Hi

I need some help from the experts on here. I am trying to potty train my 2 1/2 year old dd. Some days she is really into it and will tell me when she needs to go (especially if she needs to poop). But other days I can't drag her to it and I've read that you're not supposed to force them if they don't want to. We'll read a book while she is on the potty; she'll bring me one and say "I need to potty, let's read this," but then turn around and go in her pull-up and immediately tell me it's too late to go to the potty. I need some ideas to get her to go more consistently. She wants to take a dance class where they have to be potty trained, but even that doesn't completely work. When I mention it to get her to potty, she'll just say she is potty trained. Maybe that's how they do it, they start pottying some, and work their way up to all the time?! I have never done this before, so any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Tammy

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tamster

I have done this four times. Make it fun for her. You can try a sticker chart. Make a chart and let her put a sticker on every time she makes it to the potty. After so many stickers give her a small reward. If that doesn't work buy her one package of Big Girl panties with something on it she likes. (Not sure what littles girls like now my girls are teenagers.) Let her try them on and tell her when she goes to the potty all the time and becomes a big girl she can have them. I had two boys and two girls, child #1(boy) did not want anything to do with the potty and was all most four when he was potty trained. Child #2 (girl) potty trained her self at eighteen months, I got lucky. Child #3 (girl) She was hard to potty train all most three and a half when we finished. Child #4 (boy) potty train around two and a half. Each child was diffrent. Never force them because this a battle you will lose. Try and make it fun for her and she will be potty trained before you know it. Also with child #3 I used a video called It's Potty Time put out by UNC at Chaple Hill NC, it helped alot. The video used songs to help them learn to potty train. Hope this helps some.
Good Luck..

Hi Tammy! First of all hang in there, it's not forever! I found with my two kids, one boy ,one girl, that it all had to come from them...no pun intended! Your job is to provide a potty chair that they can get to on their own, britches that they can get up and down, and an insane ampount of excitment when they go! You can mention it once in a while during the day but aside from that I'd leave her alone about it...my kids started using the potty one day and never looked back, because they were ready. I will tell you that my son wore pull-ups to bed at night until he was 5 b/c he just slept that hard and the nerve that needs to be developed to wake them just wasn't ready yet...my daughter was trained day and night from the start.
Does she wear "real" underpants when your at home? sometimes the discomfort and ickyness of peed pants will motivate them. I think pull ups are too much like diapers...relax no one starts kindergarten in diapers...hope I don't get slamed for that last comment!!

Throw out the Pullups!!!

That really is the best advice, even though I mean use them for nighttime ONLY, don't even let her SEE them! Believe me she will learn fast after it runs down her leg or she is soaked, especially a girl, they hate that! A Pullup doesn't allow that to happen, it's a diaper just packaged differently.

You can buy plastic pants to go over the regular undies, which is what I did to prevent pee on my floor and couch.

Bring her to Walmart and let her pick out new cool undies and get some of the plastic underwear. Go home and let her see you throw out the pullups (put them in the trash outside so she doesn't think she can just get them out.) and tell her that's it, no more diapers.


My daughter wanted to go to school too and I never throught she'd be ready after trying to train DS, but DD was trained and could hold it after only a week, she was so easy!

Good luck!

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"Throw out the Pullups!!!"

I agree with this whole heartedly!!! Throw them out! That's the best advise ever! Just go straight on panties, pick some out that she LOVES like princesses or dora or something. Then while you are out and about picking up the panties, stock up on liquids that she LOVES. Chocolate milk, juice, even popcicles would work. And just let her gorge herself with it, even push it, "Sweetie, have some more choco milk!!!" Then stay home for a week, and live in the bathroom. That's what my aunt did with all 7 of hers and she swears by it. My dd didn't get potty trained until 3 months before she turned 3. I tried during the summer, but she wasn't ready, and she's HEADSTRONG anyway, so it was just a battle, then came the holidays, so I waited until right after Christmas, and it took like three weeks before she would tell me she had to go, but once she did she was potty trained completely!

"Throw out the Pullups AND the diapers!" (just adding that, hee hee!)

They feel too dry... Don't wait too long. You are smart to start now. Don't worry. It will happen. Not many 20 year olds are still in diapers. Someone told me that when I was potty training and it really did put things in perspective.

Our biggest friend was the Going To The Potty Book and Video. (The one that is a red cover.)
My daughter used pull ups and they worked for us.
We also had alot of trips to the store to pick up "panties".
Keep inmind this was many moons ago but she LOVED to wear her Bugs Life panties.
It took time and when she was ready she used the potty.
ALSO, it might not even be your child not wanting to go but her body. Many children actually grow into their bladders. (Our Ped. told us this.)
Stickers were our best friend as well.
(Potty and at medicine time.)
This to shall pass so as a mom of a 12 year old ENJOY IT!!

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I never used pull ups, to much like diapers. I did used those plastic pants you put over trainning pants when we were going to be gone for a while and at night with DS for a while. DD went straight from diapers to regular underwear with no plastic pants.

DS went one step forward and two steps back a few times. But I just had DD when he was starting so he went back to diapers again. Then he was just getting back into it and we moved half way across the country. Then we started calling the diapers baby diapers and he decided he was a big boy and didn't want baby diapers. We made a big deal out of it each time he went in the potty. He had a few accidents at night but not very many.

