Potty training 30 month old...?

Question

My husband and I recently started potty training our 30 month old daughter. She seems to understand the concept that her pee and poop go in her potty chair. She obviously does not know her body signals of when she needs to go yet, I understand in time she will learn those signals.

My question is...is how long do you usually allow them to sit on the potty chair whether something comes out or not? First thing in the morning and after she wakes from her daily nap, I usually take her to her potty and allow her to sit so she can grasp the concept to try go when she wakes up. I try to take her after each meal as well. Or try to take her every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. There are times where something will come out within 20-30 minutes, other times will just sit there and read, color, or sing songs for over an hour and nothing comes out. Is an hour too long for her to sit there? She doesn't seem to mind sitting there for that long.

My mom said I'd sit for hours when she trained me @18 mo

Answer 1

Everyone has a different viewpoint on when a child should be potty trained, what the meaning of it is, etc. There is also no cookie cutter way of potty training children. I am a mom of two boys, 3 1/2 and 5 (both potty trained). I chose to wait until my boys were showing signs of wanting to potty train (i.e. waking up dry from naps, striping of clothes, asking to go potty, showing interest in the potty).

It sounds like your daughter is not ready to do it on her on - more like you help her with prompts, especially if she's sitting on the potty for 20 or 30 minutes. The most I would let my boys sit there if they told me they wanted to go potty, was 10-15 minutes.

When talking to a developmental pediatrician about potty training, she told me there is a difference between the child being potty trained and the parent being potty trained. If the parent's the one taking their child to the potty instead of your child asking to go potty, then it's the parent that's potty trained. The child is going potty, but hasn't learned the proper bodily cues to know the urges on their own.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing to do this - it's fine. Many people really dislike diapers, for the ickiness or the expense or both and choose this route for potty training. If this is the route you would prefer, I say listen to your mom if it worked for her!! Good luck with your sweet girl!

Answer 2

I tried letting my children sit on the potty like that but that didn't work for them what I did was when they would use the bathroom on themselves I would put them on the potty and tell them they are suppose to use the potty. Or when they would drink I would put them on the potty 30 min after they drunk something good luck but each child is different and learn at different rates you just have to be patient