Another Potty Training Request

Sounds like she as the concept of potty training down. She is not taking the time away to stop what she is doing to go to the potty. Girls are harder to potty train than boys. I would hold her respondsible and when she has an accident get her to change her own clothes. She is old enough to learn how to dress herself or learn. She will learn cause and effect. Children are smarter than you think. My daughter would pull her pants down and go to the bathroom on the floor after her brother was born. She would do this when I was breastfeeding him, she was 2. I evenually made her clean it up and she never did it again. I am 52 an my children are 29, 27, and 21.
Good Luck! Beth Z

My friend Beth, she has 4 kids, swears you should not worry about it at all until the summer after they turn three. That should be this summer. You can give her fiber at the same time each day to help her be regular.

I have boys, it is different I am told. Just don't get stressed out over it.

Together I would make a big poster. On the left side I would cut pictures out of magazines with babies in diapers,
On the right side I would put pictures of girls in panties (she needs to help you find those pictures)I would then discuss with her if she is a baby or a big girl. I would draw a rainbow between the babies and the big girls. Let her pick the color on the rainbow that she wants. Put this in her bathroom at her level. Go together to buy stickers that she likes.(do this before starting to make the poster)Ask her if she could do anything or if you would buy her anything what would she want. Get a picture or draw it where the big girls in panties are. Tell her that everytime she uses the potty SHE can put a sticker on her color of the rainbow. When she gets to the end of the rainbow (using the potty w/ only 1 accident a week) you will buy or do what you both agreed upon.
Another real important part of this is that EVERY accident she has, SHE MUST clean herself up and CLEAN UP THE MESS. You can even give her gloves to clean up the mess. It's very easy to continue to have accidents when someone else will clean you up and the mess. She will not like cleaning herself up. She doesn't want poop on her hands!! This does work....I've done it with kids at school, my own kids, and even a niece of mine. Please let me know how this works.

Here is how our potty boot camp went… First we went to the store for Rivers (my little 3.6 year old boy) to pick out some new and improved underwear (no more pull ups and we put the already bought months ago old underwear away, too).

Then it was off to the grocery aisles to buy anything (and I mean anything) he wanted to eat and drink for the next 3 days. You see the object of potty boot camp is to train the bladder and bowels through the mouth and brain. So we were to spend 3 days with NO television, NO computer and NO telephone while Rivers was awake.

We were on a mission to eat and drink as much as we could, which was double his normal dietary intake and increase the number of urges to release the bowel and bladder. While we focused on eating and drinking we also played together a lot.

Day one: We woke up and had a pull up (diaper) burial (in the trash can). No more pull ups – they all went to pull up heaven. Then we put on those fancy smancy big boy briefs and got busy eating and drinking as much as we could (and believe me he ate like never before because it was mostly the things I don’t allow on a daily basis). On the half hour, I would say let’s take T-Rex (his favorite stuffed animal) and show him how to potty. He loved this. He would show T-Rex every time but sometimes he made T-Rex go first. Important to note: I never asked him if he needed to go potty because you know what the answer would have been? I simply told him what time it was.

Our motto was CLEAN and DRY. Are we clean and dry I would consistently ask? We were focused! We always knew what time it was! He only had one accident but it wasn’t major. All day our focus was on how the food and drink was making us feel – “I am getting full and I think I need to go pee pee, I would say.” When we went pee or poo we would thank God for giving us that pee pee and poo poo to put in the toilet and then sing the “bye bye song” when flushing. By the end of the day, he started to imitate my exaggeration of “feeling” like I had to go. It was a riot. We offered no beverage after 6 pm and in the bed he went at 8:30pm (still wearing big boy underwear). At 11:00pm we picked him up, placed him on the potty to release his bladder (he didn’t even wake up but did release) and then put him back down.

He woke up on day 2 CLEAN and DRY and we celebrated with more good food and drinks. Day two: We only went to the potty on the hour or when he had the urge and continued to eat and drink like crazy. He didn’t really take T-Rex with him to the bathroom anymore and seemed to be holding more for longer. By the end of the day, he was telling us consistently when he had to go pee pee but was still holding the poop.

