3-Year Old Not Ready for Potty Training?

I agree with Jane M. For now, set the timer and take her every 20 minutes. Don't ask, just tell her it's time to go potty. Keep working with her. She'll get it.

Another vote for put her in big girl underwear and take her every 20min. to the potty, don't ask her if she wanted to go, just take her and say let's go to the potty.
If you are a stay at home mom for 2 or 3 days keep your eyes like glue to her, any time (in between those 20min) that you see her wiggle take her right to the potty, other way maybe wait for the weekend.
Buy her a book, our favorite was : Once upon a potty, great book.

If she's not putting up a big fight about it, you just have to take her to the bathroom more often than she is going. Right now, I'd be taking her about every 20 minutes. Set the kitchen timer if you need too. My daughter was incredibly resistant to potty training, but I switched her into underpants and didn't look back.

Good luck.

We used to joke that our son would be wearing Pull Ups to his prom! He truly couldn't have cared less about using the potty.

At three, you do have to force the issue because they are ready physically. We had to with our son. If we waited for signs he was willing on his own, we'd still be waiting!

Our son also peed all over himself, the furniture, the floors that frequently. We took a sanity break from it all for ourselves, really, and tried again a month later. By then, we got him to the point where he was "trained" sort-of (still had accidents until he was six) within a few days of being in underwear. We started making him part of the process, putting the wet pants in the washer, getting the clean clothes, etc. so it registered more with him, I think.

Perhaps take a little break and then try again?
Good luck!

I really think they do it when THEY are ready. My niece was almost 3.5 when she said one day - Mom, I want to wear big girl underwear now... and she did. That was it... They had tried before, but she did it when she was ready. I would take a different approach... back off a bit and then when she does go make a huge positive big deal about it. Ask her periodically if she has to go, but give her a break for a weak or so... Good luck! She will get there : )

First things first. 1) EVALUATE THE SITUATION.
WHAT'S SHE DRINKING? Apple or orange juice? Apple juice is both diuretic and laxative (makes you pee and poo). Dilute it by half, at least. Dilute all commercially available juices; they are too intense and strong. As the child gets older, you can gradually decrease the dilution (or leave it - let their preference be the guide here). Soda? Completely diuretic, she'll pee constantly. Sugared drinks? Pee city and they'll reach for salty. Water? GREAT.
MEASURE HOW MUCH HER CUP HOLDS, so you know the amounts. Maybe make a chart on the refrigerator for her to put a sticker when she gets a drink, like a game. Apple sticker for apple juice, etc. You total it up at the end of each day (5 cups, 10 cups...) and keep a record.
2) WHAT ARE HER ACTIVITIES? Is there a time when she's more likely to forget to go to the potty and wets? What is she doing then? Take notes.
Maybe her bladder muscles haven't matured. Maybe she doesn't have time to recognize what her brain is telling her - especially if she's involved in another activity. (Haven't you ever had to rush off to the toilet because you were busy or distracted, and held off until the last minute?)
3) PUT HER ON A TOILETING SCHEDULE. Potty training isn't automatic. Routinely take her to the potty every 30-45 minutes. That's what you mentioned as HER time frame. USE A KITCHEN TIMER - the ticking wind-up kind - set it for 30 minutes and keep it nearby. When it goes off, that lovely nice loud ding, go to the toilet with her. Don't forget to reset the timer. Keep her in waterproofs, and potty train her.
If you're going to go out, make sure she's got something waterproof on.
4) ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS. It takes longer than 3 days. 3 days is nothing. It takes weeks or months. Yes, it's inconvenient, especially while you both get used to it. Make it a routine. Don't be in a rush. Make it easy and no big deal. She'll get there as her body does.
She's busy - she's absorbing the details of everything around her and learning constantly. Being wet is not as big a deal to her as it is to you. She's been wet for 3 years. She's on a different time, development and learning schedule that has nothing to do with preschool. She's still on a natural schedule, not man's.
5) After 3 -6 months, if there's no change at all, return to the doctor. Take a list with you of what you've been doing for a more complete evaluation.
Explain her average daily consumption of juice/water is this amount, I take her to the toilet every (fill in the blank) minutes (or now she goes to the toilet on her own), and she's still wet this many times per day.
With data in hand, the doctor will be better able to see what further evaluation or explanation is needed, if any.
Take it easy and GOOD LUCK!

