Potty Training Advice for 2 1/2 Yr Old.

The best advice that I can give any parents trying to potty train, is don't. Let them do it on their own. My oldest was 3 years old and 3 days and my 2 year old (3 in August) just decided last week that she was also ready. the best thing you can do is just let them do it on their own. Supply the things they need and let them choose. I got a little potty for her (the youngest), I let her pick panties and put them in her drawer next to her diapers and just let her know that she was old enough to start trying if she wanted to. The worst thing you can do is push, because not only is it frustrating to them, it is also frustrating for you. When they are ready, they will go on their own.

I was dreading the potty training, and decided to just not even try until well after baby brother came. Big brother had different ideas. The baby wasn't very old when he decided that he wanted to ditch his diapers. I figured that if he were the one leading the process, I wouldn't stop him!
If your daughter can't really tell when she needs to go, maybe she just needs to mature a little. It's hard to know if your child will suddenly "get it" or if she'll still be happy in diapers when she's 5. But you've still got some time to let her decide for herself.

I would advice you not to push potty training at this point. I tried to get my oldest daughter (now 5) potty trained before the birth of my second, and it was just frusterating. So I backed off for a few months. I left the underwear in her drawer and when she got dressed every morning I said "do you want to wear underwear or diapers today?" And then one day she said "I want to wear underwear", and that was it. She never wore diapers during the day again. That was 2 months before her sister was born, she did have a few minor set backs with accidents in public and stuff after the baby was born but nothing major. I think the fact that I just made the choice up to her really helped. Now my middle daughter is 2 and I plan on doing the same thing once she starts to show an interest. Right now she has a new baby sister and I think it may take her a little longer, but who knows it may just click with her one day too. Good luck to you. Don't stress yourself out too much I have seen perfectally normal healthy kids who aren't potty trained at 3. She'll ge there!

Advice on potty training your daughter and NOT you....let her take the lead. Its her body, when she's ready to control it she will. Meanwhile enjoy the diaper changes. If you read the potty training QA's previously on the site you'll notice the overall theme is this:

A) She trains herself. You lay low and follow her lead, don't push at all and she will train within a couple days when SHE is ready.

B) You can push and do the timing thing where you put her on the potty every hour forcing her to 'go' and perform. But if you're the one telling her when/where to go, who is the one trained? You.

My personal experience found option A to be a lot easier on all of us.

Good Luck.

Hi E.. I just download a guide to assist me in potty training my 2.5 year old little boy. I am going to give it a shot, here is the link. Good luck to you.
www.thepottytrainer.com
Let me know if it helps you. It does cost but some of the stuff I have read on it so far is so true.

again good luck,
J.

When I started potty training my oldest, I wanted her out of diapers before the new baby also, she wasn't totaly ready but I pushed anyway. She was very stubborn and had no problems peeing her pants and playing in them until I noticed. When the baby was born ( mine are the same distance as yours, baby born in march, oldest turned three in april) she regressed back to pooping in her underwear. I would wait until she is really ready, don't push her. I wish I would have waited until after the baby was born and let her set the pace.

I was right there in your shoes about to years ago. My baby was due at the end of August and my daughter was turning 3 around the same time. I forced my daughter to get potty trained because I didn't want to have two kids in diapers (been there, done that) I have regretted it hole-heartedly. My daughter was 90% potty trained (a couple of accidents at night per week) when the baby came. When I brought the baby home my daughter started having multiple accidents in the day and accidents every night. She still has accidents in the day and every night for almost two years now. Because it is such a sore spot for me and her, I wished that I would have just waited until she it was her time not mine. I would have been done with this a long time ago! Good luck with whatever you decide, but a good indicator is (from my MIL) if they wake up dry three nights in a row then you can start a method called "Potty Training in less than a day" look up the book title, it's really great and low stress. My MIL is known in her town as th potty training queen, (She had 10 kids, no bed-wetters and trained many kids in her neighborhood.)
Good luck,
N.

E.,

I tried for months to potty train my oldest boy before I had my second. Nothing worked, then he was around a bunch of other kids that went potty, and he decided to do it too. We never had problems after that. I would just tell you to get her around older children that already are potty trained, and see if she gets interested in it then. Hope this helps!

Sounds like to me she is not ready. You can encourage her by having a potty chair available. Let her watch you potty. Let her run around without diapers. Buy her pretty panties. Read her books or have her watch movies about potty training. Have a doll that promotes potty training. Reward her for any efforts. Never give any repercussions. Other than that, it is out of your control, in my opinion. Plus, when the new baby comes, she'll regress anyways. She'll probably be more ready when she's three. She can be a big girl/big sister and show her sibling how she can go potty.

I read a bit of a book called Potty Training in a Day or something like that. By Terri Crane. It might be of help. Our little guy isn't old enough, so I didn't read the whole book, but what I did read seemed good.

Love and Logic teaches that when you want your kids to do something you "model it with great joy and enthusiasm." So whoop it up when you go to the bathroom "Come on Suzie, Mommy’s going potty, it's going to be so much fun" Let her flush, wave bye bye.

If she sees how much fun mommy and daddy are having going potty she'll be less afraid and want to try it too. Check out the DVD on www.loveandlogic.com "Simple Parenting solutions" and if you want to take a love and logic parenting class or get parent coaching, check out my website www.headandheartparenting.com.

Good luck!

well my suggestion is just try potty training off and on. My son started potty trainin when he was 2yrs old but then stopped. So i just let him be cause trying to make him just made him mad and me too. Now finally at 3 and few months he is potty trained which was easier with very little accidents. Children cant be on a time line on most things. Some kids do it faster then others.

Go to easypottytraining.com. You will have to pay to download a E-book, but it is TOTALLY worth it. My daughter potty trained in 5 days when she was 20 months old. The only time she has had an accident is when she has diahreah or something like that. She was dry through the night from the very beginning, and we never wasted any money on pull ups. And by the way, we had a baby 2 months after, and she did just fine. As long as they still get plenty of attention, there won't be any digression. I would definitely do it now, so you only have one in diapers.