About 80% of parents report having to deal with toilet training setbacks, which means you are in very good company! There are about a million reasons that children who are having great success with toilet training suddenly go totally backwards. Here are a few of the more common reasons for setbacks:

·        Family or home disruption: such as moving, a new baby, divorce, marriage, vacation, houseguests or the holidays.
 
·        Boredom with the toilet training routine.
 
·        Illness or injury of the child or parent that interferes with the usual daily routine for days or weeks.
 
·        Drastic change in routine; such as starting daycare, a sibling going off to school, an at-home parent going off to work.
 
·         The child has mastered toiled training, but then has a number of accidents that erode confidence. Perhaps a particularly embarrassing public episode occurs, or the unthinking comments of a family member or stranger made your child feel inadequate. She may have decided it would be safer if she went back to diapers.
 
·         Your child may have been successful at potty training because you were very successful at reminding him to go at the right times. After a period of success you stopped reminding him, and so accidents begin to happen. 
 

Setbacks are always temporary; otherwise we’d see second graders wearing diapers. So when a setback occurs with your child, simply set yourself back, right along with your child and repeat the actions that were successful for you in the past. For example, if her potty poster was a hit, make a new one. If she was doing perfectly on her potty chair, but a setback occurred soon after the switch to the big toilet, go back to using the little potty. If she responded to two-hour potty reminders begin setting a timer to remind her to visit the bathroom.
 
Tuck your own injured pride away, since this has nothing to do with your job as a teacher nor does it mean your child has failed Potty Training 101. It just means your child is normal. Be patient, be supportive and soon your little one will be back to potty success.