Title: When to Start Potty Training Your Toddler | Parents
Headings: When to Start Potty Training Your Toddler
When to Start Potty Training Your Toddler
What’s the Best Potty Training Age?
How to Start Potty Training
Gradually introduce the toilet.
Follow a schedule for potty training.
Offer Praise and Rewards
Teach Proper Hygeine
Understand that potty training takes time and effort.

Content: Instead, when your child uses the potty successfully, offer gentle praise and a small reward. You might want to use a sticker chart —your child receives a sticker every time they go potty; after they’ve earned, say, three stickers, they get a small prize. " However, don't go nuts!" says Scott J. Goldstein, M.D. a clinical instructor of pediatrics at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern. " A lot of toddlers will react to excessive praise as they react to punishment—by getting scared and avoiding doing the thing that they were excessively praised or punished for." Teach Proper Hygeine
To set children up with good hygiene habits that will last a lifetime, washing hands should be a routine from Day 1, along with flushing and wiping, regardless of whether your child actually went in the potty. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends wetting hands with cool or warm running water, lathering up with soap, and scrubbing for at least 20 seconds. Make hand washing fun by buying colorful kid-friendly soaps, and make it last long enough by singing a favorite song, like "Happy Birthday to You" or the "ABC Song," so the bubbles work their germ-fighting magic. Understand that potty training takes time and effort.