Day three: It was almost over and I wanted to turn on that television, computer and telephone so bad but I didn’t. We kept going with our plan to focus on what makes us go pee pee and poop – FOOD and DRINK! He was going on his own to the bathroom today with no accidents and no prompting. We continued waking him from his sleep for the next 10 days and then he was completely able to hold his bladder through the night.

Our only problem was the boot camp was over and he still hadn’t pooped in three days. Not good! We called the gastroentronologist (he had problems in this area before) who recommended offering up to 12 tablespoons of benefiber from noon to six and some Miralax to help soften the stool. Like clock work, he woke up each morning after with the urge to poop and poop in the potty he did. We followed this regimine for another 2 weeks and even the poop was going in the potty. Hooray! We are potty trained and loving it!

Television is back on, the phone rings and we answer it, the computer is open again. We learned as a family to do different to have different. We learned (as we already innately knew) that you can’t learn a new skill without focus and attention and lots of repetitive practice. So there you have it… potty trained in 3 days after 14 months of potty wars. It was all about him figuring out in his own toddler way, how the body processes our food and what feelings we get from that – so easy! Yeah, right!

Hey A.!
Good news, you are not alone! My daughter was the exact same at that age. I finally just made a "routine" of not asking her if she has to go potty, we just started going every hour on the hour that we were home then slowly it staggered to be hour and half, by this poin though, she began tellin me she had go on her own BEFORE I asked, such independence! And my daughter also regressed with the pooping as well... but in all honesty, this every hour "telling her it's time to sit on the potty" helped TREMENDOUSLY! Good luck!!

The way i potty trained both of my girls was to take a weekend where you have nothing planned, start on Friday afternoon no panties no pull-up. First we started off by letting them sitting on the potty watching there favorite show. Then the next day start the morning out on the potty. I put panties on my three year old about noon finally, and just kept telling her "it time to go sit on the potty for a minute" By Monday she was potty trained. It also helped with my 3yr old to have her big sister wearing panties. She wanted to be a big girl to. Some children (girls I've learned) it takes longer, don't feel like you have to rush it. Our doctor has told us that when there ready the will go. One other sugestion I have is one step ahead offers a pull up type panties that worked great before we could get to that weekend. They work just like a pull-up but feel like panties. Hang in there it always works itself out.

Check out the book "Toilet Training in less than a day". Their approach worked beautifully with all five of my little ones.

Best wishes!

A.,

I had the same thing with my son. I read some where, and it worked for me, I made my son sit on the potty until he pooped. By now, you've probably noticed the routine of when she goes no.2. So, when you know it's time, sit her on the potty until she goes. And if she cries, make her sit there. My son whined too. He used my toilet in my bathroom. And while he did it I cleaned the bathroom so I was still right there. I didn't leave the room. But after he went, he was so happy. And he went all the time after that. Keep in mind, you may have to go thru the same thing at Grandma's. I had that problem. My son hadn't gone no. 2 at Grandma's yet so he was a little unsure. But, again, after he went, it was great!

P.S. If you don't have a bathroom to clean and chat with your daughter at the same time, maybe you could read a book to her or something.

I hope that helps.

Good luck,
L. R.

Trying rewarding her everytime she uses the potty and with something she likes. Just keep trying

Maybe instead of asking her if she has to go, just tell her, "Ok, it's time to go potty!" Then it puts you in the authoritative position instead of her. Not sure if that changes much, but then you're not giving her an option - it's just time to go and that's that.

Hi A.,

I was just looking up some medical questions that I had and found a site by a Dr. that had some info on your topic. Check it out. www.askdrwarren.com

Stop asking her and start telling her when to go. Have her go every hour or hour and a half between when she does go. If you send her in and she doesn't go then send her back every 15 mins till she does. I used to ask my daughter and then 5 mins later she would pee herself. Why? Because it is more fun to keep doing what she was doing than to take the 5 mins to go to the bathroom. Go buy a timer if you needed to help you keep the pace too.

Good luck!
~S.