Potty Training Advice - South Jordan,UT

I am dealing with the same problem with my 3 1/2 year old daughter, so I can't give you any direct advice. However, for those of you who will have more children or have young babies, there is a way to potty train earlier, before kids develop a strong will and desire to control things.

Early Start Potty Training by Linda Sonna explains the process. I'm potty training my 8-month old. She often will go after I feed her. My goals are to get her comfortable sitting on the potty and going in it so that when she's older she won't be scared and will think of going potty on a seat as normal. I hope this is of help to some of you.

I agree we need more details..boy or girl? Many boys don't even think of it until they are 3. I have a feeling you have a power struggle
on your hands here & you might just have to give up. The more you push a child, the more they will resist. I'm an older Mom , so it's not a recent memory for me...but I do know he won't go to college not potty trained! :-)

Have you tried putting your little one in cloth diapers? They are really great for potty training. Good Luck!

J., I did two things that really helped my daughter nail potty training. When we went to panties, we stayed with panties, no interchanging between pull-ups and the real ones. I cut off all liquids following a final potty run prior to bedtime--empty bladder, nothing to pee. But during the day, I had to really pay attention to the body language (and still do) because apparently it was/is more important to keep having fun than to stop and go to the bathroom! So, like you are experiencing, I would have these little preventable accidents occur. When it happened once in a public place with no extra panties with us, she was so upset and embarrassed, it never happened again. Just keep on it, every 30-45 minutes ask if she needs to potty, remind her she is a big girl now and big girl's go potty as soon as they need to go. Good luck!

Wow! well you have really been doing this for a while. I think to better help you we need to know what you have been doing. Do you have a girl or a boy? Are you putting them in underwear or pullups? Do you use a potty chair? There are lots of things that have seemed to help me and my friends train our kids. Like the a potty dvd or a potty party to help get them excited. Also if you only do pull ups your child my not be getting the concept of wetting in their pants. And this is not to put blame on you but how dedicated have you been. Do you go back and forth between trying for a few days and then going back to diapers for a few days? Cause that may be confusing your child to. Once you start potty training you have to stick with it. I started my daughter about a month before she turned 2. I admit now that that was a little too early and it took her about 2 1/2 months to stop wetting her pants all the time. But I stuck with it EVERY DAY, did lots of laundry and now she is just a little over 2 and potty trained. So anyways let us know a little more about what you and you child have been doing and I'm sure some of us moms can give you some ideas.

I've been there. I did that with my son. He showed some interest in the potty at about 2, but then we spent the next year and more, on and off, trying to get him to actually go potty. Here's what I finally did:

Put him back in diapers. Decide which activities are big-kid activities (for my son, it was the Nintendo). Tell him, very matter-of-factly, that it's a big boy activity; big boys go potty. Other than that, don't mention the potty - just when he asks to do the big-kid activity. Don't try to get him to go potty when he asks for it, just tell him it's for big kids and big kids go potty.

My son decided, for a short time, that he didn't really want to play Nintendo. But watchig his big sister play was a motivator. After a couple months, he decided to go potty. In less than a week, he was wearing 'big-boy' underwear and was nearly accident-free. It just had to be his decision. (He was a few months over four when this happened.)

Kids can't control much in their lives. Two things they can control are if/what they eat and when/where they relieve themselves (once they are old enough to have a bit of the control). In a power struggle, they will always win. So stop the power struggle and wait for him to decide he's going to go potty. You'll save yourself a lot of headache.

Is your child a boy or girl? Is this your only child or does she or he have sibling?
I ask, because sometimes these facts can make a difference in how to approach potty training.
I have three children. The first I trained in one day by taking her to the potty that I kept in the play area of our house. She was three years at the time. She didn't have an accident all day. We stayed at home that day and didn't go shopping or anything else. I promised her a toy if she used the potty. It worked. Nighttime training and bowel movement training took an extra week, but was easy.

I think it is about readiness, no fear or very little; and a reward.

My 2nd child is a girl, as is my first, she decided one day she wanted to wear panties like her sister and basically trained hersself.

My son was between the age of 2 and 3 and was trained more like my oldest child, but I waited until he seemed ready and tried more than once. When he was ready it didn't take longer than a week.

