My daughter will be three in July and refuses to wear panties or pee in the potty. Occassionally she will pee in the potty but not all the time. She says she wants her "diapy". I have tried everything imaginable to get her to use the potty. I feel like I should be doing better at this I have worked with young children and have a master's degree in preschool. Yet my child won't use the potty.
Hang in there! If she's not ready, there isn't a lot you can do to make her use the potty. Some children take longer than others. Reward her and make a HUGE deal about it when she does use the potty and don't make her feel bad but don't do anything positive when she wants a diaper.
Good Luck:)
Hello J.. With our daughter, we found out the best strategy was to not push her about it too much. After trying and trying to get her to use the potty, we decided to step back and let her decide when she was ready, which really did get her more into learning how to use the potty. We started her at 2 and she got it by the time she turned 3, so it took a good year. I also read in a baby magazine then that you can put some underwear (cute eye catching ones for her) and some diapers in your daughters dressing drawer at her level so she can reach them. Then you tell her that she gets to choose which one she wants to wear but if she picked the underwear, then she would have to use the potty when she had to go. Well, our son will be 2 on Thursday, so we are slowly introducing the potty to him, but this time we won't try to rush it on him like we started to do with our daughter. Just know that no matter how frusrating it may get, she will get it eventually. Good luck :)
Hello! I have two kids, and had the first one potty trained in 5 days, and the second in 3 days. Here's the trick....eat, drink, and breathe potty training until they're trained. Do it when you have atleast 3 days to devote to staying home and doing nothing but potty training. This is what I mean...
On day one, put their potty chair in the livingroom and surround it by books, coloring books and crayons, and whatever else your child may be interested in that you can play with to keep them sitting there. Put on their favorite cartooon/movie, and have them sit there until they go. The first step to potty training is to catch them in the act. Now, the way that I potty trained takes a TON of patience, so make sure YOU are ready to potty train before you start, because once you start, you have to stick with it. There are times that first day and maybe even the second day where you'll sit there for a couple of hours before they'll go pee, no joke. But as long as you're watching tv with them and playing with them, trust me, they won't care. Both of my kids loved it because they got total attention from me and got to play with whatever they could as long as they could play while they sat there. I even had a tray for eating that I put in their laps and we sat and played play-dough together.
If it takes a while for them to go potty that first morning, feed them their cereal while they're sitting there so they don't have to get up until after they go potty. Once they finally go potty, get up and act nuts basically, totally excited about it. Have a sticker chart made up out of posterboard and decorate it with whatever they love, my son loves letters and numbers, so I put those all around the outside. Then, let them choose a sticker and put it on the chart. I even went as far as putting the sticker chart up high, so they got to stand on the counter to put a sticker on it, that way it was even cooler to them.
AFter that, set your timer on the microwave for one hour and when it goes off, have them sit again until they go. In the meantime, put underwear on them, you can double or triple them up since they're used to wearing a thick diaper, and put thick pants on them like corduroys or thick sweats. Then, here's the trick, put a couple of pairs of really thick socks or even slippers on him so that when he has accidents, you're not constantly cleaning your carpet, it will soak up into his clothes. When he has an accident, explain to him how it feels yucky, and how he should go potty in the potty chair so that doesn't happen, then take off wet clothes and sit him in the potty chair until he goes again, explaining to him that "this is where we go potty".
Cut off juice one hour before bedtime starting that night.
Do the same the second day, and also pay extra attention to what he does before he poops, so you can start to catch him and set him on the potty before he goes. I went to Dollar General and bought super cheap underwear so I could just cut the sides and throw them away, instead of having to clean up and wash out underwear after poopy accidents.
The first 3 days are really hard and take a lot of patience, but stick with it! By the middle of the second day, my son started telling me sometimes when he had to go potty, the third day was the worst day because I had him running around with only a shirt on, so he was spraying my house at times (my shampooer basically sat in the livingroom all that day, ready for the next accident). I had him run around with no pants because as soon as I'd put underwear on him, he'd poop, so I kept them off and he wouldn't go poop with nothing on. It took him a few tries of taking him to the potty every 5 minutes, but finally, he couldn't hold it any longer and he pooped in the potty on the 3rd day. I had a surprise bag for when he pooped that was full of toys from the dollar store that he got to choose from whenever he pooped.
