Toilet Training Tips: First, remember that your child has to be ready for this developmental milestone.  Signs that he is ready include: hiding behind a couch or otherwise stopping what he's doing to go in his diaper; these are signs that he is well aware of what his body is doing.  Another sign is that he wants to be clean.  You can use his motivation to be clean as incentive.

Second, praise works well when he has success, but rewards are less effective.  For example, say you give him a toy if he goes poopy on the potty, what's his motivation to do it again?  A better idea would be to loan him a new toy for 30 minutes or so when he's done it.  He gets to play with it each time he has success on the potty.

Third, try the one-day or one-weekend method.  Put him in cotton training pants, and tell him his goal is to keep them clean and dry.  If he has an accident or two and feels bad about that, he is ready and you should continue (clean him up and try again.)  If he has an accident and couldn't care less, without making a big deal of it, switch back to diapers and try again another time.

Source:  Ari Brown, MD

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