Potty help part deux!?

Question

Alright, so I recently wrote in a question asking for help potty training my 2 1/2 year old daughter. I've tried alot of the suggestions and I'm still having some problems!

One of the suggestions was to let her run around without a diaper, although it might be messy. Well I was willing to try this but SHE wasn't! She walked around like that for about 3 minutes before crying and begging for me to put a diaper back on her. I don't know why she likes them so much.

I also tried rushing her to the potty chair when I knew she was going number two. I think this only made her more scared of the potty as she screamed as soon as I set her on there.
We've tried books, we've tried movies, we've tried both the seat that sits on the big potty and a little potty of her own.

She wakes up dry every morning/naptime so I know she's ready, I'm gonna start the chart, although I don't see how it's gonna work when she'll barely even sit on it! Any more suggestions would be geatly appreciated.

She's seen me go to the bathroom ever since she was born! I'm a single mom so she pretty much goes everywhere with me. lol

Answer 1

First things first.. you have to introduce her to the potty.

Just because she is the right age doesn't mean she feels comfortable sitting on the potty if she has no experience with it.

Let her sit on it with her pants on while you read a book together. After she becomes comfortable sitting on it, she might be willing to sit with no pants on. Let her see you using the potty. She will want to be like you.

With my son, we had the potty around for a few weeks before we actually started potty training him. Once we started, he was comfortable with it. I would sit him on the potty every hour, and let him sit as long as he wanted. He loved washing his hands after, so it is kind of a reward for sitting on the potty.

Don't make a big deal about it and don't force her.. If it becomes an issue of control, she might withhold her BMs as a form of control and become constipated.

Make it part of her schedule. You don't ask a child if she is ready for bed. You tell her it is time for bed. Similarly, when she feels comfortable with sitting on the potty, don't ask her if she needs to go. She'll say no. Tell her it is time to sit on the potty. Pick her up and put her on the potty.

At first, my son was so eager to get up, he didn't even have a chance to pee, so I would tell him we had to wait at least 5 seconds before he could get up. Normally, if he had to pee, before we got to five, he would start peeing.

And praise! Tell her how big she is like you and Daddy and anyone else who is older that she likes (or wants to imitate).

Answer 2

She might have developed "potty phobia" :-) which at that age is very easy. My daughter would only need a couple of unpleasant experiences to start crying when she would see the same thing coming around the corner. So why don't you relax for a while and try to pretend that you don't care about that potty at ll. Just put the diaper without a word and leave the potty there in the room to use as a chair as much as she wants to. My daugther loved to sit on it (with her diaper on) and watch TV. After a while, when she has accepted the potty as her friend again, you can try again to teach its proper use. It is a bumpy road sometimes - my daughter would pee in the potty without a problem before she was 3 but she only wanted to do the BM in her diaper. I accepted that and we went like that for a while and then the time came (shortly after she turned 3) when she didn't want the diaper anymore. So now we're fine. Don't worry, this will pass too.

Answer 3

She is a little young so it will take some time. Usually children are not fully ready to be trained until after their 3rd birthday. Since she is showing no interest, let it go for awhile. Keep reading the “potty” books. A potty for Me by Karen Katz and Once Upon a Potty by Alona Frankel are good ones. There are also potty training books with Dora and Elmo if she likes them. When you feel she is ready, don’t push her. If you insist, she will resist because she is in control. Make sure she is in clothing that she can get on and off without any help. Let her pick out some "Big Girl" underwear. Get her (if she can’t get up without help) a step stool for the adult toilet. Count out the remainder of her diapers with her and say "After 9 more diapers (pull ups) you get to use the bathroom." When you think it is about time she should go or when you see her doing the "potty dance," say to her "It seems like you need to use the bathroom” or get real animated and say “Guess what time it is? It’s potty time!” (a little weird but has worked for me). If she is successful, do not reward her with stickers or treats or she will only use the bathroom for the reward and her interest in these rewards will only last a short time. Instead, simply say things like “You did it! You must be so proud of yourself! You went potty without help!" When she has an accident, don't give it much attention. Say "It looks like you need to change." She can remove her wet clothing, rinse them out, put them in a bag in the laundry, clean any wet area, and put on dry clothing. Let her do as much as possible. I know it is hard to take a step back but by doing this it won't take her long to learn it is much easier to use the bathroom. Don’t stress! Be patient and good luck!

Answer 4

I had a lot of trouble with my Grandson with the potty visits in general. He is the same age as your daughter and wakes up dry. I kept encouraging him by saying that he was a big boy now and needed to wear "big boy" underwear. I spent about 2 weeks working with him constantly encouraging him to go (this is a lot of work by the way). I was off work and had the time and was determined to get him trained. He had a lot of accidents, but I took away the diapers to make sure he understood that there was a real change in his responsibility - it took him a while to get it, but now we are going to the potty for both functions. It still takes paying attention to detail, and we still have minor accidents, but the #2 in the pants is a thing of the past. Since you daughter is apparently scared of the potty, you might try to promise her a small treat for going to it (usually I would discourage this, but it might be appropriate in your case). Training kids is frustrating and some catch on quicker than others, but hang in there and she will come around. Good luck.