The fourth day, he woke up, went potty as soon as I set him on the potty, which during the second day had moved back into the bathroom, and from then on, he would tell me when he had to go. I still took him periodically though just to make sure he wouldn't go in his pants. After one week, I took away pullups at night and haven't bought any since. As long as you cut off that juice at night, you shouldn't have any problems. My son has only wet his bed one time in 5 months, and it was on a night when I wasn't here, so I have no idea what my husband did with the juice cut off.
If you have any questions or anything, just ask! My email is ____@____.com
This works! Just hang in there! All of my friends do it this way, after I told them how fast they can do it! I hear of people trying for 8 months! That's crazy! You have to just train them, it's just like when you train your new puppy, you do it and do it and do it until they're trained, you don't wait and say "oh, they're not ready, let's just wait" you just keep at it until they're broke. Same concept with kids. You start it and stick with it nonstop until they're potty trained. You can do it! And just constantly tell yourself that if you just hang in there, it will only take a matter of days and then you'll be done!
Julie
Hi J.! I just wanted to let you know that we are in the exact same boat!! My daughter will be 3 in July as well and will not use the potty very often. She will pee in there sometimes but mostly she wants her "diapy"....we're tried everything from rewards (candy,chocolate,toys) to buying her packs of Dora,Carebears,My little Pony panties...it's just not working. Her doctor said the most important thing is not to push her...let her go when shes ready. He also said "how many adults do you know who don't know how to go to the bathroom?"....that made me laugh b/c it's true...altho our girls may be a little behind with potty training they are perfectly normal and will do so in time :) Good luck
She will go when she is ready. I've learned with my son if you force it on them, it'll just make them hate going on the potty at all.
J.,
Do not worry too much. Sometimes, we are too eager to get potty training D., but you will need a LOT of patience and let your daughter takes some time, and adjusts a little bit to what she already is accomplishing (peeing occassionally in the potty). She is not ready yet, but she will and she will have ups and downs, and it is totally normal. Do not push her too much because that may turn into a negative outcome. Just shows her that you are so glad when she can do it!
Good Luck!
Alejandra
My son will be three in July too and we are going through the exact same thing. I wish I had helpful advice, I at-least wanted you to know that there is someone else out there going through it too. My sons story is that he was doing really good and then was sitting on the potty at daycare and another little boy ran up and flushed the potty while he was on it so now he is terrified of it! He won't wear underwear anymore either and asks for his "biaper!" I'll be reading your responses so maybe we can both get some help! Best of luck!
E. B.
She will use it when she's ready, don't force her. I know boys are usually harder to get trained (so I hear, I don't have a girl so I wouldn't know) but my son was potty trained just after 3. You can't force that kind of thing on them, they will only get scared and reject it. Master's degrees don't come with parenting manuals, don't be so hard on yourself!
Just get really excited for her when she does do it, and also maybe if you have some other kids in the family, like cousins around her age or like 4 or 5 that use the potty you can have them over and let her see how big girls go potty. Let her get her own interest in it.
J.,
I wouldn't worry too much...she will do it when SHE is ready, nobody else. I have a 3 year old daughter, she turned 3 in November. She just started wearing big girl panties about 2 months ago. She would do the exact same thing and only go in the potty every once in a while. It may still be too early for her. It's true what they say, that they will do it when they are ready. I kept working with my daughter and it seemed like for months that she wouldn't take to it, then one day I put training pants on her and she just started going potty. I wouldn't even need to remind her or ask her, she just started doing it on her own, and she hasn't had an accident yet. Just hang in there, it'll come kind of natural to her when she is ready, good luck, I'm sure she'll be fine with it...it's still a little early yet.
My duaghter will be 3 in August & I had the same issue, until about 3 weeks ago. She refused to wear any of the cute pull ups that I would allow her to pick out....
BUT, She loves "kitty kats!" So on a TARGET shopping trip, I happened to walk thru the toddler aisle that had panties, while cutting thru to the boys section & seen "kitty kat" panties. Hello Kitty actually!
I thought how cute...Then it hit me, maybe,just maybe,she would like them & wear these. Not to mention that her sister, 13, wears Tinkerbelle panties & I got some of those in a 3-4T as well...... Oh my GOD~ That had to be the best call I ever made in under 30 seconds. I have not had to change the 1st diaper. Its been amazing. She has only had accidents while sleeping, so I have been allowed to put pull ups on her after a bath, for bedtime. When she wakes up, the 1st thing she does is go to her dresser & get her kitty panties.
Do not know if you have tried that one. But it was an UNPLANNED plan that worked for my soon to be 3 year old. Good Luck~
