extra snuggles and positive attention. Make sure she understands how much you enjoy her, just the way she is.

Casually mention from time to time how much you might enjoy doing ______ (insert something she wants to do) with her – once she is a bigger girl, of course. You are setting the stage for her to reinvest herself in the growing up process.

Whatever the toilet training structure has been in your home, the point is to significantly downplay it for a while and let your child rest and you relax.

No yelling, no dragging to the potty. A few days of this will prepare her for the next step, which is….

– Do a restart.

To move on from a potty training regression, you’ll first need to take a breather and then fashion a toilet training restart.

Simply put, tell your child you are going to do the next fun thing in potty training.

Then pick two or three days when you can focus on your child and do a highly structured toilet training blitz.

If your child has been back in diapers, tell him the diapers are going away since he’s ready for only big boy pants. And mean it. No more diapers.

Make sure you have prizes (don’t overdo – small is fine), books and videos, songs, potty training dolls, etc., anything that will help you create a culture of positive potty training.

Make it a Mommy or Daddy and me time with your child. By the end of your training restart, your toddler should be significantly farther along the potty training road. And the potty training regression should be a distant memory.

Bottom line? Expect resistance and accidents. Handle them matter-of-factly. If you and your child find yourselves in the land of potty training regression – STOP – then do a concentrated and fun restart after a few days break.

You’ll get there. I promise.

Author Bio: Colleen Langenfeld has potty trained four kids and helps other moms get more out of their mothering at http://www.paintedgold.com . Toilet train faster using her potty reward charts and creative ideas plus uncover more about potty training regression by visiting her website today.

Category: Parenting
Keywords: potty training regression,potty training,toilet training,structured potty training