Hi R.,
I have raised 6 children and I am a grandmother. I have two suggestions for you which left me with no work whatsoever as far as my last two children learning to convert from diapers to toilet. Trust me, trying to bribe and coax them does not work. This may sound strange, but here goes:
1. This worked for my youngest girl: I allowed her to run around with just a T-shirt or dress on, without diaper or underwear. The potty chair was in the bathroom. Once I did this, she began to go in and use it all by herself. I would keep an eye on her and help her with cleaning herself if needed. Soon she just hopped up onto the toilet and called to me to hand her the paper. She was less than 2 years old.
2. My youngest son, loved to go out back and play with the dog. I looked outside one day and saw he had removed his diaper. He would do this and go both number 1 and number 2 as needed. Instead of freaking out, I let nature take it's course. (I think he learned from the dog) Before long he was doing this in the toilet. He never even used a potty chair.
The point is this: I found that allowing the children to be witout diaper or underpants gave them more awareness of what was going on with thier bodies. It also gave them control and independence to find solutions. With seeing parents, siblings and even animals deal with the bodily functions, they figured out on their own with support what to do. It was never a struggle with those two, compared to the inconsitant results with my older kids and the text book potty training tactics. I did no work with the two youngest children they made almost immediate transitions. They also were not bed wetters. Go figure. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
R.
