How to Prevent Potty Training Regression

By eHow Parenting Editor

Instructions

Things You’ll Need:

Calendar or day chart
Stickers

Step 1:
Give your child occasional reminders to use the potty until she can master this task on her own.
Step 2:
Look for changes in your child's life that may trigger potty training regression. For example, if you are expecting another baby, your toddler may react by reverting back to diapers.
Step 3:
Ensure that your child is capable of handling both urination and bowel movements. The latter may be more difficult for your child to conquer and may cause him much stress during the training process.
Step 4:
Ease your child into changes in her routine. Such changes as starting school or moving to another house can be handled by giving your child support and reassurance during the stressful time.
Step 5:
Ask your child to tell you about any toilet-related mishaps that occur, such as a bowel movement that hurts or an accident that was punished at school.
Step 6:
Avoid letting your child wait until the last minute to go to the bathroom. Instead of disrupting play outside, schedule certain times during the day for him to go to the potty.
Step 7:
Have your child sit on the potty when she first wakes up and after meals.
Step 8:
Treat accidents with a matter-of-fact attitude. Clean up the mess without anger, and gently remind your child to use the toilet when he needs to go.
Step 9:
Establish a reward system using stickers on a calendar to keep track of accident-free days. Most children react positively to this kind of reinforcement and recognition.

Tips & Warnings

Even if you take every step to prevent potty training regression, do not become disheartened if your child slips anyway. Setbacks can be handled easily with patience and reinforcement of the techniques you used during potty training.
Avoid giving your child bribes to prevent regression. Children will not change their behavior if they do not experience internal motivation for using the potty.
Never overreact when your child has an accident. This reaction could backfire, reinforcing the unwanted behavior.
Don't ignore symptoms if your child seems constipated or has trouble with bowel movements. Such difficulties can often precede regression.

More Puppy Pages

How to Toilet Train a Special Needs Child

Instructions Things You’ll Need: Specialty potty Adapted equipment Step 1: Determine if your child is ready to be toilet training. Remember that with children with special needs it's usually their developmental age that matters more than their...

Instructions Things You’ll Need: potty chair How to Potty Train a Child. Step 1: Place your child's potty chair in a place that's easily accessable. If you have a large home, consider purchasing more than one chair. A potty chair for every floor is...

Instructions Step 1: Start early. Begin housebreaking and training your puppy immediately after you bring him home. Most breeders will not release a puppy to its new owner until sufficient time has passed for it to be weaned from its mother, and this is...

Instructions Step 1: Once you have decided to potty train your child, you must be consistent and keep up the training. It is important that your child realizes that you aren't going to quit and works with you to achieve success. At first, your child may...

Feeding your Puppy the Correct Amount of Food : Housebreaking Puppies

Hi, my name is Tracey Tenner and this is Doc. I’m the resident dog trainer and behaviorist here at Extra Care Hospital in Davy, Florida. We are here to talk to you today about how to house train your puppy. It is very important when you are in the...