Help Potty Training with a Girl

My daughter is the same age. I started potty training her actually when she was thirteen months. The reason being is I was expecting and recently had another child, and I knew it would be expensive to have two kids in diapers. She is still not fully potty trained. But she does quite well. I do use pull ups sometimes. She likes being a big girl and wear panties, but it is a hassel to clean if she doesn't make it to the potty. A few tricks I do: I take her when I go. I applaud and make even sitting on the potty fun. I started off by letting her use the potty as just a seat; in front of the T.V., or while I cook in the kitchen she would sit and watch. (lid down) Once she liked just sitting on it, I then tried to have her use it.
Hope this helps.

Your mother and grandmother are correct. I was a full-time student with a full-time job and a single mother when I had my first son. He was successfully potty trained by the time he was 13 months. My circle of friends/associates and I chose to talk to our children instead of the traditional baby/toddler talk, and found this helped us to potty train our children ahead of what is considered the normal time. You don't have to be a stay at home mom, you as the adult have to improve your time management, scheduling and communication with your child. Children do what you expect and accept. If she has a favorite character buy that for her in real underwear and place it over her pull up and tell her not to wet her character and this may work you as well as it worked for me. If she can talk and sing, she should be potty trained.

Hi!

I don't really have tricks for girls! I have a 3 year old son, and I didn't even try to potty train him until I noticed that he was ready. If you try to potty train too early they will just withdraw. My son has been potty trained for six months now. Just watch her, when she starts to show signs of readiness, start slow. Until then, just explain to her what you are doing when you are using the potty. After a couple of weeks she will start to imitate you. They learn by repeatation. Just keep doing it, and don't get frustrated. And, whenever she does start using the potty, whatever you do, never ever get mad if she has an accident. I have a sister that gets mad and her husband gets mad, and they actually punish their child. Needless to say, their 3 year old still wears diapers.

Some children are easier than others, that advice helped me when I started potty training, and I hope it will help you.

Good Luck!

Hey B.,

I have also heard that you shouldn't start potty training until they can vocalize they want to potty or that they have to. I also read they should be making it through most of the night. I have a little boy that is three and he was so hard to potty train so MY LITTLE GIRL I am letting her lead me. I can tell you she turned two in Oct and she says she wants to sit on the potty but she doesn't do anything and I was told when you can be home for a week with your child let them run naked with just a shirt or put them in underwear and tell them it is time to go potty not asking them if they have to go. You really need to be able to stay home pretty much the hole time. Good luck and Wish me luck too.haha A. www.busymomsworkathome.com

all i can say is dont rush it. my 4yr did it on her own pretty much. she was done before she was 3, i let her take interist frist. now i have a 2yr who dont really care right now, i am trying to get her started but i am not going to rush her either, alot of people think she should be but i know she will when she is ready, i have a friend who rushed her daughter and she wet her pants until she was 6. i also have a 2 month old boy and i think that is why she isnt so ready yet. do what you feel is right. you are the mom. i hope i was helpful. jess

First of all I would like to know if you are still using pampers for your daughter or pull ups? Second of all its really different potty training girls than boys. I have 3 older boys and one older girl that will be 18 yrs old. Let me tell you that your mom and grandmother are probably right about your daughter should already be partially potty trained. However I'm unsure about, starting to potty train a girl or a boy if they can make it through the night w/o wetting themselves. I honestly have never heard that. I can only tell you how I potty trained my daughter. I started when she turned 1 year old and at that time I dont even think they had discovered pull ups. I do remember that when I would go to the restroom, she would go with me, and I often told her that she is a big girl now and that she needed to use the potty. In those days I actually held her on the toilet and when she would use the bathroom, I praised her and she would smile so big, and most of the time I kept cloth panties on her with protection of plastic panties they had back in that time. Although her being potty trained didn't happen over night, it happened quicker than me taking her off of the bottle. I simply suggest that you do as you have been doing, take her to the restroom with you when you go, tell her she is getting bigger and simply explain it to her. Everytime you will have to explain it to her, eventually she will use the potty, don't forget to praise her even if she didn't use it, you must reverse her thinking, is the key to get her to use the potty. I hope this information helps, and if you have any questions, I will be glad to try and answer them for you.

N. L.

B.,
I have been in your situation, having a daughter myself, and the way it worked out for me was this...I am a single mom, so my babysitter was helping me with the potty training, but nothing seemed to work..I thought I was going to go insane, and then one day she just went on her own. Alot may have to do as to when she decides the time is right...that was just my situation..just dont get discouraged...

I have 3 boys and 1 girl.its alot easier to train a boy.i tried to rush my little girl into potty training,and from my experience,she will go when she is ready.My last baby is 6 mths,my little girl is almost 3.When i brought my last baby home from the hospital,she decided she was ready for the big seat.she told me no more diapers.and from that day on,shes been going to the bathroom.So i can tell you,just keep trying,and during the day,when you got time at home,put panties on her,she will start to like them,and want to wear them all the time.When she first starts,just take her to the bathroom atleast every 5 min.It worked for me.Out of all 4 of my kids,i never used pull ups.I always trained them with real underwear.I hope this advice was good.

