My daughter is almost 16 months old. For the past week I have sat her on her potty (no diaper) whenever I have to go. Most times she will sit there for a minute or two and she will "go" in the potty. I always get excited and tell her she's a big girl, etc when she goes.
First thing in the morning is the best time to get her to go. Then she's at daycare during the day. I take her again when we get home, then again after dinner/before bed.
She hardly ever fusses when I sit her on her potty. And I'm very proud that she will go in the potty (pee and BM). We have started using Pamper's Easy Ups or store brand training pants. She knows she is supposed to step into these pants 1 foot at a time (and it's been easier to change her diaper this way).
Are we on the right track? Is there anything else I should be doing to encourage her and help her understand? I know she may not be able to tell me when she has to go, but I figured it couldn't hurt to start teaching her about the potty and maybe she will understand when people usually go (ie I take her when I have to go).
It sounds like you guys are doing a great job! They do recommend that training pants not be used.
Sounds like she is doing really well. I did not use training pants with my son. When I made up my mind to potty train, out went the diapers (except for at night, and since your daughter goes to daycare, that might be an issue as well). The whole thing I tried to establish when I was potty training my son, was making it as uncomfortable as possible whenever he did "go" in his underwear. I always said that if I had a girl, I would have put her in silk panties, because that would be very uncomfortable when wet. Not that I wanted my son to be uncomfortable, but it seems to make the potty training easier when you give them a REASON not to pee in their pants. They won't want to b/c they know how bad it feels when they do. This worked wonderfully with my son. It took mabey one full day for him to understand that he DIDN"T WANT to go in his pants. After that one day, I have not had a problem with him. He learned very quickly that he would go to the potty, or feel VERY uncomfortable. He still is wearing pull ups at night though, so when you decide to try to cross that bridge, any advice you could give me would be GREAT! Hope this helps!!
S.~
I think she is at a good age to begin learning the concept. You are doing a good job of introducing this process to her. On a day when you are feeling super adventurous, you might want to give panties a try ~just so she can feel what happens when she doesn't go to the potty.
They will also encourage the potty process at daycare if you ask them to help you. Our daycare workers were more than happy to help us along once we got there....and we still have some days that there is accidents...and this is at 3 years of age. But she LOVES when she gets a sticker at daycare for going to the big girl potty.
Best wishes!
T.
Congrats!!! That is so wonderful that things are going well with potty training. It'll save on diapers sooner. We started to set our first daughter on the potty at 18months but weren't successful. She'd sit there with a book...but would only go randomly. So it sounds like you are on the right track.
It sounds like you're on the right track to me. :) I've always believed that potty-training is the wrong phrase, it should be potty-learning. If you're consistant, through your actions and praise, she will learn what to do more easily.
With my children, when they were old enough to follow simple commands (pick up toys, bring me this or that) I began the motions of potty-learning. Make it almost game-like. Sing and dance. Have fun with teaching her to take care of herself.
Sounds like you're doing well exposing your daughter to the potty, but I just want to offer a word of caution here...she's still very young. I started doing the things you're doing with my oldest when she was around 18 months, when I felt that she could communicate that she had to go potty, something that I felt was important (using combo of words and Baby Signs). It was fun for her for a little while (we blew bubbles in the bathroom while we waited for her to go, she got M&Ms when she did go, we read a fun potty book that had the toilet flush sound, etc). After a couple of weeks of this, she started to become resistant to going in the bathroom, and I backed WAY OFF. I've heard a lot of horror stories of mothers forcing their children to go to the potty and as a result the children started withholding their bowels, becoming extremely constipated. These children then had to go on medicine for MONTHS to relax their bowels so that they couldn't withhold, during which the children of course had to be in diapers, and potty training was then seriously delayed. I just wouldn't push it. With my oldest, right before she turned two she started becoming interested in the potty again, we did much of the same as the previous poster said (putting her in panties, staying home all weekend to avoid being too far away from a bathroom, gave stickers as rewards) and she was trained in 1-2 days. What a difference 6 months made! One other thing that we did that she loved was buying a doll that pees so she could "teach" the baby how to use the potty. Now, please don't take what I'm saying to mean that I diasapprove of what you're doing. I have a fourteen month old daughter that I will probably be doing the same with in four or five months. I believe in exposing them to the potty at an early age, just not forcing it on them. You will know when she is truly ready to train for good when she wakes up dry in the morning, she can communicate to you that she has to (and WANTS to)go, and she'd rather wear panties than diapers. When this happens, it will be so quick and easy to train her you won't believe it. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!
BTW...have you notice how expensive pull-ups are in comparison to diapers? I bought one pack of them before I did the math, and I never bought them again. If you want her to get the experience of stepping in like she would with panties, you could velcro the tabs in place on the diapers before having her step in. However, one of our greatest tools when potty training was my daughter's desire to wear big girl panties with Dora on them, and putting hers on just like Mommy does. It might serve you well to save this experience for when she is ready to train for real.
