Potty Training - Erie,PA

I still catch my soon holding himself and have to remind him it's ok to stop what you're doing to use the potty. he has been potty trained since he was two 1/2 now he's 3 1/2. he has accidents occasionally, but it's been a while since the last accident maybe a month or two. he wore pull ups at night until he was a little over 3 yrs old.

HI, My almost 4yo still needs reminding ocasionally. She rarely goes at school, thankfully its only a few hours and she is part camel! lol It takes a while to develop a good habit, and she is still young. The more routine you can be the better. Have specific times she goes, mealtimes, before leaving the house etc. Be patient and excited that after only a few months she is only having a couple of accidents a day!

My son is the same age and we're training too, and I've found that I have to keep an eye on the clock. If it's been 3 hours, I remind him that it's time to go. As long as I do that, he's mostly accident free. I think at this age, they are just so easily distracted that they need some help remembering.

Since my LO is the same age as yours, I don't know when they'll be old enough to do it without reminding! Let me know :)

I have three kids. My oldest, who is now 8 years old, took over a year and a half to potty train and she wasn't fully trained until she was 4. My second child, who is now 3 years old, is currently in the potty training process. I am lucky if I can get him to have successes everyday, let alone more than once a day. I know of a woman who's son was 5 years old before he was fully potty trained.

Everyone progresses at different paces. I think it is way too soon to expect your daughter to be fully potty trained. Just praise her with all the successes she does have and don't make a big deal out of the accidents. She will be potty trained when she is ready for it, not when you want her to.

Good luck.

My daughter was fully potty trained at around 2 weeks before her 3rd birthday. I made it part of our schedule when I started her. I had her try to use the potty as soon as she got up in the morning and before we left our house to go to an activity in the morning. I also had her try to go before nap time and bath time at night. This helped her get used to trying to go. The fact that she is going to the potty at all is great! I also rewarded my daughter with miniature marshmallows or some people use a sticker chart to show the child progress. One day it will all come together for her! Praise her for when she does go! Every kid gets through it but it seems to be at their own time table! Good Luck!

She's doing great!!! I had my daughter trained (pretty much) by 2 and 1/2 half but it was SOOOOO hard, and the accidents phase lasted a pretty long time. It's so exhausting being a slave to someone's potty regime! And the constant laundry. Some say it would have been easier if I waited longer, but my instinct said it wouldn't. She sort of loved our diaper routine. She never showed signs of readiness to potty train, but I knew she was mature enough, and felt I needed to take charge for fear she would get more and more comfortable not being trained, as I've seen in some kids.
We actually got to the point where when we knew she understood, and was capable of using the potty, but she was having constant accidents almost "on purpose". I know you're never supposed to be anything but positive, but it seemed wrong to praise her for the accidents and tell her it was OK after a while, just because she had no reason to try since she got praised no matter what. She no longer cared about her rewards, even though she still got them for going in the potty. We decided to start lightly scolding if she made no effort to make it to the potty in an easy home situation. But before we even did it, it was like she knew the jig was up, and she suddenly totally clicked and went to the potty all the time.
Now she's 3 and I still put her in a diaper for long outings, though she never pees in it, she's gotten used to all the different public potties and always asks to go. I still put her in a diaper at night, but it's usually dry in the morning (unless I sleep in too long and she can't wait!). It's so awesome when they finally get it. Hang in there!!!!

Hang in there! Don't give up - it sounds like you've made a lot of progress. I started potty training my son in August and he turned 3 in October. I basically went cold turkey underwear with him. He still has really good days (no accidents and completely dry underwear all day) and bad days (an accident or two, sometimes even poop) and it's been 5 months. I also have to remind him when he's in a distracting situation or just gets really involved in play at home. I do know that he is slowly getting better - more good days than bad. My sister who has 4 kids always tells me it takes at least 6 months. She also had all her kids completely potty trained by 26 months so I think potty training at 2 1/2 is totally reasonable. Good luck!

It took my son a good 6 months to be potty-trained and that was just for the peeing part! I started him at 3 yrs. old. He is now over 3 1/2 and still will not poop on the potty - I'm going crazy with this part, but try to keep telling myself - he'll do it when he's ready, but it's hard some days. Good luck and be patient!

Hi Lisa,

I am writing to you having "finally" finished the potty training phase with my 4 year old daughter. For the longest time, she would pee in the toilet without much problem (some accidents here and there)but would ONLY have a bm in a diaper. If I didn't give her the diaper, she would hold it for, sometimes, 3 days! Obviously, this was distressing for everyone involved. I was torn about feelings that she was too "old" to not be trained yet, but kept hearing about not pressuring her, etc... She eventually came around and now it's not a problem at all. In our case, it was definitely a case of letting her decide when she was ready to give up the whole power stuggle aspect of it. Or perhaps it was some kind of fear. I kept on reading her potty books and talking about it. Don't worry, even though it's frustrating, you'll both figure it out! Good luck!

I agree with Faith. All kids are different. If she is showing signs of understanding and interest then se may be ready. Reminding her and having her go in the potty hit-and-miss throughout the day isn't really "training" I think it's just "getting lucky"! If she's interested, let her do it. If she's not interested, let it go for a few months. If you fell she is REALLY ready, try no pull ups or diapers except at night and really make the break to all undies, all the time. I think that will speed up the learning curve. Don't worry--you're doing fine. She will not be wearing a pull up to her prom, I promise. Potty Training days are like dog years...they just seem loooooonger than they are! Good luck!

its potty "training". sounds normal to me.
my dd trained earlier but had more accidents.
boys trained later but moved to full potty faster once training started.

I didn't start potty training until 2 1/2, but I know other moms who were successful with younger kids. I just didn't want the hassle until the kids were old enough to figure it out fairly quickly so the training part went quickly.

It sounds to me like she isn't quite ready yet to be fully trained. I wouldn't give up on it, but you will have to be patient and consistent. Praise her efforts, take note of her interest in using the potty. Someone once suggested to me that rather then rely on my kids to tell me when they needed to go to put my kids on the potty at set times during the day to help them learn to expect that they can do their business at those times - upon waking up in the morning, after eating, before naptime, after naptime, etc. Alot of people suggested using pull ups, but to be honest my son knew they were diapers and treated them as such - he would get lazy about using the potty when he was wearing them. I don't know if other moms had the same experience with them. We aren't using them with my daughter. My son was trained by his 4th birthday. It probably took about a year. My daughter is 3 1/2. We just started training her. She was very reluctant as recent as 6 months ago to the point where she would cry and tantrum about using the potty so we put it off until now. She still has her moments (she is going through a phase where she doesn't want to do things for herself such as walk down steps and feed herself), but mostly is willing to give it a try. Good luck to you!