Dustin van de Sande is the father of Jasmijn, Sebas and Morris, and potty trained all
three of them from around two and a half. It started with the same uncertainty most parents
have: where to begin, how often, and what to do when it goes wrong.

From the family living room to a box

When friends asked about it and succeeded with the same approach, the idea came to turn
it into something you can hold. With his partner he developed the Potty Training Box,
founded in October 2018 in Oisterwijk, the Netherlands. Inside is the day-by-day programme
that grew up at home, with tracking charts for learning your own child’s timing, instruction
cards, and a reward system that tapers off rather than stopping abruptly.

More than 50,000 boxes have been sold since, in the Netherlands and through the French,
German and British shops. Behind the box is a small team who help parents in the community
seven days a week. No two children are the same, and most parents get stuck on something
specific.

Reviewed by professionals

The method came out of practice, but it did not stay there. The training programme has
been reviewed by a paediatric physiotherapist and pelvic physiotherapist, by urotherapists
at a hospital bladder and bowel clinic, by a physician assistant, and by children’s coach
Yvonne Trommelen of IQuniek.

Where his expertise ends

Dustin is not a doctor and not a childhood development specialist, and does not write as
one. Where health is involved, such as constipation, stool withholding, recurrent urinary
infections or bedwetting past the age of six, the conversation belongs with a GP or health
visitor. Articles on this site point to sources such as the NHS and ERIC, the children’s
bowel and bladder charity, for exactly that reason.

His experience is in the practice of that one week: what works, what you can reasonably
expect, and how to keep going on the day it goes badly.