I don't know if this helps but be patient, sometimes diapers are easier esp. when you are away from home.

Hang in there,

L.

I don't know if you have a boy or girl, I hear that boys are harder to potty train. Also, are you having problems with them going potty or poop? I tried gumballs, toys, pennies, gummies... etc like you did. Finally I told him if he kept his pants dry and had NO poop accidents for 1 week that I would take him to Chuckee Cheese. That worked for me.

When we were trying to potty train my son, I had all but given up. We had tried EVERYTHING anyone suggested. Finally, I went into his pediatrician in tears. This is what she suggested that worked within a week or two:

First, she said my biggest mistake was believing I had the control. This is a power struggle and I would lose every time because it's his body and he's the one who controls it in this department. That being said, she said to just drop it for a week or two, then start over. When we started over, she said to make sure to not give him a reaction when he had an accident, just make him go into his room and change his own pants, and tell him he can't come out until he does. But, to act like, "okay, no big deal" when he had an accident. This did mean going through MANY pairs of sweatpants and underwear the first few days. She also said that pull-ups send a mixed message to the kids, so to only do underwear.

The next step was to go to the store (for our son, just the dollar store worked) and let him pick out a handful of "treats" or prizes. It could also be a piece of candy or whatever motivates that child. At first, every time there is a legitimate effort, that gets a reward. Then, move it to every time they actually go, then every time they stay dry a whole day, and so on while they are improving. It sounds like a hundred prizes, but really it only took about a week before he was completely trained. I figured it was worth the $20 investment in what we would be saving in diapers/ pull-ups.

I realize that everyone is different, and there are a lot of things that work great. This is just what worked for our son when we were at our wit's end. I'm sure there's a ton of great advice out there!

Good luck!

My daughter potty trained early herself around 26 mos, then regressed after having her tonsils out and then her little brother came along. Two in diapers was not fun! Nothing seemed to work the second time around.

After her third birthday I signed up for a "santa call" from our local rec center. Where they had people call and pretend to be santa around Christmas talking to the kids. One thing I put on the list was that she was potty training again. So Santa called her and told her how proud he would be if she stopped wearing pullups and he had great big girl toys for her that Christmas, that was it, she was done 100%! :) She hung up went and put on her underwear and it was over. Honestly it was that easy, day and night it was done.

That may or may not work for everyone, but it was finding what worked for her. Same with your child, something is important enough and it will be something he or she has to work towards. A call from a favorite character giving them encouragement goes a long way! :)

Also for my son at 3, he wanted a Transformer. I told him that was for big boys. He started earnings stickers for it. It took literally a week and he was done. He wanted that Transformer. I bought it ahead of time and put in on the fridge so he could see it and knew what he was working for.

You need to be able to put them on the potty every hour to hour and a half, DO NOT ASK IF THEY HAVE TO GO or wait for them to tell you. Just simply and nicely say "it is time to try to go on the potty, if you don't that is fine"...don't tolerate protests, just ask nicely and even have a timer if you have to. This helped my son a lot as he knew how just got so side tracked in playing and if you ask a child 98% of the time they will say "no I don't have to" even if they do.

If nothing works. Let it go. Give it a breather for a month and wait. Pushing will lead to power struggles. They are in control at this age. If he/she has all the signs, waking dry, able to hold it and is ready they will do it. I trained both of mine in pullups, to take the stress factor out of it, keep pee and poop off the floors and be matter of fact. With my son by the time he was 3 1/2 he was fully potty trained day and night. Neither of my kids have had problems since it was done.

Good luck. When it turns into a power struggle, the best you can say is "well when you are ready to be a big kid, let me know" Same with priviledges that go with being a big kid, keep them limited and remind them that those things are for big kids, big kids go on the potty.

HUGS

Have you ever thought about having your child go to see a Chiropractor?

Difficulty in potty-training, bed wetting, and other health problems may be the result of nervous system interference or malfunction caused by spine related problems.

Appropriate chiropractic care can help locate and correct these problems and restore normal spinal and nervous system function. When childhood damage to the spine is ignored, it shows up years later, creating chronic health problems.

Most Chiropractors would do a free consultation and exam...it might be worth it to see the condition that your child's body is in.