How Children Normally Achieve Daytime Dryness

During waking hours, children who stay dry can do so because they have learned to read their bodies cue point and made the connection between a full bladder with the potty. In particular when children begin to acquire the ability to sense what their bladder is telling them, that is, an impending release of urine, they initiate the natural process if developing dryness. They concentrate on the coming contraction. A child may stare off into space as he forms a mental concept of the bladder activity. His face and cheeks may turn red while he try's to inhibit the bladder contraction. Usually, when a parent seen a child doing this, the parent initiates toilet training ( or the child may walk to the potty himself). When such natural behavior is supplemented with regular trips to the bathroom, what we called scheduled voiding, a child will begin to stay dry all day. Some other behavior signal a child's readiness for toilet training:

• Dancing On Their Toes. By contracting their pelvic muscle as much as possible, children try to prevent the bladder contraction from expelling the urine.

• Squatting. When children squat and push the heel of one foot into their bottom, the anus or perineum, the heel acts like a cork on the bladder, so it is physically impossible for the bladder contraction to empty the bladder. Some children accomplish this by sitting on the edge of a stool or chair.

• Making An Announcement . Some children will tell their parents, and any one else around, that they are going pee pee in their diapers or training pants. The child's new found awareness of this sensation can be a child's first motivator towards toilet training.

Parents who have leaned to read the external signs of theirs child's internal bodily functions, the contractions of the bladder sphincter and detrusor, can reinforce their child's potty achievement with rewards (such as a praise, hugs, or sticker) children who are more motivated to be dry and who have developed the motor skills to coordinate pottying task (getting to the potty in time, lowering their pants and underpants, urinating, wiping is appropriate, then raising their underwear and pants) are quick to show day time readiness. Still, dryness develops faster for some than others and usually for girls before boys.

There are many natural and artificial obstacles to acquiring day time dryness. Children who drink too much, have small bladder capacity, or have not achieved complete bowel continence, for example, may take longer to develop daytime dryness. Also when parents are inconsistent in rewarding dryness or unresponsive to their child's signals, progress maybe slower than normal.