Answer 5

You will have to be ultra dedicated to potty training....if you are a stay at home mom, just dedicate the week to potty training. Do everything together, watch tv, play or hang out, whatever you do. Don't leave the house. Go potty every 2 hours. Make a big deal everytime she makes it in the potty. DON'T GET MAD if she doesn't. She will pick up on the routine if you are super focused! Reward her with her favorite character panties ie: Dora, Strawberry Shortcake, something like that. Tell everyone who comes over that she's a big girl and can go in the potty. Biggest thing is stay focused and stay home, it will eliminate problems in the weeks after potty training, you'll be able to go potty in stores and she'll tell you she's got to go. GOOD LUCK!!!

Answer 6

Try a reward method. If she goes give her a sticker or a treat of some kind. Kids like the little things like that. My cousin is 2 1/2 i am potty training him. We set a timer for an hour he knows everytime it goes off he has to try to go potty. He comes and gets us now. Then when he goes he gets a treat. Tell her when she stays dry all day she will get to go pick out her own new panties. The kids love that. my cousin keeps reminding me that i have to take him shopping soon. good luck.

Answer 7

Did you try buying her panties? This was very exciting when I started my 2 year old daughter, as she thought it was really cool to pick out panties to wear. It might help without her going naked. I told both my kids (i have a son as well) that they were no longer going to wear diapers during the day (at night I kept them in pullups until they were 3), and I showed them the potty and another quick easy to understand rundown about what to do. At 2, they were both able to understand the concept. But yes, there were still accidents and there will be, you just have to stick to it and not go back and forth.

Answer 8

Try buying her some *pretty panties* and show her that she will be able to wear them instead of her diaper. I also did the bribe I know people say dont do that but it worked for me. First I started with the sticker chart and let her pick out and put up her own stickers every time she went # 2. Then I told her as soon as she had 10 stickers on her chart that we would go to the toy store and she could pick out anything she wanted. (within reason) that did the trick for me ...Good Luck!

Answer 9

Waking up dry from naptime and in the morning is not the only way to "know she's ready."

If she's fighting it this much, she's not ready, and trying to force her will not speed the process up.

2 is still young, she'll get it, but trying to force her is only going to make her resent the potty and everything associated with potty-training.

Answer 10

there are so many different ways people get their kids trained. for us, we had the open door policy. whenever one of us was in the bathroom, we left the door open. my husband was somewhat embarassed at first, but was willing to go along. (we have a daughter.) the idea was that before she was even remotely ready, she saw us doing our business (1 and 2, although yucky!!) and would have some understanding of what that thing in the bathroom was for. whenever one of us would go in there, she was at the door trying to get in anyway. it was the only door in the house that was ever closed to her, except the doors to the the outside. one of the guidlines that we looked out for was that if your child will sit for at least 5 minutes without getting up, they're ready to start. so i put the potty chair in the middle of the floor and when she would be watching her telletubbies, which had her engrossed for a half hour without getting up, i would get the diaper off and put her on the seat. when we got to the point that she was dry after nap, i started trying every 2 hours. if your daughter is afraid of the potty, don't even try yet. you don't want her traumatized by the thing. but it might be a good way to get her to stay in her "nakers" if you don't dress her right after bath. wrap her in her towel if it's chilly, of course, but if you can wait for warmer weather, CON her into staying undressed. after bath, tell her you have to do something else, and then get her dressed after a while. again, if she has a big fit about staying in her nudies, don't bother. if the kid's upset, there's no point. i had my daughter in the shower with me as soon as she was able to sit up, as bending over the side of the tub to give her a bath became increasingly harder for my back to handle, so she was already used to naked mommy, at any rate. it seems that, for us, being in her nudies on a regular basis before we tried putting her on the pot was really helpful. we also did a lot of messy crafts, like finger painting, and it was just a matter of convenience for me, but she did that sort of stuff in her nudies too. then i didn't have to worry about staining her clothes. if being in the altogether can be made fun, she'll take to it better. for young children, routine is so important, and change is so very scary. i think maybe she likes the diaper so much because she's not used to all of her being bare. if you can get her used to a little nudie time before and after bath, even before just getting dressed without bath, it may be very helpful. you could also try just putting her in panties and letting her wee in them. messy, yes, but you may find that she so dislikes the way they feel when they're wet and sticking to her, that it could be the impetus she needs to get her going on the pot. try checking out the pampers parenting site, there are a lot of good suggestions there, and talk to your pediatrician. remember, all kids do these things in their own time. keep that potty seat in the room of the house she spends the most time in so she at least gets used to seeing it. all of the answers i've seen here are excellent, but ultimately, this is your child. you know her better than we do. she'll let you know when she's ready.