I potty trained my first daughter right at the age of 2. She had lots of accidents at first but was always willing to sit on the potty and go 1 or 2. It just took her a while to get down the ability to "hold it" for long periods of time. Anyways so now I'm trying to potty train my 2nd daughter who just turned 2 in January. And I'm running into a little trouble. We just started on Saturday so it's only the 3rd day but this is her thing. She will sit on the potty chair or the real toilet no problem....whenever I ask her to but she won't go. She will hold it forever! Last night she kept saying she had to poop and pee so I kept putting her on the potty but then she would not go. She started doing that potty dance.....like crossing her legs and stuff so I sat her on the potty and read her books until finally she peed and pooped. I made a huge deal about it and she even started jumping around saying "I did it!" Now today we are back to square one. She hasn't peed in the potty all day and had only peed once when she peed her pants. She comes and tells me right way when she pees but I think she's still kinda scared to pee in the potty and that's why she holds it for so long. So should I stop? I feel that she has good control to hold if for so long so if I can just get her over being scared she would be potty trained in no time. Or do you think I need to back off?
Well like my first daughter I think she will be fully potty trained pretty darn soon. The past 2 days she has only had 4 accidents (2 on Sunday and 2 on Monday) and she has peed in the potty. Like I said when she has to go she comes up and tells me she needs to before she has gone and just starts to cross her legs and stuff. Once I help her on the potty chair she goes but I can tell it concerns her a little. Like she still is a little scared of it. But she doesn't like peeing in her underwear and she is getting it. I think it will just take some time before she is really ok with the potty. I bought her a potty dvd last night and I might get a potty book today just to help her not be worried. But I'm really proud of her. Thanks to you ladies who told me not to give up after such a short amount of time. You were right.....she is getting it! Yeah!
She was excited about it right? Well she just might need to remember her excitement about the potty. I say keep going and she'll eventually get it.
I would bribe her with a big bowl filled with fun candy and toys from the dollar store. Let her dig through it and see everything, then keep it in her line of sight but out of reach. She can have one pick each time she uses the toilet. Worked with my son like a charm.
I also use the book called "Potty Training in a Day". With the technique and a few adjustments for personality, I potty trained three of my four kids in one day (one of them in a half day). They never had an accident, even at night.
Good luck!
Yaaaayyy, she did it!! :) Your doing a great job so far. Have you ever thought of maybe running the water in the sink well she's on the potty? That might work. Good luck. :)
I would not put too much emphasis on it. When you are home you can
remind her and if she goes great, if she doesnot, well maybe next time.
She is still young. Not worth getting into a battle.
She is just not ready, you are trying too young. I did the same thing with my first daughter, I started WAY too early and we dealt with many accidents for years. With my second I was more laid back, I didn't care if she potty trained at 2 or 3 or even 3.5! At 2.5 she told me she wanted to be a big girl and go in the pottty like her sister so we started potty training and it took literally less than a week and she almost never had an accident. I think that if a parent pushes a child they will resist, just for hte sake of resisting. You have to let her make her own choice about this. There are 3 things that you simply can not force a child to do, eat, sleep, and poop. So don't try to! Put her back in a diaper or pull ups and if she mentions going to the potty take her, but let her decide and she will be much more comitted to the venture.
She may just not be ready for it yet. A lot of advice I have gotten is the closer to 2.5-3 the easier it is to potty train. Probably because they are just more ready then. My daughter has been potty training since she was 25 mos (28 mos now), and is still pooping in her diaper, b/c she just isn't ready for that yet. I think she will be closer to 3 before she is fully potty trained. She also has had a regression recently where she kept having accidents, due to constipation, but is now back to no accidents. We have a potty chart for her, every time she goes in the potty she gets to put a sticker on it, which seems to entice her to go potty. So, something like that might help. All I can say is be patient, every child develops at their own pace, and she won't be going to kindergarten in diapers! :)
Are you sure that she can recognize the urge to go to the bathroom before she goes? It seems like she totally gets what is supposed to happen and how to tell you that she has to go, she just doesn't yet know when she has to go. With my almost 2 year old son we made sure to watch him like a hawk for the first two days and anytime he started the potty dance or if he started to pee a little we said "Wait, wait, pee pee goes in the potty." In no time at all he was telling me as soon as he felt like he needed to go. Like you said with your first we had a lot of accidents at first (mostly at school) but it's been 2 months and he's down to 1-2 accidents a week at school.
We never did any rewards other than high fives and good jobs. If you are into the rewards you can do that, but can I just suggest not doing food. It sets her up for a lifetime of rewarding herself with food and not realizing the weight problems that can result from it.
Take is slowly. I think the big potty might be too big and sticking with a little training potty chair could be better. Also, you could consider having her with you when you have to go and let her see you going. After a couple of times, when she sees it's okay with you, she might be more okay with it. She can "graduate" to the big toilet after a few weeks.
Rewards are good, I think, too. Not punishments or upset. Maybe a cookie, or whatever small treat she particularly likes. Good luck.!! Remember, each child is different.
