Girls are usually easier than boys to toilet train. With all the boys and girls I have ever known, this has been the case. I don??™t think there is any research that actually explains why this is the case. It is also reported that fewer girls wet the bed. Actually and this is absolute truth, my daughter just one day started sitting on the potty chair and potty training was over for the both of us. She continued to use that potty chair until she was able to use the bathroom.

Some of the main signs you can watch for whether you have a boy or girl are:

??? Being able to wait several hours before urinating. When urination occurs, the child empties the bladder instead of only a small amount at a time.

??? The child knows the words that your family uses in connection with going to the bathroom or restroom, such as ???pee??? and ???poop.???

??? The child can get on and off of the toilet or the potty chair by themselves and can raise and lower pants unassisted

??? The child generally understands and follows your verbal instructions. If your child typically does not follow your instructions, you should probably make this your step one before proceeding to toilet training.

Sometimes constipation can cause a complication while toilet training a toddler. Avoid using laxatives or stool softeners unless directed by your physician to do so. Try fiber-rich foods such as whole-grain breads, broccoli, and cereal to keep the stools easy to pass.

A good rule to follow is that children should eat enough grams of fiber to equal their age plus five. This would mean a 4-year-old needs 9 grams of fiber each day. Try to distribute the fiber equally among all three meals. Be sure your toddler is getting adequate fluids that include water, diluted fruit juices and prune juice. Do not give your child too many dairy products.

Another trick you can try is to give your toddler a teaspoonful of pure honey each morning to help soften the stools if modifying the diet is not enough. Honey is a mild natural laxative. Do not give honey to a baby younger than one year of age. Babies are at risk of getting botulism.

If your toddler is still constipated consult with your child??™s pediatrician.

Once you have your toddler??™s constipation problems under control resume toilet training. It may take weeks or months for your toddler to forget about the painful bowel movements enough to try poop on the potty chair. You can start with encouraging your toddler to sit on the potty chair or toilet. Once he or she poops on the potty successfully a few times, he or she should be well on their way to being toilet trained.

There is no certain or magic age at which a child is ready to start learning how to use the potty. The majority of children have developed the necessary physical and cognitive skills between 18 and 24 months of age. Some children are not interested in potty training until they are closer to 3 or even 4.

Keep in mind that starting a child on toilet training before the child is ready does not mean you will finish sooner. It is more likely the process will end up taking longer. Review the checklist below to determine your toddler??™s progress toward readiness for toilet training:

??? Physical signs include: Coordination enough to walk, and run steadily; urinates a fair amount at one time; has regular, well-formed bowel movements at relatively predictable times; has dry periods of at least three or four hours;

??? Behavioral signs include: Can sit down quietly in one position for two to five minutes; can pull his pants up and down; dislikes the feelings of wearing wet or dirty diaper; shows interest in other??™s bathroom habits or wants to wear underwear instead of diapers; gives a physical or verbal sign when he or she is having a bowel movement such as grunting, squatting or tells you; demonstrates a desire for independence; takes pride in his accomplishments; is not resistant to learning to use the toilet; is generally cooperative, not negative or contrary to your instructions;

??? Cognitive signs include: Can follow simple instructions like ???go get your coat or hat;??? understands the value of putting things where they belong; has words for urine and stool; understands physical signals that mean he or she has to go or can tell you before it happens or hold it until he or she is able to get to the potty.

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If there’s one thing that every parent has had to learn the hard way, through experience, it is this - that parents are always wrong. Whatever we choose to do as parents, a friends’ parents are doing differently, or whatever we think is good advice to follow today, was scrapped by everyone else yesterday. Being a parent is hard work, and after all those childhood years resenting our own parents and vowing that we would do things so much better if only given the chance, we are now well aware that we are the very parents that we vowed we’d try not to be as children. It might well be the case that we’re not making the same mistakes as our parents, but we’re excellent at making whole rafts of new ones to make life interesting for ourselves and our children.

