Potty training my three year old?

Question

Ok, my daughter will be 3 in 9 days. She will not go on the potty. She cries every time I put her on it. I have had her run around naked (which my husband says is the dumbest thing he has ever heard) and I even try using regular underwear. Also how old are kids when they learn their abc's and counting?

Answer 1

My daughter was potty trained early (around 18 months) according to some. I bought her a potty seat that goes on the big potty & made it fun & games for her. I took her to the bathroom with me & showed her how Mommy goes on the big girl potty (just peeing I mean). I bought her pull-ups with the designs & taught her she could keep the designs all day & she could see them so long as she didn't pee in them & went on the potty. That worked pretty well.

Umm... My daughter is 2 & can count to 20 & knows the Alphabet song.

I can only give you my personal experience, I don't know anyone else to ask for "general" info.

Answer 2

Well I can't tell you to much about the potty training. They just do it when there ready but you do still need to keep it going don't slack up because she's not interested. It took a whole year to completely potty train my son, at first there just scared they may fall in or something bad is gonna happen we started at 18 months and right before he was 2 1/2 he was 100% no pull ups, sleeps through the night, no accidents nothing altough he still doesn't stand up to well. We also found that he prefered to have a potty seat on the real toliet not a potty chair. Also we had reinforcement at his daycare they also start at 18 months. He hated sitting on the potty at first but he got used to it, I honestly could care less about him crying when I know its something that is good for him. As for the other question my son and his class knew there ABC's at about 1 and could count to 10 by 1 1/2 right now he can count to 30 and can count up to 10 objects (that's a little harder) he is 2 and 9 months. I suggest counting everything...repetition is great for them with anything potty training, ABC's, counting, discipline whatever. They need to do the same thing over and over again before the get it.

Answer 3

Hmm... seems like she has a fear of falling "in". This is common in children that has not been introduced to the potty before the potty process even started. If you buy her a potty that sings or something buy a book or a doll that goes potty too. Try the pull up thing for about a few days to get her in the habit of pulling them up and down. Then show her that the doll can go potty too. Then right before bath time while running her bath water, let her sit on her potty. The sound off water running and her being completly naked should help her to relax and then potty. Start with bathtime first, then eventually move to when its time to leave the house you must go potty. With my daughter shhe already knows the routine and I used to tell her if she didn't go she woul have to stay home with Elmo and go night-night. She was eager to go then. But try right before you do something that she's going to participate in, tell her to go potty first.


ABC's and 123's my two year old knows the ABC song when her favorite characters sing it but if I tell her to sing it she'll say 'em till about the letter K if I'm not singing with her. Her 123's she knows them till 13 with my help but till 10 without. A little trick with the numbers...........when you bring her to the park and she's swinging count everytime you push her. As you're walking to the car hold her hand and for every step its a number you count. When its time to go to bed sing 1, 2 buckle my shoe while she's brushing her teeth to give her time limit on how long she eat the toothpaste(at that age they mostly eat the toothpaste). At breakfast time count cheerios. Also there are ABC and 123 table mats. So two is about the age for introduction to everything, I think. They pick up on it quicker and is more understanding.


Please Note this is the longest response I have ever given on Yahoo! Answers.

Answer 4

Just never try to force her to pee on the potty. Sometimes that'll make her not wanting to go on the toilet worse. Children will start potty training when they are ready. That is how my son was. Then when he finally started we gave him 1 M&M for going potty and 2 for going poppy. He didn't start potty training until he was just over 3yrs old. I put him in underwear and I really watched him to make sure that when he had to go he went in the toilet. It took a while, and a lot of patients.
He didn't really get into his ABC's and 123's until almost 4. Then we had a hard time getting him to want to recognize his letters and numbers until his preschool teacher decided see if sign-language would help him want to learn. It worked like a charm. He is now 5 and a half years old. He knows his alphabet in sign-language and some other every day words.
Sometimes you just have to find that little trick that works for your child. But the best advice I can give you is to never try to be to pushy or force your child to learn something. Things come in they're own good time.

Answer 5

I got a book and video called Once Upon A Potty for Her. It worked when nothing else did. I bought a potty shaped just like the one in the video, it cost about $6, and it worked like a charm. Target.com has one for $20 that is actually from the same company that makes the video, and is called once upon a potty, it comes with a cd that plays the music from the show!. In the video, it is explained what each body part is and what it is for. for example: this is lulu's eye, she needs it to see, this is lulu's foot, she needs it to walk, this is lulu's tee tee, she needs it to go wee wee. It does kinda shock adults because they show every part on the cartoon girl, but if you think about it, how else is she going to know what is where? They are not explicit drawings, just basically lines, and the anus is just a black dot lol! I think the hardest thing for little girls is that they can't see what you are doing on the toilet like a boy can with a man! This clears things up. also, add in the suggestions about dolly and books for the potty too, they help beleive it or not!
My daughter didn't want to learn her abc's with me either, she was sure i was wrong, she was a little know it all at that age. I just keep on singing them and if she gets a little further, i rewarded her with something like listening to a favorite cd, or dvd, and occasionally a piece of candy,or a walk in the park. Be patient, it will happen! And don't worry, my daughter was one of the last to get her abc's down, and now she is six, and reading second and third grade books, they all learn at their own pace, this doesn't mean thery are going to be behind forever ;)

