Fear of New Situations

Learning how to manage anxiety and to become comfortable with the toileting process is important for both you and your child. Learning this new toileting skill may be a long process for you and your child. Being fearful of change is a normal human feeling. Being able to manage the inevitable fears and anxieties is part of successful toilet training.

Strategies that may help reduce your child’s anxieties include:

• Visuals to help with understanding and predictability
• Positive practice – For more information see Part 21: Handling Accidents
• Break down sequence into more specific steps. For example, if your child is afraid of just going into the bathroom, you may need to look at each of the steps of toileting and desensitize your child to one or more of them.
• To address more specific fears, see Part 25: Troubleshooting Toilet Training