Potty Training: Is This Normal?

One thing I would do is NOT ask her if she needs to. Just say "Okay, it's time to go pee" or "Do you need to pee? well, lets go try". She just doesn't always recognize the need yet, but you will be teaching her to.

I have a 23 year old daughter and a 3 year old daughter. With both my girls I just waited until they were ready and came to me requesting to "be a big girl and wear underwear". Both my girls were close to 3 and in 1 day were "trained". If you wait until they are intellectually aware that they are ready to move on and want to get out of diapers it will save you "A TON" on time and heartache dealing with this. I wouldn't buy into the old "2 is the time to potty train rule". The truth is most kids train much later.

Good luck!!

I had basically the same thing happen with my daughter. The pediatrician told me she wasn't ready and to put her back in diapers. I was really hesitant but it worked! We didn't talk about using the potty at all (ped's advice) and just mentioned in passing things like big girl underwear, and listening to your body, etc. Every morning I asked her if she wanted a diaper or underwear and one day 2 weeks later she asked for underwear and has had very few accidents ever since. I think she just was not able to listen to her body's signals and needed a break to learn to do it on her own. It had become a power struggle with us so it worked to completely stop pushing for a while.
Good luck!

Hello E.,
I know with our daughter if I'd ask her she'd say no and then have accidents. So after a while I just started telling her "Let's go try" and she would actually go potty. We did this every 30 minutes or so and after a while she was telling us when she needed to go. Also, with our daughter she didn't like the potty chair we had for her, she preferred the regular toilet, because that's what we were using. I would say have her sit there for no more than 2 minutes because I've heard their attention span is 1 minute for every year of age. Any longer than that and she might forget why she's sitting there.
Have patience. It will happen when she is ready. With my daugther I'd pretty much decided to wait until summer and she decided she wanted to wear nothing but panties and a t-shirt in the middle of winter.

Good Luck!

I experienced some of this with both of my girls - the trick is not to ask IF she has to go potty, but rather to say, "Ok, it's time to go potty now!" They get so distracted at this age that they really can't think more than 30 seconds into the future most of the time. She really doesn't have any idea that she has to go potty until she REALLY has to go, and by then it is too late to make it all the way to the potty. If she does have an accident, don't tell her it's ok (because it's not), but on the other hand don't get too upset either or she will feel ashamed. Just tell her, "Next time you'll make it to the potty!" (And then make sure she does.)

I disagree with the moms who think she is not ready - hey, if she's going in the potty at all, she's ready. She just needs support from you to make it happen!

She is pretty tiny to be expecting so much of her. I'd put her back in diapers and wait until she acts ready again. In the meantime, I'd tell her about all the big girl things she gets to do once she decides she wants to use the potty again, from wearing the cool big girl panties to doing big girl stuff with mommy that babies can't do.

Frankly, this is a war you cannot win. Don't fight it- for both of your sakes. Just love her. It goes way too fast.

I agree with Catherine, don't ask, tell. Go back to putting her on the potty every hour and giving her a sticker, M&M, or whatever little treat she likes when she stays dry. My son did this and was just his way of telling me, "Hey, I'm not done with my training yet."

I followed the 3-day potty training guide and it worked great. Then after about a month my daughter began having more and more accidents. I started rewarding again....as I did when we began the whole potty training process. And it took a few weeks, but she is doing great now. I got a clear drinking glass and some ping-pong balls and some kind of inexpensive prize (stickers, Dora bubble bath, Target $ bin) I would take Bailey to the store and let her choose her prize. We set them in the bathroom above the cabinet, where she could see the cup and her prize. And whenever she went in the potty she got to put a ball in the cup and once the cup was full (about 5-6 balls) she got the prize. We did this for almost a month and haven’t had to do it since. Hope this helps.

I know it seems counter-intuitive, you might try to STOP bugging her about using the potty. The whole idea of being potty trained is to use the toilet independantly... for kids that's the draw, right? Being a big kid... controlling their bodies. If they feel like that HAVE to go every time we say so, sometimes they resist.

Try backing off a little. Good luck.

HTH

i think you got lots of good advice here, and the only thing i would say is that 2 is pretty much as good as it gets with potty training, so try to not to have too high of expectations. just go with it. be proactive, have a sticker chart, but make sure she is not feeling bad when she has accidents. you sure dont want her realizing that is a way to negative-attention-seek. i would just say to my son "oh, did you forget to use the potty?" and then, "well, next time try to remember" most kids want to get it, adn if not you just may have to wait.

Kids don't consider the future very much, even a few minutes worth. Don't ask her if she has to potty. If she says no, it probably means, "no, not right this second." Just establish "potty times." Take her regularly to the bathroom, so that she gets used to going frequently, and gets used to the idea of using a bathroom. Keep in mind, you trained her to go in her diaper--it's all she's ever known. This is a totally new thing.

I'm a mom of 6 children. My last 3, ages 13,12 and 11, were all 3 yrs. before they were potty trained. I worried about potty training my first 3, at the "apporiate age of 2 yrs." When I was getting ready to potty my 4th child I read that children will let us know when they are ready to potty train, I also heard/read that 3 yrs is normal for potty training. Don't forget that when you get frustrated the child will too. Hope this helps.

My 3 year old did the same thing. She did great for a while then she just stopped trying. She pooped in the potty everyday but wouldn't even consider peeing. So I put her back in a pull up. Every few days I would ask if she was ready to use the potty and after a couple of months she said yes out of the blue and she's been 100% potty trained ever since. Even at night. Please, please wait till she's ready.

We never asked out daughter IF she wanted/needed to go. At 2, If they are doing something else, they are always goign to say no. We rephased it and said "It's Potty time, Let's go try" It worked a lot better for us.

Hope that helps!

L.

Making a two year old clean up after herself seems a little harsh.

The only thing I can suggest on this, apart from what you're doing, is just to set a 10-15 minute interval where you ask her if she has to go potty and then take her and let her sit on the potty for about 5 minutes at the most. If she still has accidents then it's just her wanting to be stubborn.

My son was afraid of the toilet and I had the option to have a behaviouralist come to my house and work with us. We used his favorite candy at the time to get him to sit on the toilet. We would give him a single candy, Skittles, after he would just sit on the toilet and then every few minutes after that. He eventually only got a Skittle if he actually went anything in the toilet. Maybe you could try that.

Hope this helps give you some ideas at least. Good luck with the potty training and just stick with it.

my son is 27 months and it took a while before he really got aware enough of his own body that he would tell us. i agree with the other moms that suggested "don't ask, tell". we just announce, it's potty time! it also reduces in the tantrums and meltdowns. there is no argument or question. it's just time to go. what also worked for us is to let our little man run around with no undies. we found out he is actually fairly aware and would stop playing and go to the potty by himself! with clothes on, it felt too much like a diaper (we used cloth) so it didn't bother him so much. a pain, but it's kinda fun to see his little rear peaking out from his shirt some times.

the idea of waiting to train is relatively new in light of the history of civilization, so don't feel like you're being pushy by training now. your daughter obviously has a clue, she just needs more support, like some other mommies said.