It may be time to "live by the timer" we did this every 20 min we go to the potty sticker if something was done, nothing for nothing ... then bumped it up to 30 min then 45 min then 1hr ... this lasted a few weeks until my ds finally got the "feeling" and knew what to do! So, this is something you may want to impliment... Oh and we were homebodies until we were up to 45 min then we were more able to go places with this.

Watch the clock and ask her to sit on the potty and try periodically. make it fun, ofcourse if she does it make a HUGE deal of it and tell her how she is a big girl etc. but also make other ways to have fun. We did a book, or what worked best was getting to flush the potty. The little toddler potty seats didnt work at all for our son, it was the same thing, he would just stand there and go like he had no idea. Once he found how to flush the "big" potty and we told him you can only flush if you go pee in it it was like a switch flipped. It has been 5 weeks since that morning and he has had 3 accidents! it was just enough of a boost to get him excited enough....worth a shot.

Good Luck!!

This was my 3 year old daughter when we tried the same thing just after Christmas - 1 accident after another and no progress, not even wanting to try to sit on the potty. We stopped, put her back in diapers, and then tried again 3 weeks ago. She's doing great! She had a few accidents the first few days but now she is going #1 in the potty 100% of the time and last night finally did her first #2 on the potty - even told us she had to go and went right over to the potty to sit on it and make it happen.

Have not read the other responses, but maybe try again in a month or 2? Once she gets it, she might make tremendous progress and not need the entire summer to be trained before starting preschool.

i say just keep the panties on her. you should try setting a timer and take her to the potty every 15 min (weather she goes or not) and as she adjust to that start moving it to every 20 min.. then 25... so on and so forth. Also, does she use a sippy cup and drink all throughout the day? You should get her on a cup and allow drinking with meals, when outside in the heat, after strenuous activity... in other words do not allow her to sip constantly throughout the day so that her blatter can get on a better schedule!!

Just a thought: I'm training my 3 yo son right now. We started introducing the potty and getting into using while he wore diapers, then I tried those padded training underpants, thinking like you did, that feeling wet would be a signal for him to help him know when he had to go. After a few days, all we succeeded in doing was creating lots of laundry! I wasn't discouraged that he wasn't trained in a couple of days, but that he didn't even seem to realize he went.

In desperation, I tried the naked from the waist down technique. For us, it worked like a charm. For a couple of days, I kept him in the house and totally naked from the waist down. Immediately, he started telling me when he had to go and ran to the potty. It was like I flipped a switch. He's even gotten his poop in there! Now we're transitioning back to pants on. No underpants yet, just pants. He had a couple of accidents, but now he's starting to tell me when he has to go, even while wearing pants! We're getting there.

Now, I don't know if this method works well for girls. When I trained my daughter, we used Pull-Ups very successfully, she got it and we transitioned smoothly to underpants. But I could see that my son needed something else, so we went a different route.

Anyway, not sure if it works for girls, but if you get desperate enough (like I did) you may want to give it a try! The worst that could happen is that you have some more messes, but less laundry. :)

B.

no, what it means is that the child is used to peeing in her pants, some parents have discovered that if you make the child carry their own diaper bag, they tend to figure it out. my sister was completely potty trained by the time she was two, but that was 30 years ago, when they didnt make diapers for kids past about 20 pounds. probably the best thing to do at this point is to get her around other kids her own age and younger who are already potty trained, that way is some incentive and perhaps some friendly competion to be potty trained
karinh dont sign the final papers for her to be in pre school until she is completely potty trained, otherwise you will just be throwing money out the door

No it sounds like she is ready you will just have to do some more work in helping her connect the dots between the feeling of having to pee and then peeing. You are going to have to block out a few days of your time to just watch her constantly and then second she starts to pee or uses body language/makes a face like she is going too you are going to have to run her to the potty. You will do this constantly as well as constantly remind her to let her know when she has to pee. When she uses the potty you need to give her TONS of praise and when she has an accident have her help clean it up and remind her again that she needs to use the potty to do her business. It will work. Because she has "started" potty training and has already developed some bad habits of wetting herself and ignoring being wet it may take closer to a week to get her potty trained. But you can do it. It wont be fun for you but with your help she should be fully potty trained soon.

I wouldn't ask her if she has to go, just take her frequently. My 3.5 yo has been potty trained since last summer and even now i'll see him dancing around and ask and he'll say "no"....then run to the potty 10 min later. LOL
Also, don't despair. We tried to start in April, so he'd be ready for preschool in the fall, had to take a break for a month because he wasn't ready, then had another delay due to a vacation. Finally in July all the stars aligned and he was trained and ready by the fall!