Hi,
My 2 year old recently gave up diapers. About a week ago she realized using the potty is a great delay tactic at bedtime. Every night we put her into bed and then within minutes she says she has to go potty so we pull her out of bed and sit on the potty. Tonight she sat there for 20 minutes without doing anything, but there have been a couple times that she has actually needed to go. I'm not really sure how to curb this behaviour. We can't make a blanket statement about not going potty after bedtime, but she's literally up for over an hour after bedtime every night sitting on the potty. I've told her that lying about using the potty is bad because I won't believe her when does have to go but I don't think she understands. Does anyone have any advice on how to get her to stop this?
I'll let the other moms give you advice about tactics but I just have to say that using the word "lying" about the actions of a 2 year old is a little harsh. I hope you are just using the word as a description and that is not your actual perception of her behavior. She's a little baby, and she's stalling for attention, just like millions of other two year olds do.
E.,
Hopefully you aren’t calling a two year old a “liar”. Two years old is pretty young to be completely out of diapers.
My suggestions:
Set an earlier bed time
She goes potty before bedtime
Gets one time to go potty after she’s in bed
(The five-minute rule from the other mama is a good one)
Use a night diaper or pull ups and tell her no more getting up after the first trip out of bed.
Blessings……
I take my daughter as many times as she asks to go, but I give her a time limit when she's in there. My kid will go within a minute or so if she truly has to so if she doesn't in that time I tell her she has two more minutes to try and then were going back to bed. That way if she didn't go but has to soon after she knows she can get up and try again. If it's just a stall tactic she usually gets bored after a couple of tries. I keep the lights very low in the bathroom, always sit in the same spot and keep talking to a minimum. (I see that you have a baby too, I tell my daughter that we have to be quiet and get right back to bed so we don't wake the baby) There have been a few nights where she's made 4 visits to the potty before giving up but mostly it's just one.
My girls (who are 3 and 6) do this too. It drives me nuts! What we decided to do was to make sure they each go potty right before bedtime. My rule is that if they get up and say they have to go, but then don't go, I will turn off the hall light. (I know, how dumb is that?) For us, that is something they like and somehow I have convinced them that the hall light only gets to stay on if they are very good. I guess for them, just the threat of sleeping in the pitch black is enough! Is there something your daughter similarly values that you could use as leverage (favorite doll can only sleep with her if she stays in bed; or actually goes potty when she gets up)? Good luck, and I hope you find something that works!
My 4 year old daughter would sit on the potty endlessly before bedtime if we let her. I agree that using the potty has to be part of the bedtime routine, she needs to use it before bed every night. And we set a timer for her to sit, usually 5 minutes. When it beeps, times up.
