Potty Training Step 1

I may be contradicting what you have heard and what others will tell you here, but...

If she is showing no signs of wanting to potty train, don't do it. You will only make things harder for the both of you. Once she begins showing interest, you can start by taking her to the potty anytime you go. Does she have her own little potty? You can take her diaper off and sit her on her very own potty while Mama sits on the 'big' potty. My daughter is fascinated by listening to me urinate, lol.

Also, if you just had another baby, this can have a big effect on her. Some children revert when a new baby is introduced into their environment. That can make potty training especially difficult.

So, I would say that if she's not ready, don't force it. My daughter is a bit over 2 and is not potty trained yet. We are working on it, but very slowly. We are following her lead.

I wish you the best in this wonderfully frustrating journey, lol.

God bless,
A.

Hi A.! I disagree with the other mothers. I truly believe that it's the mother who has to be ready, not the child. It's so hard trying to potty train!!! I've pottytrained my two children, who are now 4 and 5. I pottytrained my daughter at 26 months, and my son at 30 months. My son pottytrained in 3 days, my daughter in about 6. I basically just made the decision that I was going to pottytrain and then the first day I put my daughter in underwear with those plastic training underwear over them. I also put her in sweats and two pair of socks to keep the pee from her accidents from reaching the floor. She had accidents all day long! During that first day, I set a timer and sat her on a potty chair in the livingroom every hour. I sat there with her until she went potty. If she sat there for a half hour without going, I would get her up, and then sit her there again when the timer went off. I kept doing this until I basically "caught" her going pee in the potty chair. Then, I acted totally crazy and excited for her. After that, it was the same, every single hour, no exceptions. It was a day of mostly sitting beside her on the floor playing, reading, or watching tv with her. The second day though, she would pee a lot quicker than the first day. OH, and everytime she peed, I was letting her put a sticker of her choice on her sticker chart I had made out of posterboard. I bought really cool stickers too, that way it was really exciting for her. So, back to the second day, it was the same routine, but she was peeing quicker. I just continued to do this everyday, but on the 3rd or 4th day, she was starting to tell me when she had to potty. At that point, I moved her potty chair into the bathroom and started putting the top on the toilet. Once she had the pee down, by the 4th day or so, I had her running around with only a shirt on. I did this because she would poop in her underwear, but noticed that if I had her naked, she was trying to hold it. Finally, she couldn't hold it and ended up going poop on the potty. When she finally did this, I had a bag of goodies she got to stick her hand in and grab from. (just toys from dollar tree). Everytime she pooped, she got a toy, everytime she peed, she got to put up another sticker. I let her do this for a little over a week. Another important thing I did was from day one, I cut off juice 1 hour before bedtime. Once she was pottytrained, I continued to put her in pullups at night until she woke up 5 nights in a row with a dry diaper. I figured at that point that she didn't need them, and so we got rid of all diapers altogether. Now, I did the exact same thing with my son, but he caught on immediately, and 3 days later, was going to stores with me in underwear and on the 5th day was sleeping in underwear too. It just takes dedication from you. If you can hang in there, then you can get her pottytrained, trust me!!! My mom pottytrained all of us the exact same way and it was always right after our 2nd birthday. My grandma did all my aunts and uncles the exact same way, but she did it at 18 months!!!!! She never had a two year old in diapers!!! Amazing woman....now THAT's dedication!!!

I totally agree with the other HOWEVER.... you can encourage her to go by saying...mommy is going to the potty want to come? SHe might and she might not.... keep asking her.

Since she just had a new brother.... she will probably be lacking interest.

I have to agree with Amanda... if she is not showing any interest in going on the potty, she's just not ready yet. I haven't potty trained any girls, but I have successfully trained 3 boys (with one more to go) and none of them were ready until they were 3. If you try to force it on her before she's ready, all it's going to do is frusterate you. If you wait until she's a bit older and shows some interest, it can be a piece of cake.

I'd try borrowing some "potty books" from the library. 'Everybody poops' is a great one... and I know they have tons more. Ask the librarian and they'll point you to lots to choose from. It's possible that once she starts reading and enjoying the books, she'll follow suit.

Try not to worry about mother-in-laws or other people pressuring you with potty training or anything else. I so know what that's like, and it's not fun. I've even had to tell my own mother to "back off," in a nice way. When my mil would give me a hard time about my older boys not being potty trained when she thought they should be.... I used to smile sweetly and say, "Don't worry, he'll be potty trained by the time he goes to kindergarten." :o) LOL! She didn't like that answer... but they were trained around the age of 3, and it was so much easier waiting until they were ready.

Good luck, and enjoy those sweet babies!

Good thing Amanda got in here! lol Seems everyone is agreeing with her. If you push at this, it will only become a battle and unfortunately for you, this is one that your daughter will win. She'll get there. My mom used to tell me all the time that all of her kids were potty trained by one. I told her that I didn't care, this was my kid. Then, when we did train DS, it only took 3 days. He was ready. Yes, it doesn't hurt to start introducing the potty, but don't push it.

hi A..
I have to agree that she will let you know when she is ready. Potty training is a big change for her. even more so now with the baby. give it time. my son just turned 3 and is now ready to be potty trained and he is the only child. i bought him the cool alert pull ups and after he went once in those he wants to use the potty. she will be ready in time she just has to adjust to baby. good luck

Why does your MIL want you to potty train her - is she her caregiver? Just curious about that. If she's not ready it will most likely be a practice in futility. It will be frustrating and exhausting. If you have a newborn in the house I would say wait a few months - you are probably tired and busy with the new baby and trying to give Maria enough attention as it is the last thing she needs is to feel like she's not good enough or that she's not allowed to be your little girl anymore.