3 Yr Old Having Accidents

When my 3 year old does this we go back to basics. I pull out the timer and we get out the pull ups. As emotionless as possible I just clean him up and we go back to what we were doing. Then I set the timer for 20 minutes and when it goes off we go to the bathroom. If he fought me we didn't go but I kept asking if he wanted to go.

After a day or two he would be back to going on his own.

We've had the same problems with my 3 1/2 y/o son. We resorted to no underpants or pants on during any time in the house. Every hour, I put him on the potty, whether he says he "needs to" or not. Generally, there'll be something there! And we go before we leave the house to go anywhere, and when we arrive (even if it's a store), we'll go again.

I think that keeping him "on task" about potty training (i.e. making him go every hour) is beginning to train him again. He has been accident free for 3 days now. We reward him ONCE a day for poops on the potty - he gets one gumball (it used to be M&M's but that got out of control). He looks forward to his gumball daily. Will be weaning him off that soon.

Patience is the biggest thing...for the moms. I have very little, and I learned the hard way that if I don't have patience, he has more accidents.

Since she already knows what to do maybe some kind of pushiment like taking a toy away when she has an "accident". I potty trained my nephew and that was the only thing that seemed to work for him. What about going back to the schedule you had a your mother's house. It is the change that has her going back. Of course when she goes praise her so she feels really good.

Children are like little barometers that respond to the varying pressures and "atmostphere" in our lives. There has been a big change in her little world...going from living with Grandma for 3 months to being back home again. Dont let this become a "power struggle" because I can tell you SHE will win....she is the one with control here...so dont make it about her mistakes...praise her when she goes to the bathroom...even if she is a "little late"...praise the effort. Give her all the positive reinforcement you can muster and be patient. Also...look at the rest of her life...is there anything causing concern or pressure...no physical problems??
Good luck!!
RuthAnn

I would start giving her rewards for going to the potty. We use stickers at our house. My daughter turned three in June and we are still working on it, but she is doing great. To get her to start using the potty I made up a Potty Chart which was just grid lines on paper and hung it on the fridge. Everytime she would go pee she got one sticker on her chart and for every poop in the big potty she got two stickers. After a row was filled up which was 10 stickers we would go to the dollar store and she could get any toy she wanted. This really helped her get in the habit. It lasted for a few months but now she just goes on her own without any rewards. We also bought a potty seat that screws on where the big seat is and you just lift it up for big people to use the potty. It is made by Safety 1st and we got it at Babies R Us. This has helped a lot too because she can do it herself. We put a stool in the bathroom so when she is ready she gets her stool and puts her seat down and is able to go all by herself. We praise her a lot!! Also, there is a book we bought when she was 2 1/2 just to get her used to the idea. It is called My Big Girl Potty by Joanna Cole and Maxie Chambliss. It is a wonderful book to help teach them. I hope this helps you.

I had to stop using pullups at night to get my daughter to stop having accidents during the day. To her I guess it was too much like a diaper and made her regress. I bought two large bed pads cotton on both sides with plastic in the middle that you wash if they have an accident and a plastic cover for the mattress just in case. It helped.