Potty Training Help - Prairie du Chien, WI

Hi K.,

My 2 yr old daughter use to take her diaper off by herself and bring it to me right after she peed. We switched to pull ups and started training. We've had a few rough spots but she cosistently pees in the potty now and wears big panties or nothing when we are at home, pulls up when we are out because she doesn't always tell me soon enough to find and get to the restroom, but she still doesn't poop on the potty.

Good Luck,
Megan

Some may disagree, but I think two is a little young to really understand the concept of potty training.But that does depend on the child. I don't however, think it's too young to certainly try it if she's showing interest.
There are many different approaches to successful potty training. There are rewards, star charts, etc. Also videos or stories about potty training can be helpful. With my daughter, I think totally it was a good 9 month process, and I wasted too much time worrying about it. She did it when she was ready. Then you're on to night training. Good luck!
C.

My 2 yr old daughter got potty trained this summer. First I stopped putting her in diapers when we were at home and she would know when she went. Next I let her pick out the color of the new potty seat and she was pretty into it at first, (like everything else the novelty wears off!) But it worked well, it just clicked I guess.
Do you think she's playing in the mess for your attention? Have you tried ignoring it? I would think she would grow tired of that game and just get on with the potty if you keep providing her the opportunity to use it.
Don't feel stressed about it though, she is probably very close and will do it when she is ready.

Well I think its a huge step that she knows what she's doing! When my daughter was almost 2 we started trying to train her because she was showing so much interest but we weren't very consistent in the beginning. However, one Saturday I just brought the training potty into the living room while she played, watched cartoon, etc. I took off her panties and just let her be naked from the waist down! That way she didn't have to wait for them to be taken off or anything in the beginning when she couldn't recognize the signal as quickly. I asked her about every 5 minutes if she had to pee and when she did I would praise her excessively. We also used stickers as a reward. Right after a meal is always the best time to watch for the pooping and that did take a little longer. This method works better than pull ups in my opinion because they just don't get the full effect of the "accident" in a pull up.
My daughter is now 2 1/2 and she still does where a pull up at night but she has been staying fairly dry lately so we may give it a shot at night as well!

K.,

I potty trained my first 3 kids with a book called "Toilet Training in Less than a Day." It is the same method Dr. Phil recommends. I had a college professor who used this method, too. He let people pay to drop off their kids in the morning and pick them up potty trained in the afternoon. He had a 95% success rate.

The deal with this method is that it works like a recipe. If you pick and choose ideas from it, it won't work. You have to be precise and consistent. My first two kids took a few days (because I wasn't precise and consistent.) My third child took 4 hours. They were between 26-29 months old when I potty trained them.

Good luck,
S.

HI,

I agree with Valeria. Two is kinda young. It can be very frustrating I know. The daycare my daughter goes to just said to bring her in panties and see what happens. I brought 5 changes of undies and shorts. Lo and behold she TOLD THEM SHE HAD TO PEE! She had one accident at the end of the day when she saw my husband and got excited. I was so shocked and proud of her. She was three when the did this. If it were up to me she would probably still be in diapers.

But I really do think 24 months is little young. It's good that she is grasping the concept. By 3 I am sure she will be doing just fine in letting you know. Each child has their own baby steps. When my daughter was two she would tell me after she went. She was so excited to tell me but it was after the fact but it was a big step for her.

Hang in there and be patient and go at her pace then at 3 just throw her in some panties.

Have her help you clean it up. Use toilet paper and bring the mess to the potty and put it in. Maybe that will help her connect the dots. I would say you should try not to go anywhere with her for a while. Get pull-ups or training pants and confine her to a small, easy to clean area where you can be sure that you will catch her in the act and be able to place her on the potty, even if it is mid-stream.

Potty training is so frustrating because they "seem" to understand but kids haven't always connected the all dots. She seems in the middle of readiness...she understands while she is going. This is an important part of the readiness progress but she's not there yet. Her next step will be getting in touch with the 'need to go' sensation. Keep an even keel. Read her potty books. Potty training is ususally two steps forward and one step back for longer than we'd like it be with most of our kids.

V. Lansky
author of
KoKo Bear's New Potty and
Toilet Training: A guide for daytime and nighttime training

It sounds like she is already potty trained to a point, now just needs to be encouraged to potty where she should. I heard people say back in the "olden days" when there was outhouses, they would train the little ones to go on newspaper instead of running them out to the outhouse all the time. So she basically potty trained herself, or 3/4ths of the way.

To encourage the potty instead of the floor, you could move the potty chair into the room you are at the moment. If she plays more in her bedroom, move it there, if it is in the livingroom, move it in there. When she goes potty on the potty instead of the floor, have something special for her, a favorite candy she can't have any other time, a sticker on a chart or a special little toy like braclets or those necklaces. When she gets into going in the potty all the time instead of on the floor, you can have her help move the potty to the bathroom and let her know she needs to go in there for it.

Good luck.

K.,

My daughter turned 2 in January and on her 2nd birthday we gave her a potty chair, potty book, and panties. We first tried the pull up thing and that did not work, she kept calling them her big girl diapers. So the key was to get rid of the pull ups all together, we also sent her to daycare in panties and she had about 1 accident a day for the first couple of days but never again.

At home we took one long 3 day weekend just being home and let her run around naked / or with a dress with no panties. When she acutally felt the pee going down her leg, she realized what was happening and hated being wet and started using the potty. We did give her M&Ms when she used the potty. At night we still put diapers on, until she started waking up and telling us that she had to go.

I believe we are totally blessed because she was completly trained even at night at 26 months. I just hope our other daughter is that easy! Good luck and let me know how everything goes.

I do have to say my daughter is at daycare with 15 other toddlers her age and she is one of the 2 that is potty trained. So each child is different.

M.

You also cannot believe how much older your 2 year old we get in just a couple of months. Mine is talking so much and doing things she never attempted 2 months ago.