One aspect in particular which has worried parents today, and which was not an issue back in the days when we were children, is the advent and proliferation of computers and other technologies which allow our children to meet, interact and communicate online with people from all over the world, and to spend hours glued to a screen focussing entirely on moving bunches of pixels from one place to another in a desperate attempt to do strange things like finish the ‘Quest of The j’Graa Goblet’ or seek out Lord Krakticka to pwn him with the rest of the guildies. If this means nothing to you, then join the club - it’s a big club, with a growing number of members.

Parents aren’t idiots - we’re most of us quite capable of working a computer, typing up a letter, creating a graph and sending off some emails, but computers seem to have a whole other world built in to them that leaves many of our generation reeling at the prospect. For those of us who shred our telephone and gas bills before binning them, and always ask to see the identity card of the man standing at our doorstep wanting to read our meter, the idea of happily posting your most intimate details on a worldwide system for the entire world to see and do what they like with is awful. Whilst having friends all over the world sounds appealing, having friends we have never met and are never likely to challenges our understanding of what friends are. Just because you hang out in Doom Forest killing dwarves from the opposite faction each evening doesn’t, in our traditional book, constitute a friendship.

Naturally, with so many news stories about the terrible things that happen as a result of the internet, with people masquerading as children in an attempt to lure them into meeting up in the real world, and then never seen again. If you have considered the idea of simply binning the computer and saving a lot of trouble, you certainly wouldn’t be the first parent, or the only one to have such concerns.

Of course, the truth is that computers, and the internet, are no more dangerous than any other aspect of our lives. Yes, we could easily get knocked down and killed crossing the road, a tree might fall over and crush us, or we might go on holiday and get killed by a falling coconut, but we stand more chance of being killed in any of these ways than of any harm coming to us using a computer or the internet. It’s simply a matter of common sense. After all, crossing the road is a fairly straightforward and relatively safe procedure, but lying down in the middle of the motorway is clearly being ludicrously cavalier with our safety. Similarly, using the internet safely is fine, but there are stupid things that we, or our children, can do which we need to be aware of.

What are the dangers or risks involved in using the internet, or computers, and exactly what can we as parents do to try to ensure that our children can enjoy using this amazing resource, whilst at the same time staying as safe as possible? The key to safety is understanding - whatever it is you’re doing. Whether it’s driving on the motorway, parachuting or flying to the moon, the more you understand the risks, the less risk you’ll be taking. By understanding what it is that your children are doing, and knowing what they mean by avatars, profiles, chat rooms, messenger programs and online games, you will be able to share your child’s experiences much more, and help them to use the internet more safely. The more we can work with our children to encourage them to use the technology in a positive way, but understanding the dangers and risks, the more chance we have of helping to ensure their safety, enabling them to decide themselves on the level of risk.

We are familiar with teaching our children about the dangers of the streets, and they are well aware of the risks associated with strangers. They know not to open the door to strangers, not to talk to strangers, not to accept lifts from strangers, and to simply run away and report anything suspicious. But on the internet, strangers can have names, faces, profiles, histories, and the advantage of distance. The problem is, of course, that our children don’t see a stranger, when they are looking at a profile of someone they’re enjoying chatting to. The fact that the photo of a child their own age, with a name, a school, hobbies and family, could all be fictitious is ignored. It is so easy for people to hide behind fake profiles, and thereby lull children into revealing just enough information to identify them.

A cursory look through the internet, or the shelves of your local computer retailer, you’ll see hundreds of so-called solutions. These typically lock down your computer, creating barriers and firewall, monitoring the use of the computer, logging and recording everything that takes place, and generally creating a regime of fear on the computer. But since this only generates either resentment, or curiosity within our children, the best solution really is to communicate with them. We taught them about the dangers of strangers, crossing the road, and real life - why not extend those skills to the virtual world? By having the computer somewhere visible, rather than hidden away in their bedroom, you will have a chance to see what they’re doing, talk to them about it, ask questions, and help to inform them so that they can make the decisions about the risks they take themselves. We can’t lock our children away in a safe room somewhere - but we can help to arm them with the tools they need to stay safe in the 21st century.

Source: Children