Potty Training Advice - Dublin,OH

Hi C.
It sounds to me like she's just not fully ready yet. She'll decide when she wants to use the potty. She's still very young. Try not to stress about it. I know that is easier said than done since you want to try for another baby and want her to be potty trained first. I think it would be best if you didn't focus on it for awhile. Don't get upset or punish her. Just keep praising her when she does use the potty. You don't want it to become a power struggle and you don't want her to feel ashamed. I wish you luck - I know how frustrating potty training can be.

All my best!
A.

I have a six year old little girl that I struggled with for the longest time trying to potty train here at your daughters age with all of the same issues but what I found to be the most helpful also being a full time working mom is that you first of all need to make sure that everyone that is in contact with your daughter whether it be daddy, caregiver, grandparents ect has to be on board with you on this or you are only setting up your daughter and yourself for failure. I had that issue and it was so frustrating. I just so happened to take a one week vacation for no reason other than to spend time with my daughter and relax and that was my week of glory. I was consistant of taking her to the potty pretty much about every thirty minutes to an hour and just letting her sit there for a little bit and BAM!!! it clicked and I felt like I had conqured the world and I made her feel the same way too. There is nothing more gratifying than an accomplishment like that I promise you :) Keep up everything else that you are doing also especially with the praise and it will help too.
Hope this helps :) Good Luck!
J.

Hi C.,

The thing that worked for us (my daughter will be 3 the end of Feb) is using training pants (not pull ups)that she wore over underwear. Gerber makes two types, simple rubber pants and heavier lined ones. We had the best luck finding them at Kmart and Target. They are not absorbent, but prevent seats/furniture from becoming wet or dirty. This way, our daughter felt when she was wet/dirty and had to wait until we could change her. It wasn't long after having to leave the park because she had dirtied her pants that the potty training went very quickly. She didn't like the car ride home in dirty pants! I think it helper her associate the cue from her body with the outcome of wet/dirty pants.

Just this week, she's kept her underwear dry overnight. So we're practically done with diapers all together.

I hope this helps.

Good luck!

L.

Just because a child is intelligent does not mean they are ready for potty training. A lot of smart people lack common sense. SO even though she can explain it , it does not mean the other part of her brain understands how to respond to it. There is no rule on what age is right for potty training. In USA it seems we are always in a rush to do things regardless of what is best. You need to be patient with your child. WHen she is ready it will happen.

Does she like to think/say that she is a big girl? My daughter was almost 3 when she potty trained. We had been to visit family and she kept insisting that she was a big girl, I told her that no, so and so was a big girl because SHE goes potty in the toilet. That was it, I wish I had thought of it sooner, lol. Don't know if you have any little girls older than her around to use as an example, but if not surely you can think of someone from tv or something.

C.,

I'm having the same potty troubles wiht my son who is almost 2 1/2 so I was curious what advice people were providing you.

Good Luck!

Stop putting so much pressure on her. She may be able to tell you after the fact, but it is possible that she just hasn't been able to pick up on her body's cues before she goes. She'll get it. But, on her own terms, not your's.

This sounds all too familiar. By the time you have another child, your daughter will be long gone from potty training. She just needs to decide on her own to be consistent. You can't force that, in my opinion. Two suggestions that have worked for me: get her around a bunch of kids that are trained and go do something fun (like swimming in an indoor Y pool); when she sees the other kids withiout diapers, the peer thing might switch her over. My daughter behaved just like yours; then she was 100% done training by her 3rd day of preschool. Also, maybe if you wait just a few minutes to clean her up after accidents, she'll start feeling the yuckiness of it and be more motivated to walk to the potty.
You guys will be fine! happy new year!

We just went through this and found that the best way for kids to learn is to be a good example. By that I mean be consistent and remember to put them on the potty at regular intervals. At 2.5 they still need help connecting. It's not that they don't want to accomplish, they just need help. It's frustrating for them at times. One day she will surprise you and take care of it herself. Don't go overboard on the rewards. The physical relief and a smile from Mom are enough.

hi C...it won't be too long...but don't push it, becuz she seems confident to come to you when she is going, and if you push the issue with her, she may become afraid to tell you she has gone, and that would set ya back a few month. But maybe she tells you when she IS going, but has not learned to read the signs yet that she HAS to go. Remeber she is only 2 1/2, and yes alot of children are potty trained at that age, and alot more are not trained til 3-3 1/2. So she is doing great and you are doing great. And don't wait too long for yer second lil one. 2 in diapers will not last so long, but a big age gap will last forever. Good luck

It sounds like she's well on her way to potty training! 2 1/2 isn't an abnormal age for little ones to not be fully potty trained yet, so make sure you don't push it or there will be a power struggle. One of my friend's little girl really wanted this Elmo backpack. Her mom told her - well those are for big girls who go in the potty all of the time, and boom.... like that, she started going in the potty all the time. Of course most kids don't work like that, but I think they just need something to click. Don't worry, it sounds like she's almost there, she just needs the desire. When you go potty, you can tell her about it- "Mommy's going potty now because she's a big girl" and "Mommy's going pee pee in the potty", etc. Don't worry, she'll get it very soon - just keep doing what you're doing, sticker charts, an m&m every time she goes, you could keep track of how many times she goes and after so many times, she gets a special trip somewhere (like Chuck-E-Cheese, or a special prize, etc.) Sounds like she's almost there!

We missed what I call the "potty training window" with my oldest son, too. The point where they're able to learn their body cues of having to go, but you have to catch them before they get too smart. My son figured out that if he went in his diaper he could just keep playing or doing whatever and ask for a diaper change when it was convenient for him.
Unfortunately, it's probably not worth stressing over. She'll do it when she's ready. My son was just past his third birthday when he finally decided he was ready and I'll tell you one plus to that: once he decided, it was done. We never had any accidents, even at night and it was instant - overnight he was out of diapers.
Keep encouraging and doing what you're doing. And good luck. Those smart kids are a real handful (he's nine now!).

You need to get serious in drawing the going in the toilet good, going in your pants bad line. I'm not talking about spanking or anything like that, but you have to be clear that this is a big deal all the time, not just when she feels like it.

With my daughter we used candy as a reward for going potty. And that was the only time she got candy until she was fully trained, period. She got smarties or gummy candy for going pee (one piece) and chocolate for pooping (3 M&M's or a Hershey's Kiss) This was the same every where she went, no matter who she was with. For about six months that child earned every sweet that went into her mouth.

I also stopped changing her after about the third week. The first time I realized that she was going in her pants because she didn't want to get up and go to the toilet was when she got her clean underwear and change of clothes handed to her and mommy watched while she got herself changed. I continued to help her get dressed in the mornings and if there was a clothes change needed while she was dry, so that was another reward. During this time we did morning and night baths and I kept diaper cream on her to keep her from getting a rash from not being cleaned as well when she did it herself.

The other thing that helped with my daughter was a little competition. We happened to have four girls and one boy all potty training at her daycare at the same time. Plus a few older children who were already trained but willing to play along just for the candy. Since the only way to get a treat was to use the toilet, there was a line outside the bathroom all day long, even when it wasn't potty break time. Some of the kids ate their candy right away, and others held onto it just so they could rub it in that they had candy and so and so didn't, but every kid was consistently using the toilet at daycare by the end of three months.

My daughter is six now and she still heads straight for the bathroom at my grandma's house and then asks for her reward (grandma always has the fancy candy with the goo in the middle)

I used the training pants that Lisa M talked about. They are absorbant enough that everything doesn't get soaked, but the child sure feels it and it is not comfortable.