HELP With Potty Training

Have you tried the musical potty chair and maybe setting it out in the open and not in the bathroom? This is what I'm doing with my 23 month old and she is responding quite well. I let her wear her panties around the house and the potty chair sits right in plain site so she doesn't forget that it is there. Plus it plays music for her and she loves the reward!!

You have to make her accountable for her actions--she must change out of her wet clothes and clean up by herself. You have got to make this a pain in the rear for her to have accidents, because she will see the reason behind going on her own after she finds out how not fun taking off wet jeans can be. Admittedly, this can make a mess for us, but only for a little while.

My oldest son was like this, ran around in undies for over a week without getting a clue--I gave him one day--ONE DAY--with changing himself, and voila! He was trained. It took him taking off wet JEANS with the undies that made it for him. He had one accident after that, seriously, just one.

Make it a pain for her, she will get the clue.

the main thing I can think of is give it time and don't rush it. This is something she can control and will do it when she is fully ready. Be consistent, if you'e at home and every five minutes she says she has to go, then take her. I know my kids always have to go when we walk anywhere; even if we've been there hundreds of times, they want to "check out" the bathroom. My son was close to 4 before he was 100% trained. Good Luck. (I only made the be consistent comment, becasue I observed a mom a while back who's daughter had to go a lot, but when they actually took her into the bathroom she just sat and didn't do anything, she-the mom- started to whine that she had to take her so much and the child not do anything; I was not trying to be rude, I apologize if it came across that way).

Hi L.,

Well I'm sure what really you should do but here is my advice.
I think you may want to just take a step back and see where she goes with it. Whatever you do "normally" like if she is in a pull up or whatever. I think I would just let her see it for herself, you know she can do it and she knows she can do it but she just needs to see it for herself.

So when you get her up in the morning either put panties on her or a pull up. Let it go from there.
Now this is one option.

Your other option, use up the pull ups and don't let her know you have anymore, only use them at night. So finish out this week and let her know that on Monday we no longer wear pull ups, we only wear panties and go from there.

When she does go give her praise and confidence, even call Daddy and let him know how much of a big girl she is. When she has an accident just say oh well better luck next time. And go on about your day.

You could also say throughout the day, Man I have to go pee, do you ?? And go together.

I don't know if any of this helps you, W.

My daughter refused to potty train until she was almost 4. She didn't care if she was in panties, getting pennies, getting candy, getting toys, nothing. Nothing worked. We KNEW she could and it was a battle of the wills. My sister finally went to Kohls and bought her a full blown Dora outfit *pants, shirt and a cute yellow vest* She told my daughter that if she peed in them or soiled them, then they would disappear and she would never get a new outfit from my sister. It sounds harsh, I know but it was the thing that clicked with my daughter. She LOVES being spoiled by her Aunt and she hasn't had an accidnet since. Day and night.

Now, my son threw me for a loop. He potty trained by himself this summer and he isn't 3 yet. It was totally unexpected but he was ready.

I think the big thing is really tune into your daughter and try to find out if it is a battle of the wills or if she honestly isn't ready. Some kids don't potty train until they are almost 4. Just remember that kids usually will potty train themselves before entering Kindergarton. Now with my nephew, he got interested once his favorite cousin (my son, a whole 2 months & 5 days younger than him) potty trained. My sil chose to wait until after her vacation and he did it in one day. They will let you know, all kids are different. Don't make yourself feel like you are a bad mom because your child isn't on the same timeline as the books say or even other kids in playgroups and preschool. When you feel that way, your child will pick up on it.

Hi L.,

If you know that she is ready then you can try a few things, with my daughter, she wasn't 3 but I realized that she could do it, so one day, I put the diapper bag in the garage and told her: "OH! Mommy forgot to buy diappers! We'll go this afternoon or tomorrow but for now..... this will have to do OK?" I put a princess panty that she liked very much, we had a couple of accidents but that was it! She did ask for diappers....but that was not an option any more because mommy keep forgetting.... or... they did not have any at the store...they did not have her size! It can be messy for a couple of days, but if you stick to it she will soon forget about diappers and learn how to get a clean panty by herself when need it. Let her do that too, put it in the laundry and get a clean one from the drawer.
Offer help but don't do it for her.
I spent a couple of days taking her to the bathroom like every 5 minutes (not kidding!) the first day she did not ask but I took her any way and waited for long periods of time, the second, she keep asking sometimes every second! My back hurted pretty bad after those 2 days, but it was worth it!
Also let her choose the panties that she likes best, if she gets it dirty, she will have to wear an other one so she will try to keep it clean.
And if this doesn't work, don't buy her cute diappers...buy the ugliest you can get (boys kind if possible, you can always say that the store don't have her size) so she can have the choice of wearing those or the panties (get some cute ones of those).
Hope it helps!
Mariana Abadie
www.MyKidsFirst.com

My now 3.5 year old was also hard to potty train. Mostly just with BM's. One thing that helped motivate him was candy. If he used the potty, he got candy. He now uses the potty without expecting candy.

I know a woman that bought a new toy and put it up in the bathroom out of reach. She told her son that if he pooped in the potty, he got that toy. She didn't say anything else. After awhile he used the potty and got the toy. That was all it took. (I tried it, but it didn't work. He used the potty once to get the toy, but not after that.) Good luck.

L.-
I have a 3yr old boy and a 5yr old girl. We went to the dollar store and purchased about 20 little prizes, which we put in the potty basket. Whenever he/she went to the bathroom we would reward them w/ a prize...they would get soooo excited to pick from the potty basket. It worked!! Then once they got the hang of it, we would reward them if they were dry all day or when they went poop. It depended on them and where they were at w/ the potty training. Hopefully this helps. Take Care

J. M

My daughter is 2 and we have been working on potty training since 18 months. Anyways she showed early that she wanted to go. It has taken a long time. It seems like something finally just clicked in her head. What I did was a potty chart and got get stickers to put on it when she went. I also did pullups for a while and asked her periodically when she needed to go.. Then when I felt like she was so close but just needed a nudge. I put her in panties at our house. When she had an accident, I would have her help me clean it up. and say "Oh no, you had an accident, we better get you in some dry pants...Don't worry we will keep trying" The first 2 days in the underwear we had some accidents but... the 3rd day none and now here we are a week later and still none...I hope everything works for you. Just remember to always be positive. Getting upset with my daughter never worked it just made it worse. She is very sensitive.