Potty Training - Garden City,MI

I think how kids potty train has to be unique to their personality. You have to get inside her mind and try to see it from her perspective. Think of how you deal with other tasks for her. Is she stubborn about other things too, or soes it seem to be just this issue that's troubling for her? My daughter was almost 4 before she finally stopped needing pull ups, after over a year of trying. She is really headstrong and quite controlling, so the problem for us was that we were coming on too strong, and letting too much of our stress about it show and that effected her too. She needed to be in control, so the more we backed off on making her do it, the more she wanted to seek out the positive attention she got for going potty. What is your daughter like? Is she shy, or sensitive, or is she more active and excitable? Some kids are pleasers that will do whatever you want them to and they might have an easier time with it. Some kids are the kind of people that don't want to do what you tell them to right away, but later on, when they've made it their own idea, they'll play it off like they thought of it. The most important thing is to not get angry with them. It can be damaging! Stay light hearted about it, make it fun, even funny, and make it something they can feel proud about. Like learning to put on their own shirt, or tie their shoes. Take away all the pressure you might feel from others about how long it's taking her. she's doing fine! don't let that take over, cause it can effect the way you make her feel about herself. Never use shame, only praise. Let her know it's okay to mess up and that you're not going to be mad if she does. That may take some of the pressure off her. Anyway, I hope some of this helps, if you want to let me know what she's like, I might have some more tailored advice for you. If not, read the book THE HAPPIEST TODDLER ON THE BLOCK. It's a great overall parenting book, but it has a chapter on potty training that might help you get inside her head so you can figure out the best way to help her. i also recommend THE BABY BOOK by Dr. William Sears(a great resource for everything) Remember, this is something SHE has to do, you're just there to help. I think it's so hard for parents for this reason. You can't just do it for her like most things before. This is the first big accomplishment of many that you are going to witness and nurture, and learn how to facilitate without taking over for her. Good luck! And be patient, don't let our rat-race mentality make it scary for her.

I have three kids and I went about potty training each of them different, with my son, who is my youngest, I set a timer for every two hours and when the timer went off we would go sit on the potty and read a book-if he went we would set it again for 2 hours, if he did not, I would set it for 15 minutes and we would keep sitting on the potty until he went-it took 2 weeks and he was telling me before the timer went off if he had to go or not, he was 2 1/2 and complettely out of diapers.
My second daughter was very easy, she started to do #2 in the bath tub one day and I put her on the potty and she went and after that she never did #2 again in her pants, but she continue to pee in her pants for the next 6 months, so I just said forget it and put her in underware and she peed in the them for about 3 days and stopped cuz she didn't like the feeling I guess, or didn't like the fact that she was peeing in her princess panties. she was 2 years old when she was finally potty trained all the way
My oldest I put the potty chair in the living room and she sat on it while she watched tv--it took her a while to relax for the pee to actually come, she took me the longest she was 3 1/2 when she was potty trained all the way--but only with my oldest did I use pull ups the other two I just switched to underware and had some extra laundry to do--good luck

There is a fabulous video called Once Upon A Potty. It is available in male and female versions. Pop that bad boy in and let her sit on a potty chair in front of the TV. Both of my daughters used it, and I swear you could see the light bulb go on above their heads. They finally got it, and I only used pull-ups at night on them for my peace of mind.

S. K.

My son will be 3 1/2 in January and we are still working on potty training. I bought him a video called potty power, which is an excellent video in my opinion. He wanted to sit on the potty and he would pull his pants down and sit because he saw the other children his age doing so on the potty. He would carry his potty around the house telling me "This is my Potty" but he never would do anything. Then, I let him go bottomless and I would give him plenty of water so he would have lots of practice. This actually worked, when he felt himself having to go he would go to the potty and pee. The down part was that when he had pants on he would pee in his big boy pants or pullups it did not matter to him. I'm planning on picking up again this weekend. I have really been pushing him before because most of the kids in his daycare who are his age having already moved to the preschool building. Sorry for the long message. I know what you are dealing with.