Ready to Go Potty Except...

My kids liked what they call "mommy hugs". Basically I would sit & hug them, mostly for pooping because they didn't have the patience to hang out while waiting to poop. They still ask for mommy hugs when they are constipated, and it just gives them some extra comfort. It was a good way to make them sit still, and the reward was extra cuddling which they can never get enough of.

I had to put a pile of books in the bathroom to distract her long enough to go. Best of luck. My 2 1/2 y/o still has a hard time sitting still to go poop, she will jump up and run and then have to go again in 5 minutes. We mastered the pee though. Horray!

Maybe teach her a song to sing while she is on the potty to encourage her to stay on longer.

Potty Song 1:
To the tune of "This is the way we brush our teeth"

Where do we make our poops and peep
Our poops and peeps, Our poops and peeps
Where do we make our poops and peeps
We make them in the potty!

Potty Song 2:
To the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"

Tinkle, Tinkle, little pee, in the potty you will be.
Poopy, Poopy stinky-O, in the Potty you will go.

Potty Song 3:
To the tune of "Little Bunny Foo-Foo"

When we have to pee-pee, we go to the potty, because we like dry pants and wet pants are icky
Whe we have to poo-poo, we go to the potty, because we like dry pant and messy pants are icky

You don't want to force her to sit on the potty, but that's exactly what's needed. She has a short attention span and you need to help her stay long enough in one place for things to happen. So.... when she goes to the bathroom, have a stack of books by her potty chair to read. Or have a cd where she listens to music that lasts long enough for her to complete the tasks at hand. If you tell her she needs to sit there until the music stops or until she reads the 2 books (picture books), she will develop this attention span and will be successful. It's totally awesome that she's headed in the right direction, now just give her the timing need to finish the job.

Get a small basket and fill it with books about the potty, like "everybody poops", or sesame street has some good ones. When she has to go, read a book with her, and encourage her to finish the book before she gets off the potty.

arrange for potty time at regular intervals where you read her stories while she sits on the potty, or do funny finger puppet shows for her with your hands while she sits. you can also give her a (washable) toy to play with while she sits on the potty to keep her attention longer. make it fun!

wow, sounds like good news for your potty training - she's got a lot of the parts down.

My daughter sometimes gets treats (a chocolate covered raisin, say) if she performs on the potty. So, if i really want her to sit on it for a minute (because i think she needs to go but she won't sit still), i tell her to sit still long enough for me to go get her a treat. The treats are in her room, not the bathroom, so this usually gives her enough time.

When she used to take longer to release on the potty i'd read her a book, or give her a toy to play with. The more novel the book or the toy, the better this works.

(now, if only my daughter would get to the part where she tells me every time she has to go...)

i used a basket of toys, and books by the potty. I also had a small potty seat in her room with a little key board and basket of toys next to it. If she was watching tv she wouldn't miss her show while going potty. I put a plastic table cloth under the potty seat and a blanket on top of the plastic, the blanket absorbs any spills and the plastic catches anything that gets through. My daughter just didn't want to miss out on anything. hope this helps.

Anything you can do to get her to sit a little longer is good, but she is still pretty young. It is a novelty to her at this time, but keep encouraging her is the best thing. My daughter showed a lot of interest around 20 months and would do what your daughter is doing. We kept practicing. We would singsongs/read while she sat on the potty. It lasted about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks and then she didn't even want to sit on the potty any more. We did a reward system too. It really wasn't until about 25/26 months that she actually started to focus and stay there until she got the job done.
So, right now, it might just be mimicking and play, but that is good. Don't force anything, just try. If it doesn't work now, it will soon.

This might sound funny, but I had a special potty-time sing-song count to five; they had to stay on the toilet until I finished counting or they peed, no exceptions.

My "song" sounded kind of like Dory the angelfish speaking "whale" in the movie "Finding Nemo":

wha-unnnn, tooooooo, three-eeeeeeee, fohhhhrrrrr, fihhhhhhhhhvvvvvvvf
(with "five" occasionally held out especially long if I felt the kid was holding out ;) ).

