If you are in the middle of potty training, you know you can always use more toilet training tips.

After training four children of my own, here are my favorite ideas for keeping training moving forward.

– Use rewards and prizes but make them count for something.

A young child knows when he hasn’t earned the prize. Make sure if you are using rewards it is clear to your child exactly what he has to do to earn the prize and then pay up promptly.

If a toddler has to wait for her prize, she will lose her connection to the event that earned her the prize.

Make sure the prizes you are offering are of value to your toddler. I once trained using candy with my youngest only to find out she really didn’t care if she got candy or not.

That seriously stopped the motivational process.

In fact, here is some serious toilet training advice. If there’s something your toddler really wants, tie getting it to potty training. Use a chart to keep things visual. If it is big make sure there are subgoals and prizes along the way; toddlers cannot delay gratification well enough to work towards a large project over several weeks.

– Stop when there’s a problem.

I learned this the hard way. If you encounter serious resistance (not just a grumpy toddler on a napless afternoon), stop potty training for a few days.

Sometimes a toddler simply needs a break.

It helps to remember you are asking him to grow up. To change and mature.

That sounds good, until you have to do it 24/7. Then it becomes awful. And resistance is the natural outcome of feeling that way.

So listen to your toddler or preschooler. They might need a few days off. A few days to feel like a comfortable ‘little’ person again – maybe even feel like a baby.

Let them. Give extra cuddles and hugs. Talk about how great it was to be little and how much fun it will be to grow up. Completely take the pressure off. Remind him he can use the potty chair whenever he needs to – after all, someone as smart and grown up as he is certainly will be more comfortable doing so.

Then back off.

Do not put your child back in diapers at this point, if he has been out of diapers. Simply tell him you understand he needs a break and that if he chooses to go in his pants he will need to clean it up.

Now, you’re going to have to help with this, of course. Just be matter-of-fact and calm. Use plastic pants over the undies if you wish, but he needs to feel uncomfortable if he has accidents.

Then it will be his own body telling him it is time to grow up; not just Mom or Dad.

Remember, keep the ‘idea’ of potty training ever present; just not the pressure. Sometimes this method will train a resistant preschooler in just a few days. Odds are it won’t be long and he’ll be ready to train again.

– Train a doll.

One of the most effective toilet training tips I ever used was to train a doll alongside of my daughter.

Even when she didn’t want to train, we trained the baby doll – together. I put her in charge of the doll’s potty training.

She took the bait and started insisting the doll go potty regularly. We would always check to see if the my daughter needed to go potty, too, after all she was showing her baby what to do.

We made real strides forward using that technique with my strong-willed daughter.

Are you stuck in the middle of potty training with no end in sight? Collect toilet training advice and try new ideas regularly. You never know when you’ll hit upon the right combination of tips and timing.

Before you know it, your child will be potty trained completely. And you can celebrate together.

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 toilet training tips by visiting her website now.

Category: Parenting
Keywords: toilet training tips,toilet training advice,potty training,toilet training