My little girl just turned three and I have been trying to potty train her for what feels like a life time. I tried everything from buying her her a child's toliet seat to buying her own potty and taking her to the bathroom when I went, none of it worked. What I finally did and it seems to work (even though she still has accidents) is I just put her in regular panties and after about a week or so she got the hang of it. I bought a collapasble collapsible potty (that came with a bag and it fits into a diaper bag) which is great because I am always on the go.

I got my daughter a potty chair at about 2 years old because she expressed an interest. She would go in it once a day before bathtime. It was sort of a fun thing for her. But never any other time of day and she didn't seem to know when she had to go until 3 mos. before her 3rd birthday when she told me she had to go for the first time and everything fell into place from there. I figure, all those months at least she was figuring out HOW to do it even though she wasn't ready all the time. There's no set age, but 19 mos. sounds pretty young to me. I also don't think it's necessary to wait till they can stay dry through the night. That takes a long time for some kids. Good luck!

I have 2 little boys but I can tell you that I potty trained them sitting down so the cheerios thing wouldn't have worked for us at that point either. That actually comes a little later. :-) I did want to tell you not to let your family get to you. My mom was constantly at me to potty train my oldest son when he turned 2 but I tried and he cried pittifully at that point until I just gave up. It was not working. I tried again 6 months later and had him fully potty trained in one month. He was just ready at that point. Here are my tips for potty training, they have worked wonders for me twice now so I hope they help you: 1. start out setting a timer and taking your daughter to the potty every 30 minutes. If she goes make a big deal of it and give her a reward. (I used M&Ms for my sons.) If she doesn't set the timer for another 15 minutes and try again but watch her and make sure she doesn't have to go before then. The first day will probably be a little rough but it gets better by the second. 2. Once she gets the hang of going every 30 minutes you can start setting the timer for longer intervals. I added 15 minutes at a time until we got to once an hour and by then my boys were pretty good about letting me know when they had to go. Neither of mine were telling me when they needed to go when I started potty training them but it really didn't take any time at all before they got used to letting me know. Just be glad you don't have to figure out how to teach your daughter to stand to pee. That was definitely a learning experience for all three of me and my boys! :-) Good luck to you and my last piece of advise is just this: Don't worry too much about it because she will get it when she gets it. I can pretty much guarantee that she will know how to use the potty when she's 16! :-)

Hi,

I have two girls, and I used the same method with both of them, which worked beautifully. (You'll have to be ready to change wet underpants for a few days.) I bought some panties with their favorite cartoon character on them. I can't remember who it was for my first girl, but for my second, it was Dora the Explorer. Then, I told her that these were special new panties and I wanted her to try wearing them instead of a diaper, but don't pee-pee on Dora! I think each of them wet their underpants maybe once or twice, but that was it! They started asking to go potty almost immediately. HOWEVER, I don't think I even tried with either of them until they were 2 years old. Don't let your mom and grandmother pressure you. You'll know when it's time, and there's nothing at all wrong with them being older than 2. My oldest was really easy to potty train for the daytime hours but had to wear Pull-Ups to bed until she was almost 3. My youngest trained herself for both day and night almost immediately. Every child is different. P.S. I'm a working mom, too, so I just picked a weekend and went for it (with the pretty panties).

Well, Its been awhile for me since my little girl is 12 now but I do remember that it wasnt untill she was a little over 2 when she started using the potty. She never liked the potty chairs though I went through 3 diff. kinds lol. She wanted me to hold her up over the regular toilet so she could be more like mom. Dont stress! She will be ready in her own time but untill then just keep taking her with you. In my opinion it is a little harder to train girls than boys. Sounds like ur doin a good job so far GOOD LUCK! OH, and making it through the night first, im not a big believer in that since mine wet the bed untill she was 3

Hi B.-
My daughter was completely trained at 18 mths. All it took was putting her in panties. But before then, I would take her to the bathroom every hour and the teachers at daycare did the same thing. From what you've written, it sounds like she isn't even attempting to go, so she may not be ready. But you need to take her on a consistent basis--even when you don't have to go. While she sits, give her a book to look at or you can read to her, sing songs, whatever it takes to keep her sitting (even try the reg. toilet). Eventually, she will go and then praise her. Other than that, there really aren't any "tricks" to potty train little girls! Good Luck!

I agree with the last post...19 months is a bit early for any child. Mine didnt get it until he was a few months away from being three. Fact is, she's not going to do it until she feels ready and all all you need to do is just keep introducing it and keep it consistant.It's frustrating yes, b/c you feel pressure from family members like I did, but like I told them...good for you on pressuring ur child enough to get him/her to go to the bathroom before they can even walk good but it's a fact that pushing them can lead to bed wetting and I wasn't willing to push my son into something he will eventually do naturally. Besides..you think that is would be SOO much better to not have to change or buy diapers right? Granted it is cheaper..unless she uses alot of toilet paper, but with that comes having to stop what ur doing immediately each time ur child has to go (which will be often)..pull their clothes off, put them on the seat, sit and wait, wipe, wash hands, and put the clothes BACK on. You never really get a break till the child is old enough to do the bathroom solo...I can't wait for that day. So I can do it all over again with my 4 month old in a couple of yrs.