Potty Training and Weaning for 2 1/2 Yr Old Girl

My daughter (now 5) potty trained at 2 1/2 but I let it happen in only a positive way-some kids don't train until 4. I'm not a big tv person but on a recommendation, I sat her in front of this video called "Once Upon a Potty" I let her sit on her little toilet while watching. It's magic, I swear. We had fun singing the potty song. I let her move the potty to different places for the first week. She loooved the video and she literally did it herself. I made a sticker chart and every time she even tried to go she got to put one on, then it changed to getting 3 stickers if something came out, then it turned into a sticker only if she went every time, etc. But the video and the song...so catchy and it worked (it's funny too-seems like its from the 70s)

As far as weaning...my other daughter now 17 months latches on but there's nothing in there anymore so I just keep saying, "You can try but its all gone," then I have a cup of milk or rice milk there for her to have.

Now after a week of that, she rarely tries. I don't know if you have a lot of milk left but I pumped one day and only a trickle came out so that made me realize she was only doing it habitually.

And, she's been trying to use the potty. I think the important thing is not to force it, just to have fun with it. Have your boys encourage her to be a big girl. Hope that helps! Everyone is different as I'm sure you know :)

Hi E.. I think that it is great that you are not forcing your little girl to potty train before she is ready as a lot of negative behaviors can develop if our wee ones are forced. My little girl is just about to turn 2 and we haven't begun to train her, but got her a potty a few months ago and just started talking to her about what is supposed to happen... she took this new information and decided herself that if she wasn't pooing in the potty that it was a bad thing and she started holding it in! It was horrible. Anyhow, she got over that in a couple weeks and now we only talk about it if she brings it up. I am absolutely going to let her lead her potty training experience so that something like that doesn't happen again.

As far as the weaning goes, I just completed my daughter's weaning process yesterday. It was very challenging for us. My daughter would not prescribe to many of the games for saying "good bye to the boob" that so many people recommend... her rational was that she didn't want to say good bye. What I finally had to do, was different than much what was advised... sat in her nursing chair (or in bed... we also co-sleep) and explained to her why we needed to stop nursing but how she could still cuddle mommy, blah blah blah. She would tantrum and when she did, though it was counter-intuitive, I would put her down on the floor or next to me on the bed and ignore the tantrum. It was hard, but I reasoned that I was right next to her if she wanted to come to me. She would tantrum for a couple minutes and then come back to me and we would sing and rock until she fell asleep. She would sometimes cycle through the tantrum process a couple of times before she fell asleep. This lasted for 4 days and now, she just asks to rock and be sung to, not to nurse. I am not a cry-it-out mom, but this is what I deemed necessary at this point.

Not sure if this will help you at all, but this is what I experienced and I feel that, ultimately, my daughter and I surfaced positively from a very challenging weaning experience. Good Luck, A.

I needed to wean my son when he was 2 1/2. We told him for a few weeks on such and such a date, you are going to be 2 1/2 and we are going to have a party and then no more ba-bas (that is what we called nursing). He is the type of kid who can handle anything as long as he is well prepared and knows what to expect. When the day came, we had cake, sang "happy birthday", gave him a little present and reminded him - no more ba-bas. To make it easier, my husband put him to bed for a few nights (he was a big night time nurser and I actually put him to sleep that way every night for the first 2.5 years), we added a couple more books to read at bed-time (he LOVES his stories) and he had no problem. He didn't even ever ask to nurse again.

As for potty training, we tried on and off starting at 18 months, but he didn't end up doing it until he was ready (right after he turned 3). He said, I want to wear underwear. We put them on and took him to the potty every 1/2 hour for a couple of days. By day 3 he was trained. Part of the motivation was that he got a "big boy bicycle" for his 3rd birthday, but he wasn't allowed to ride it until he was wearing underwear (he agreed that it was very uncomfortable to ride with a diaper on). I think it was easy because he was ready (he was in school and a lot of the kids were trained). Good luck!

Hi E.,
Congrats to you on breastfeeding through the toddler years! Weaning and toilet training are such big milestones, I think it would be unwise to tackle both at once. Pick which you think is more important to be done with first, or which you think will be easier for your little girl and get through that first, then tackle the next one a few months later.
If you're serious about toileting, don't just ask her if she wants to or has to go. Put her in heavy cloth training pants with waterproof outer layer and take her to the toilet consistently, about every hour or hour and a half through the day, diapering only for naps and bedtime. The cloth will help her understand her body's signals, what happens when you pee - you get really wet, and what it feels like just before that happens. Taking her consistently and not when she wants to lets her know that this isn't a game but behavior that you expect.
Good luck!