I am trying to potty train my 2 1/2 year old daughter. Does anyone have any advice?

Question

She knows what to do from start to finish, meaning she will go in the potty, wipe herself, flush and wash her hands. I just can't get her to learn when it is time to go. I tried pull ups and she thinks they are diapers. I have put her in underwear and she just pees in them. I just don't know what to do to get her to learn "the feeling". She also is beginning to dislike diapers. I don't know if I am just being impatient or if I am overlooking obvious signs. I would appreciate any advice.

Answer 1

It takes a lot of time and patience with potty training. What I did with my 3 girls is put them on undies in the morning. Set a timer for every 45 min to hour and when the timer went off I made them sit on the pot. This worked wonders. After 2 or 3 days they started getting the idea that this is where I am suppose to go. Also, when you go to the bathroom then have her sit at the same time.

Answer 2

I will tell you what my pediatrician told me. When she is ready it will take about 3 days no more than a week to train. If you start before they are ready you can battle for up to a year. He told me to choose my time to train wisely because no matter what we do these little ones will do it when they are ready and not us.

Now, my son is 2 1/2 and afraid of the potty so I am going to wait another month and see what happens.

My suggestion to you is that she may just be mimicking or playing when she wipes and such and may not be ready. If she wakes up dry go straight to the potty, if that works try every half hour. Do it when you are going to be able to be home for a few days. It does no good to try to train and then put a diaper on to run errands.

Remember that our little ones are going to be using the potty forever and a few more weeks or months in a diaper isn't so bad. My daughter who is now 16 trained in 2 days and didn't have any accidents except for night time since she was 27 months. My son who is 2 1/2 I am waiting until he is ready but when he is ready I will not be leaving my house for a week.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Wow, this is the cause of sooo much frustration and tension in soooo many homes. My number one advice is PATIENCE. Try to never show your anger or disappointment with the messes, just encouragement for the successes.

I agree with what you said about pull-ups, they feel too much like diapers so they were failures for both of my kids. They created a feeling of failure in everyone so in retrospect we would have been far better off never buying them as it just added to an already tense situation.

2 1/2 is very young for potty training. I know you can't wait to move on to the next stage but if indeed your child isn't ready, pushing her wil just make her put up psychological barriers to you and to the whole idea. With my daughter we struggled through failure after failure until one day, when she was about 3 1/2, she suddenly "got it," decided she was ready for underwear and never had a single accident since. With my son he showed alot more resistance so didn't really get him accident free until he was 4 (and to be honest, at 5 1/2 he still has the occassional accident.)

So in short I can't blame you for impatience but that is your biggest enemy. Good luck! You are not alone in this, share your feelings with your friends and don't take your frustration out on your beautiful little girl.

Answer 4

They sell diapers they are pull-ups and they are called cool alert so when they pee in them they feel wet and cold and they don't like that feeling. That is what I did with my daughter and it seemed to work I also let her put on big girl underwear when we were at home and I would just put her on the potty every 1/2 hour and I let her pick out her own underwear which she thought was super cool. She just turned 2 1/2 and she only wears a diaper at the night time know. Hope this helps

Answer 5

Bare Bum Baby ahead!!!

Its nearly summer, lose the diapers, lose the panties. Put the potty outside and cover that bum in sun lotion! She will learn faster when she can feel it herself. The mess will be in the grass and its no big worry. As for in the house, just wipe up the pee and do a nice carpet wash when he is fully out of accident stage.

Or, if you cannot under any circumstance do to the bare bum 101, try bringing her to the potty when you know she has to go. 20 mins after that lovely glass of ice tea should do it.

It takes time to learn the "I gotta go" feeling, but these tips should help her find it without as much stress (on both of you).

Enjoy

Answer 6

As a nurse and a qualified childcarer and mother. my advice is not to push your child until she is ready. i became worried when my 2 year old wasn't trained completely. lets understand that there is a big difference in a childs deveopmental stages from age 2-3. She will begin when she is ready. As far as I am concerned, the pull ups are just another stage that you have to wean them out of. It may be annoying to have to wash so many undies but your little angel will soon realise that this is uncomfortable fr her and based on the cause and effect theory will igure out the urges, the consequence of not going (wet pants) and put two and two together. obviously it s harder for them as their reaction times are different and they get pre occupied. the fact that ou say she is beginning to dislike diapers is a great start she is going to exert that autonomy anytime soon and I bet you in 2 months she will be trained. trust me it seems like it will tae forever but you can have them trained in a week. use encouragement and positive talk. When you need to go, say Mummy needs to go to he toilet etc and go , ask her if she needs to go to etc. use a sticker chart for rewards, this is often another effective harmless incentive. Try and locate some books for her about potty training. Make a fuss when she des go and perhaps even let her choose the toilet paper from the shops. the important thing is not to force her, make her feel guilty (as there is a chance that she will get a phobia although unlikely) and be patient. Dont worry if other people think she is too old or if you yourself think this. I am sure by the sounds of it though she is about to get it down pat. My daughter is now three and a half and she has accidents still 4 times a week through preoccupation and its completey normal. She is not developmentaly delayed in any way and nor is your little one so just relax and it wil happen!! I hope this gives you some reassurance!

Answer 7

Be consistent. My daughter was exactly 2 when she was fully potty trained and now that she will be 3 in august she even sits on our toilet by herself with out the potty ring.

Go with her to the bathroom everyday in the morning when you go. Ask her if she needs to go about every two hours. or sooner if she has had more fluids. She should catch on to what it feels like when she needs to go.

oh and btw, make sure you don;t use any goodies or trates as reward. Just jump up and down and really go crazy when she lets you know and she goes in the potty.

Oh and never ever punish her for soiling the floor or herself.

Answer 8

When you are home keep putting the underwear on her. She will not like the feeling of going in her pants with underwear on and will eventually learn to go on the potty when she needs to. Also what I used to do with my daughter was sit on a little chair next to her on and read to her until she went and when she did go I would make a big deal about it and give her a treat.

Answer 9

Well ask her every half hour or so if she has to go. If she pees her pants or poops them, don't take them off right away, let her feel her own mess, she will get sick of it.
Like you said it takes a lot of patience. Good luck...
One more thing don't give her liquids 2 hours before bed time, she will not wet the bed as much....
You might want to get a potty chair just for her too....

Answer 10

Don't push it. I also have a 2½ yr old daughter. She is the same way. She always goes when she is on the toilet but chooses not to go any other time. I have been using pull ups since she turned 2 in January. She likes that she can pull them up herself and push them down, that's the only reason why I am using them.