pottytraininggame
Free · 5 minutes · no sign-up

Is your child ready for the potty?

Potty training is not about age and not about method. It is about whether the body is ready — and you are the one who can see that, not the calendar.

The house from the game in cross-section: bedroom and bathroom
The character from the game with a window on the tummy
24questions you answerYour child is not being tested. We ask what you see at home.
4areasBody, understanding, movement, interest. Readiness is not a switch, it comes in layers.
1decision, and it is yoursThe check only gives you an overview of how ready your child is for potty training as of today — or not yet.
I am not a paediatrician or a child psychologist. If your child has painful poos, holds stool back or is genuinely frightened, that belongs with your paediatrician, not in a quiz. What I can show you is what to watch for. The questions are built on readiness signs from the AAP and the NHS, on the Montessori approach and on years spent in a Dutch preschool classroom. The band thresholds are ours, not from a published study — nobody has validated them. We say so openly, because elsewhere this gets left out.

Potty training: common questions

When should you start potty training?

It is not about age but about whether your child is ready for potty training. Most children mature somewhere between 18 and 36 months, and while potty training at two may suit one child, another is not ready yet. What matters is whether your child can already hold wee for a little while and also notices that they need to go. Those are exactly the readiness signs the check above looks at.

What are the signs a child is ready for potty training?

There are several readiness signs and they fall into four areas: the body (stays dry, notices being wet), understanding (follows an instruction, can interrupt play), movement (gets to the potty, pulls trousers down) and interest (wants to sit on the potty, dislikes the nappy). One sign is not enough — readiness comes in layers, it is not a switch.

Which potty training method is best?

The usual offers are three-day intensive training, the Montessori approach, child-led training (Brazelton), Azrin and Foxx, or elimination communication from birth. None of them has strong evidence over the others. Pick whichever suits you — but no method speeds up how the body matures.

When does night-time potty training happen?

Night is a completely different thing from day and comes later, often by a year or more. It depends on a hormone that reduces urine production overnight, and that matures on its own. A dry night cannot be trained, it comes by itself. When your child is older, you can gently encourage them. And it is not considered a problem until school age.

Potty training is not working — what now?

When it does not work, it is usually not defiance and not your mistake. Three causes are the most common: the body has not matured yet, the child has painful or hard poos, or something big is happening at home (moving, a new baby, starting nursery). The first needs time, the second a doctor, the third calm.