Indicators Your Toddler Is About To Pee Or Poop – Teaching Urge Awareness

Is your toddler having a lot of accidents?

Teaching awareness may be what you need to focus on.

Knowing their potty cues is the first step. And paying close attention to indicators that they have to go such as:

• wiggling

• crossing legs

• suddenly standing up then sitting back down a couple times

• grabbing at their bottom

Recognizing these indicators will be key to pushing past this hurdle, sooner.

“Starve your distractions, feed your focus” -unknown

If you’re experiencing challenges with potty training, observing your child’s habits, will give you a lot of information you can then use to troubleshoot and solution-find.

{Related Article}: How To Get Your Toddler To Pee And Poop IN The Potty 

Are there patterns?

For a couple days, whether you’re just starting out or are troubleshooting mid-potty training journey, pay attention to when they have accidents and ask yourself:

• Is there a pattern? 

• Can I time potty breaks around a certain schedule that their body is currently on?

Otherwise, having your toddler sit a couple to a few times each hour to see if anything has to come out, is a good rule of thumb for timing. 

activities in the bathroom are very helpful

I recommend keeping engaging and interesting activities IN the bathroom to help 1) motivate them to go and sit and 2) keep them entertained and relaxed, so they can release. 

Keep the activities simple, but be sure you have more than one teddy and a couple potty books. Especially in the beginning, you want it to be a simple and smooth transition to constantly sitting, and different interesting activities can work wonders for doing this.

Toddlers have a short attention span and waiting is so close to impossible for them, it’s insane. 

But, what does engage them and keep their interest? Cool activities! They’re an excellent motivator and attention-keeper.

Think of the bathroom as if it were a waiting room at the doctor’s office. You pull out your phone while you wait to pass time, right? Or you grab the magazine that catches your eye so you have something to keep you busy while you sit and wait, right? There are little nick nacks and books to keep the kids busy as well, right?

That’s what we’re doing with potty training too – waiting. Waiting and waiting to see if something comes out, until they begin to learn urge and timing. 

And like at the doctor’s office, you’d be far more relaxed if you had something to pass the time rather than just sitting there staring at the receptionist talking about and/or thinking about the stress-inducing shot you’re about to get.

Recap 

Potty training can be filled with pressure and stress, neither of which help toddlers perform best. So, let’s get your toddler motivated to sit and relaxed to gooooo. Here’s what to try:

• Keeping activities in the bathroom for 1-3 days, until they get a better hang of this new habit. (Reminder: not just books about the potty)

• Rotate the activities out, as needed, to keep things interesting and enjoyable.

• Giving them options about which toys they get, so they have some control and excitement.

• Remind them of why you’re doing this.

• Give lots of praise for effort NOT just pees and poops.

• Keep a close eye on them until accidents minimize, so you can catch any indicators that they are about to go.

• Teach them what they’re doing means they have to go. “When you cross your legs that means pee is coming. Let’s go put it in the potty! Let’s run together. Go go go!”

• Reinforce and recap: If they made it in time, you can say – “Excellent! You’re listening to your body and getting to the potty in time.” If they didn’t make it, you can say – “let’s try again next time, listening to our body and getting to the potty right when we start dancing.”

There’s so much learning to be done with potty training. Give your toddler and yourself grace to go at their pace, make mistakes and express their feelings along the way. 

{Related Article}: How To Set Up A Peace Corner When Potty Training Your Emotional Toddler & Why It Will Help 

Remember, potty training doesn’t define you as a parent. And it is not a race. There are no losers. All toddlers and families become winners. You’re good.