For DD we let het pick out big girl underwear. She wore them and would take them off and bring you a diaper to put on her when she had to go. It got to the point she'd even bring the wipes too if she had to poop and was always dry when she woke up. So I told her the store wouldn't let me buy diaper anymore because she was a big girl and they needed the diapers for the babies. I stashed a few diapers just incase and then started letting her know how many diapers were left. I timed it so there was only one left for that night. When she woke up the next day and she took her diaper off I reminded her it was the last one and she threw it away anyway (it was still dry). We spent the day in and out of the bathroom, made atleast a couple dozen trips because she said she had to go, then would want up without going. You could tell she had to go but wouldn't go in the potty (she had gone in the potty a couple times the week before). In the afternoon she pooped (how she could poop and not pee I don't know). I was dancing and singing around the house with her about how she pooped in the potty, and even called grandma. It wasn't until early evening that she finally went pee in the potty. Again, singing and dancing and another call to Grandma. She wents months without an accident after that. And only had a couple since (got to busy playing and didn't make it all the way to the bathroom).

All good advice from above but also when taking out the child to a store make sure you know where every bathroom is!! Even if they went BEFORE you left they will have to go in a store.

Don't be afraid to ask in the stores to use theirs. Remember all GAP's have bathrooms and let you use them! You can walk into the movies and use theirs(usually not very clean!). Fastfood places you can do the same. I like Nordstroms bathrooms. You have 3 children you get to know where to pee!

Great advise. Nothing like being out shopping and them telling you they have to potty and you can't find one. Even the stores that don't have public bathrooms (most) will let you use them if it's for a little kid. Just tell them you're potty trainning when you ask.

How did she do this? My DD is 19 mo. and takes her diaper off as soon as she pees. Both my boys waited until they were 3 to potty train but they never did anything like this.

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I put my daughter in panties and threw away the pull ups (except at night) as soon as she seemed ready. Her day care provider used some phrases that really seemed to make sense to a 2 year old. She would tell her to "listen to your body" and "put your pee in the potty". It seems like kids need very specific instructions.
Good luck.

I agree with getting rid of the Pull Ups. Even the 'feel & learn' ones keep your child too dry. If they are truelly ready to be potty trained, a few accidents where they get soaking wet will be all it takes to get them trained full-time. Also, be consistant -- don't go back to the Pull-Ups just because you're tired of cleaning up the mess. It may take a week or two, but they will get the idea and it will be worth it.

My DS#1 was 3 1/2 and trained in a weekend. He was the last child in his preschool class to potty train. I asked his teacher (already knowing the answer), while he could hear me, if he was the last one in diapers. The next day he said he was going to be potty trained. DH & I were like, 'Yeah, right", but we decided to take a chance. One accident was all it took for him to figure it out. He had hardly any accidents after that.

DS#2 is 3 1/2 and potty trained right after he turned 3 in May of last year. He had to be potty trained to go to day camp during the summer, so that was a huge incentive for him. He still has issues at home -- he'll be playing and not make it to the bathroom on-time, but only at thome. He has never had an accident at school or anywhere else, except at home. When he does have an accident, I make him clean up the mess and change his clothes on his own -- sometimes he'll clean-up and change without me even knowning he's had an accident (until I see him in a different outfit).

Sarah.......mom to Jason & Devin

I agree with the above, NO PULLUPS. I trained my dd at 18 months and never put a pullup on her again, not even at night. My second daughter I put pullups on and she would wake up stinky and drenched, so I finally decided that it was enough and she actually would get up in the middle of the night and go to the bathroom by herself(she was 2 1/2 when pottytrained but 3 when we took away the pullups).

I agree with this whole heartedly, Just go straight on panties. I did rewards for my middle child. Lots of encouragment- spend a good week trainer her. Ask if she has to go almost every hour. Good luck! Also, if she is really not tottally interested- then you might need to wait a week or so and try again, especially if you are getting frustrated.

I agree with getting rid of the pull-ups, too but I just wanted to add something that worked for ds. I would tell him every 60-90 minutes that it was time to go to the bathroom. I would take him and sit him on the toilet and he would almost always go. I didn't wait for him to tell me he had to go. At first, he really fought me until he realized that I wasn't giving in. I wasn't mean about it but I was serious. After about two days of this, he started telling me when he needed to go. He only had a few accidents and once I set my mind to get this done, it wasn't difficult. The most important thing for me was being consistent. I think I was being really lazy about training him before and he just wasn't getting it on his own. When I finally committed myself to the process, it worked. BTW, he had just turned 3 when we did this.

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Thanks so much for all your help, everyone! I have been doing some of the suggestions. I think the biggest part of it will just be when she gets the mindset to just do it. I have heard from several people that their children just made up their minds one day to do it and they never looked back. I think that's half the battle. She is very smart (of course I think so) and once she makes up her mind to do it, then it will be done. It's just a matter of her stubborn little self doing it! Thanks again for all the ideas, if anyone has anymore, feel free to post them.

Tammy

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I think the one who has to decide is you.

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We have 2 bathrooms in our house so we always played a game about getting to choose which potty to go potty on. I would say, "Let's go potty, do you want to potty on the blue potty or the pink potty?" It was fun for them to do the choosing and then they would be excited to use the one that they chose.

With my dd we tried the little potty in the bathroom and she was just not really interested. Then on her 3rd birthday (the actual day) I picked her up from pre-school and gave her a gymboree bag - no frills - with panties in it (they were the only place at the time to get small enough panties for my "runt") and told her she was 3 and got to wear panties now....then that was it....I had some of those plastic panty covers that we put on her a night but she didn't need them. I NEVER even tried the pull-ups. Good luck.....now our trouble is getting her to remember to wipe....we are using stickers and a reward for that.