As your toilet learning journey begins its best to familiarize your child with the bathroom and all of its components. Start early with naming the items in the bathroom and their purpose. Whenever you use the bathroom from washing up, to showering, to brushing your teeth, to using the toilet, allow your child to join you.

For the toilet learning experience let your child know that you are going to the washroom to use the toilet to get rid of the parts of food that your body does not need. Let them observe you pulling down your clothing and sitting on the toilet. Tell them that your body is releasing waste called urine or “pee”, “poop’ or “boo-boo”. Invite them to listen to the sound of your waste hitting water and let them know their body can do the same thing in the toilet. Ideally, this process should start before you actually begin your child’s toilet learning, but it’s ok to do it once you and your child start. Let them see you wipe, pull up clothing, flush, wash and dry your hands. Share with them that the big white bowl or toilet takes the waste away (get as detailed as you like -out of your home, through some pipes, under the ground to a treatment plant).

To ease fears of the sound of and size of the toilet, allow your child to flush the toilet whenever you go and wherever you go (store, church, park, grandparents house). This will make the toilet less intimidating and part of your child’s normal day.

Shortly after you have invited your child into the bathroom with you, show them the small toilet or toilet seat they will begin to use whenever they need to go to the toilet. Everytime you go, invite them to go as well.

Make the bathroom and using the toilet less of an event and more of a routine. This will allay your child’s fear of the big white bowl.