Answer 6

I started out by buying a simple white potty that looked the closest to a regular toilet. No bells n' whistles. Then I got her the "Feel N Learn" pull-ups which are great because when they are wet, they feel wet to the child. Then we had a "sticker" program. I would put her potty in front of the toilet and we would both go potty together. Every time she was successful, she got a sticker that she placed on the bathroom cupboard beside her potty chair. That way she was able to see the rewards of her efforts. And I also made a big effort to praise her really dramatically! Then we'd both empty her potty into the toilet and wave and say "bye-bye peepees/poopoos, thanks for coming out!" She'd sometimes just sit on the chair and "pretend" to potty just so she'd get a sticker! But she quickly figured out that she needed to produce visible results... It took about 2 months. Then I took her shopping and let her pick out her own underwear (Dora). She was so happy to wear them and very, very proud. She had a few accidents but I never made a big deal out of them to her. It got tricky when we went out because it's important that as soon as said she had to potty, we had to pull over right away. I was sure NOT to fall back on the pullups just because we were out. It just prolongs the process. She was able to wear underwear during the day and a pullup at night. Then, eventually she lost the nightime pullup and I woke her at 2am and took her to the potty - every night for about a week. And then that was that.

Every child is different tho - the key is to make a big fuss when they go and not make a fuss if they don't. Good luck with it.

Answer 7

My son is 2 and has been completely potty trained for 5 months now. However, he will go potty in his own potty chair and is afraid of going on the big toilet. I don't push it, at least he doesnt' wear diapers anymore. He is 2. 6 months and can recite the abc's on is own and count to 13 on his own. He has been able to do that for about 6 months now. He also knows all his colors, but we make games out of learning. good luck

Answer 8

Every kid is different. The age for counting and reciting the alphabet varies. If you make it part of your everyday dialog, she will pick it up in no time. Do not put pressure on her to repeat it back perfectly.

As for the PT thing, my nephew refused to pee standing up, he had to sit down to pee. We went with what he would do and made the best of it. Over time, he finally decided that standing was better than sitting.

As for your daughter and not wanting to sit, make sure she feels secure on the seat. If you are using a kiddy-potty, make sure it doesn't slide all over the place. You should take her in to potty whenever you go and lead by example. Also, put some of her little books near the toilet. Give her something to occupy her mind, a slight distraction from feeling insecure about the potty seat. This is also a great tool for #2.

As for regular undies, I believe that is the best way to go during the day for the first few weeks. Then gradually move to that at night with a good waterproof mattress pad.

With my nephew, I set the timer on my watch for 1-hour countdown intervals. When it bleeped, the nephew went to the bathroom whether he was ready or not. :) In less than two weeks, the daytime wetting dropped to the rare accident. An hour before bedtime he had his last drink of the night. Then at bedtime, he went to the potty. After two hours, we would wake him enough to carry him to the potty and he either went or didn't. We left him on the potty for at least 3 to 5 minutes no matter what. Then it was back to bed for him. Some of us are night owls, so a few hours later he got another trip to the potty. Then in the early morning, the first person awake would carry him into the potty, and then put him back to bed again. He would get up for the day two or three hours after that.

I am proud to say that within about 6 weeks we finally quit washing his bedding on a daily or every-other-day basis. That was about when we started dropping off the middle of the middle of the night potty trip too.

We never punished for accidents. We praised for when he came to us to alert that he needed to go. We gave a sideways look to being lazy and not going to the potty. We did not make a great big deal out of the accidents.

Oh, at bed time, until you get the routine down, the newer pull ups that let them feel the wetness will probably work better than the regular pull-ups. We only bought one package of the pull ups for night time use, and did not use all of them.


Good luck!

Will D
Enterprise AL

Answer 9

My niece was about 2 1/2 when she started to learn to count and do her ABCs, because my sister would always sing the abc song to her at bedtime and when she got her dressed she would count her toes and fingers. I have heard that a lot of people let their kids run naked in order to get them potty-trained, so it is not too strange...just make sure you have lots of carpet cleaner on hand. Does your daughter follow you into the bathroom? My son will be 2 next month and he loves going into the bathroom with my husband and I and watching us "Go".

Answer 10

my daughter just turned 3 and she is fully potty trained. we used to take books in the bathroom and read. also she leaned her ABC's at2, we would sit her on the potty and do are ABC's and count till she did something, not the most conventional way to teach them I'm sure but it worked. good luck and remember , she's just a baby and Little accident is a learning experience don't yell she will get tired of being wet or dirty and shell just go:)