Help - Las Vegas,NV

Hi J.,

I'd suggest using a timer, like the one on your oven. Set it for every 45 minutes or so. Let her know that when the timer goes off, she needs to stop what she is doing and go potty. The timer is a good tool because it takes the focus off of you and you are no longer the 'bad guy' stopping her fun. Rather, it's the timer's decision. Once she gets in the routine, you can push the time out to 1.5 hrs, etc and eventually drop it all together. Good luck!

Hi J.. I haven't used these but I've heard excellent things about them from other mothers. You know those newish trainging pants they have that turn cold when the kid pee pees a little? Maybe you could try those. There are all kinds of training pants out there, made for just this reason. Good luck and Best Wishes, T.

I did potty trainning was I was a preschool teacher.We would take them to the bathroom every 30min and have them sit on the potty, even if we were outside playing.

bribe her with treats, an M&M each time she goes. It really works

hi J., my daughter is 3 also and she went to the potty very well except when she was busy on the computer or tv or playing with friends she would get distracted and forget, i think the only thing you can do is to keep asking and reminding, make sure she goes before she gets busy, or just let her learn how to feel in her body and not make a big deal out of accidents. it just takes time! it was all the sudden over night after so long of accidents that she just out of the blue stopped having them and even waking up at night to go pee. i think also make a big deal out of when she does go......hope this helps

I think it's really important that you not cloud and color it all with pressure and tension. That is, you don't want to make toiletting a situation where she has somethign to push back against. It doesn't sound like she is resisting, just forgetting when she's very involved in something. That's completely normal!

I wonder if she also perceives the accidents to be a problem -- that is, is she upset when she does have an accident? If so, you can use that as your starting point -- "I'm here to help you not have these accidents. And here's the plan: before you start do something that you especially love, we need to try on the potty, and then every 30 minutes I'll come and remind you to check in with your body and see if you feel the peepee." Use language that's authentic to you but the idea is that you SHARE the responsibility -- you're there to help her dial in and notice her body, you're going to support her by giving her reminders, but you're also going to trust her if she checks in and says she doesn't need to go -- it sounds like she knows the cues when she's not absorbed in some activity or TV show.

If she's not disturbed at all by the accidents, then that approach might work less well because she doesn't share your motivation. You might need to set it all up differently.

I think it's important to reason with her and explain what's going on, so that when she's asked to try or to check in about her body she will already have had a "heads up." It's easier for her to cooperate if she's prepped.