My 2 1/2 yr old is pottytrained...kind of. She has been wearing panties only for the last 2 months, but she will not go in a public restroom. She has had this fear since she was in diapers. She'll tell me she needs to go, but as soon as we get near the stall she changes her mind. I've tried making her sit on the potty for 5 seconds clothed then 5 seconds w/ pants down to get her more comfortable but it hasn't worked. I've tried bribes, making her sit there until she goes (she squeezed her legs so tight it all goes on the floor), letting her leave w/t trying, watching me go . . . nothing has worked. She screams like I'm killing her. She has her own special foldup potty seat & I cover the autoflush sensor so it won't go off before she is done. I'm at a loss as to what to do. She'll hold it for upwards of 6 hrs. and then go when we get home, but this can't be good for her bladder. I would appreciate any help from anyone else that has encountered this problem. Thanks!
Patience, just start taking her in there everytime you go even if to wash your hands let her get used to the enviorment and it will work.
My little girl was scared of the loudness of the flushing I found out so it is probably the same thing
Hi C.!
I am going through the same thing with my 2 1/2 year old daughter. She just doesnt remember to tell me she has to go she always waits until after she has gone but anyway, I have some friends that has the same problem with the public restrooms and what they did was they had an SUV and they bought a training potty and they left it in the back of their car at all times and when they were in a store they would go to their car and let her go to the bathroom. I know that it seems like a hassle but I thought that throwing the idea around might help you out a little. Good Luck!
K.
Have you tried telling her that you will have to take her home to potty if she can't do it in the public restroom? Obviously, this might work best at one of her favorite places to be (Chuck E. Cheese etc). It's really the truth since you have no choice if she refuses to go in public. It seems like every kid has something in particular that makes potty training difficult. Our daughter would only go #1 in the potty for almost 1 year. She would make us put a diaper on her for #2 or she would hold it forever (which made it worse). Just keep fighting through it and she will outgrow it (easy for me to say). Good Luck!
My son was just like that. Nothing worked. I ended up getting one of those small potty seats at Babies R US and taking it with us everywhere. If he had to go, we went out to our van and he went on his potty.
I am almost through with this phase in my little girl's public potty fear! We have been through all of the dramas you have mentioned! i think what helped was having my mom or friend take her in when she needed to go so there was not the previous history of battles. She would at least go with them on occasion. What really broke the chain was going to Gatti town. We ate and drank LOTS and then I told her that we had to go potty before we went inside the play area and she went! That was the first time she had ever gone in a stall! Usually I could only get her to go (on a good day) if it were a one person potty (no stalls.)
Good luck!
C.,
Your little girl's behavior seems to be very typical. I would suggest taking her into the stall when you use a public restroom so she knows it is safe. If she has the ability to control her bladder, that's fine too. Eventually the more time she spends away from home, the more comfortable she will be with the public restrooms. You could also make a game out of using the public restroom, sing songs etc. "We're going to the potty, going to the potty, going to the potty in the mall". This worked for my little one. At first, he would scream his head off in a public restroom especially with the auto flushers. But now he is a champ. Just give her some time and she will get adjusted to the idea. She is just now realizing that her potty does not belong in a diaper. Good luck!
This is a tough one. You've done a lot of great things and gotten very creative in solving this problem. Do you know what her actual fear is of? I've had kids (I used to be a nanny) who were afraid of the loud flushing and who were afraid of falling in. It sounds like your DD is afraid of both, maybe. I think the first thing to do is to determine her fear. The only things I can think of to try are 1.) making a game out of the 'whoooshing' sound somehow, and 2) trying one of those padded potty seats rather than the fold-up kind. Has the fold-up one ever pinched her? Maybe she'll be better if you let her pick out her own padded seat and explain that it's just for public bathrooms. I suppose if you get desperate, you could rig a homemade potty out of a padded kid's seat and a plastic bag or something that she could use at your car or even let her squat behind some bushes. Not ideal, I know, but, hey, desperate times call for desperate measures and if ya gotta go, ya gotta go! Good luck! That's a tough question.