Singing the alphabet or any other singsongy thing they like that lasts a while also keeps them there, but let's them know you won't keep them there indefinitely (the latter expectation would be likely to lead to control fights).

Sometimes also I would end the song with, "Now: shhhhhhhhhh" (the pee sound) and kind of direct my attention/energy, and therefore their attention/energy, toward their urethra, to REALLY encourage them to let go (my kids tend to be the "I need to go but now I don't want to" types). Sometimes I pointed, or even poked their bladder.

(Being a mom is so crazy sometimes.)

Man, the going-on-the-floor phase seems sooooo eternal, every time ... it really isn't, but it SEEMS so. May God give you patience and perseverance :).

When my daughter was little, I used stickers and a sticker book for her. Whenever she went potty on the potty chair, she got a sticker. It took almost a week of being consistent, but she finally got the hang of it, and no further accidents, even at night.

Good luck!

With all four of my kids I would have a book for them to "read" only when they were on the potty. My youngest has ants in her pants too (she is also almost two) and that is how I was able to get her to sit long enough. Also have her go potty when you need to go so she can see that you have to be patient (sit a little longer than you would normally to get the point across). My daughter loves to go sit on her potty when I go. I make a game of it, I tell her I got to go potty and ask her to take me.

I've heard using a very special potty only box filled with toys/books that she can only look at or play with while she's on the potty can help.

A.,

Maybe you could offer her a small reward for sitting on the potty, like an M&M or 2, or some treat that she really likes but doesn't often get.

Good Luck!

I sang the alphabet song with my kids. It's amazing how quickly or slowly you can sing that! It's even more interesting for them if you know the alphabet in sign language.

I also had books for them to read. Or I read them a potty book.

Sticker chart worked for my boys:
one sticker for sitting
two stickers for pee
3 stickers for poo
When they reached a (randomly-selected) dot, they got to choose a potty reward of the reward chart we had made together. Rewards included: play with Mommy with blocks (or other toys), marshmallow, play outside, read book, etc.

Remember, this won't last forever! Keep up the good work!

Bribery always worked well for us. I would dole out 1 goldfish cracker or 1 miniature marshmallow every 10 sec they sat there.

I haven't gone through this yet, as my son's not yet two and has no real interest in it, but maybe sit with her? As long as Mommy still has to pee, maybe Baby does too. Maybe? Just a thought!

My son just turned two and the daycare he goes to are excellent potty trainers! They also primarily potty trained my nephew. Anyways, Monday was the very first day that our son actually went pee pee on the potty! Very exciting for us! What they do there at school is they put on a 5 minute timer for each child and have set "potty times" that everyone goes in an order to sit on the potty. If after 5 minutes they don't go then they get praised for trying and off they go. They have a potty chart and everyone gets a mark showing what happened on the potty and when. Since our son went pee pee on the potty, he has a new excitement for the toilet and has been wanting to sit on it, but wont sit on it for long enough. So we are going to get a timer for him like in his classroom to keep the consistency going. It's also something that he can watch and concentrait on while sitting. Maybe you could try this? Try to make a little game out of it so its fun for her?

go in with her sometimes sit on he edge of the tub and talk to her or hold her hands it might calm her enough to sit and go it also could be she is just not quite ready but she sees you go
Paula

Sounds odd, but when I first started potty training my kids, I poured warm water on them while they sat on the potty. It always made them go right away, and then they were so proud that they knew what to expect and what to expect the next time. Once you get them to go on the potty once, it gets easier.

We also put the potty in the living room in front of the TV to get them to sit longer, and left it there so when they did have to go, they don't have to run all the way to the bathroom. You can also try reading books to her while she sits but stop when she gets up, or give her a snack to eat while she sits.

You could put a small basket of books next to the toilet - read to her when she sits down (which is great to do anyway) and maybe she will be more inclined to stay still for a little while!