Potty Training Advice - Riverton,WY

I know this won't be what you want to hear, but I would just get rid of diapers and go straight to underwear--cold turkey. I bet if you put her in underwear full time, she'll get the idea. My daughter was about 2 years 3 months when she potty trained fully, but we started getting her interested when she was about 19 months. We got a little potty, put it in the bathroom, and let her try it when she wanted. She would go sometimes, and not others. She was in a diaper this whole time. After the initial excitement of the potty wore off, she chose to go less and less often, and finally, I noticed there was actually dust on her potty! That, combined with the fact that I was about to have our second child, made me try to get her interested again. I tried bribing (marshmellows) and making sure I asked her to try every hour or so. She still was only about half interested. But I never pushed the issue. Then my son was born, and I came home from the hospital with this tiny baby, in teeny tiny diapers, and the first time I had to change my 2 year old's giant poopy diaper, that was it! The next day, LITERALLY, I put her in underwear, and within three days, she was totally trained (during the day). She would have stayed in diapers much longer if I had let her. SHe was never one to care if she was wet or poopy. The other thing that helped us was getting a seat that went on the big potty, rather than making her use the little one on the floor. She liked using the grown up potty better. Good luck. It will happen! You have quite a while before kindergarten!

The reason she's so adamant about not starting is probably because a big deal was made out of it for a long time before she was ready. If she's 3 1/2 you have plenty of time! :) You will feel you know when she's ready and the reason you still think you don't know is because she's not ready yet. Just try not to worry about it. Focus on other things. Have a couple of potty books and ask her periodically if she wants to read them. Only read them with her if she wants to. Pay attention to how often she's wetting/soiling and be patient. When I finally knew my child was ready, I just knew. At that point I kept him in nothing but a shirt for 2 days and took him to the toilet every hour. After that, after he got used to it, we bought him underwear and wrapped it up, Let him pick out a special treat (he picked cinnamon bread), bought a hat and had a 'no more diapers party'! We danced, opened presents and had a blast. I then made him a tiny scrapbook with a little cheapie photo album that you slide 4x6 pictures into and we 'read' it whenever he wanted to.

IMPORTANT After they start wearing undies a lot of kids you still need to take to the bathroom every couple of hours so pay attention to that and how much they drink! :) Some even go through phases when they're older that you have to remind them to go every couple of hours because they get so wrapped up in what they're doing they still have accidents sometimes.
K.

I recently read part of the book Potty Train Your Child in a Day by Terri Crain. It might be helpful. It was too old for our ds. We use Toilet Train Your Child in a Day by Dr. Azrin. It worked well for our oldest. We plan to do it again here with our next one. Both books have been recommended to me by friends.

I would start by picking a date on the calander, about a month out, and stick to that date. Up until that, talk w/ your DD about it, make it a party day, go with her to pick out a special prize (not to soon, right before you start) and let her know that after a week if she is using the potty then she gets her special present. It's Ok if she has accidents so long as the bulk of time she is usuing the potty, you will have to start all over again for at least that first day. On the first day make part of the party about getting rid of all of the diapers, get a pretty box and have your DD place all of her diapers in it, explain that these diapers are going to go to a new baby who needs them more, if you have a local shelter or a place for low income moms take the diapers there with your DD, I would do it on the second or third day, where a trip in and out won't be so bad. The more fun you make this and the bigger dael it is the less resistant she might be, it is a power struggle at this age, be prepared to "win" once you start.