Another Potty Training Question - Denham Springs,LA

MY name is B. i also have a 2 and a half year old daughter that ive been trying to potty train her since she turned 2. like you said all she wanted to do was pull her pull up up and down. And trying to work with her everyday taking her to the bathroom every hour i got as far as her dumpimg her poop from her pull up in the toilet and then sayin to me " i poo pooed in the toilet mommy" i cant give you any advice but i can say your not the only one.

We, too, are starting to potty train (2 weeks now). I tried the pull-ups and he would just wet them. Someone suggested we just use underwear and the pull-ups or diapers at night and so far that works pretty well. He doesn't actually tell me but we go every hour to hour and 1/2 and he goes! Of course, there are still accidents but that is to be expected - he gets SO busy playing... He is 27 months. GOOD LUCK!!!

After only a couple of days, playing is relly about all you can expect her to do. She needs time to learn to recognize her body's signals that her bladder is getting full before it's too late.
Wetting themselves immediately after getting off the potty is normal at first. Their brains are starting to make the connection between emptying the bladder and sitting on the potty, but it takes a while to get the timing adjusted.

What helped with my daughter was turningon the tap when I sat her down on the toilet. Something about the sound of running water helped her make the connection.

Be patient. It may take her several weeks to get it. Don't scold her or punish her when she has an accident. Just help her clean herself up, change her clothes, and start over.

My experience with potty training one boy and two girls is that if you start training them before they are truly interested you will have a very long, drawn out training experience. My son showed an early interest in potty training so I took that as a sign he was ready, six months later he was trained! With my first daughter I tried to push it a little more. Although she was ready and she was fully capable (she had gone several days in "big girl" underwear) as soon as she realized it was important to me she regressed for two months. Finally she was fed up with diapers and the next day she wore underwear with no accidents, ever. With my second daughter, I finally got smart and let her tell me when she was ready to wear underwear - we skipped the whole pull-up ordeal. One day when she was a little over 2 1/2 she told me she was "all done with diapers" and that was it. She never had an accident and never went back to diapers, even at night.

I personally believe that pull-ups confuse the issue. If your daughter wakes up from her nap and every morning with a dry diaper then she may be ready, but until she really shows an interest in putting away all diapers and has shown a mastery of using the toilet, it is my opinion that you are in for a long process.

I'm sure there are many others out there who may have found more success with early training, but I found that putting an expectation on them too early led to a lot of tears and frustration - from both of us!

This is what recently worked for me with my son. He only was able to wear pull-ups at night and naptime. that way every time he had a mishap it ran down his leg. Yes, I know that's very gross for the child and yourself, but it works. It makes them very aware of what is happening. Also when going to the potty I gave him a book to look at to keep him occupied. And I consistently bought him to the potty once every hour and of course right before bed, leaving the house, returning home, and bath time. This was for my stepson who just turned 3 in July. His mother was not concerned with potty training him with the thought that as long as he was trained by 4 it was ok. Well I disagreed, and have a 1 year old. Changing diapers on 2 is a real pain. I took advantage of having him 6 weeks this summer and now he is fully trained to the point of even being able to hold it thru the night.

It sounds like she may not be ready yet. I would wait until she's ready. If anything, I would sit her on the potty when I was on the potty. It kind of lets her know that there's a pattern to going to the bathroom, and it makes it a little more fun when Mommy's doing it too. I wouldn't push the issue, though. Some kids aren't ready until they're 3 or later.

I did the same thing with my son and I found out the best thing to do was get rid of the pull ups and use real underwear. When he use the bathroom in them I told him that a no no and when he use the potty I gave him a reward it helps. Some times kids at this age are not ready to be potty trained some don't until they are 3 yrs old. Another thing to do is when u go to the bathroom sit them on their potty at the same time u do that way they get what the potty is really for cause most of the time if u just sit them on it they just think of it as a chair nothing more. Hope this helps u.

I use to work in day care and I had the 2 yr. olds. I potty trained them and I used a kitchen timer in my class and the kids got use to it and I started out with every 30 mins. Be time we were able to get up to waiting an hour they were potty trained. But I now have my own little 2 1/2 yr. old and she's not wanting to potty either just keep it up and she'll get the hang of it.

H. C.