Stages of Toilet Training

Which do children accomplish first: urinating into the potty or having a bowel movement into it?

It depends on your child. Since it is easier for most children at first to urinate into a potty than to have a bowel movement into it, some children experience their first toilet-training successes when urinating.

But since it is harder to delay urination, a child may take longer to urinate into the potty consistently. For this reason, most children become fully bowel-trained first even though they have been urinating into a potty—inconsistently—for a longer period of time.

In general, it’s best to encourage your child to go to the potty when he feels the need for either form of elimination, but not to expect him to achieve success at the same time in each area.