Potty Training Help - Ville Platte, LA

M.,

Put her in "big girl panties" and be done with it. She is more than old enough to go potty. My mother is from Germany and all of the babies were potty trained by 1 year old.

My first child was very stubborn about getting potty trained. We started around three years of age and it took ever bit of six to seven months before she totally had it down. I would give her juice or water all day and set a timer for about every thirty minutes (that time worked for us it might be different for each kid) and I would sit her on the toliet. I don't know how long I did this, maybe until I knew she totally understood were the pee and poop was suppose to go. But there was no magic trick to getting her to go on her own. I just know that after about six months we realized we did not have very many accidents...it was like it just clicked one day. I was not all that consistant. Oh yeah by the way I didn't use pull ups I let her pick out her own little panties. This way she would actually feel the wetness...yes I did a lot of laundry for a while. I learned just to buy a whole bunch of panties. Potty training was the hardest thing for us so far. I just think that it just finally hits them and they just do it. I had a friend who had the same problem and the same happened to her one day he woke up and he was just doing it. We used rewards as well like candy or fruit snacks. If you have a strong welled child it might take a while. I think that it is a control issue with these little ones.

hi M., my daughter is the same age (we'll be three on the 22nd)I know this is kinda of not right to alot of others but it worked for us and she was successfully potty trained in a few weeks. but everytime that she went potty we gave her a piece of candy (like two mnm's)it seemed to make her want to go! it probably took two months to get her to stop asking for a treat. good luck

Do you still have her in diapers that don't let her feel the moisture when she wets her pants? If you haven't tried the old fashioned training pants (cloth), try using them. If she feels uncomfortable every time she goes, maybe she'll think twice about not using the potty. After all, she's been doing it this way for three years.

we just successfully finished potty training the hardest headed little girl ever! she has known how to do it for months and months, but was just too hard headed to do it! what we did: we decided to go panties only during the day NO PULLUPS(except for naps and to church)and we were not turning back. we took lots of extra clothes and panties to daycare for any accidents. let me tell you - the first 2 weeks were pretty rough. she had some accidents and the worst was pooping in her pants, but eventually she got the hang of it. we rewarded tee-tee with 3 marshmallows and pooping with 5 marshmallows - and made a HUGE deal out of it when she went in the potty. by the way, we got rid of the little potty b/c she thought it was way cooler to go on the big potty like mommy and daddy than in the baby potty. it was a hard probably 4 weeks, but now (8 weeks later) she is potty trained completely (not naptime or nighttime yet) and even goes to church in panties now. i'm telling you nothing worked with this kid so we just decided to go old school on her - go panties and not look back and it was crappy for a few weeks, but now oh the joy!!!

My twin girls were so easy to potty train. We kept the potty chair in the bathroom and took them frequently. But with my son, it wasn't so easy. He didn't want to take time out to use the potty chair in the bathroom. So, going against what i believe, i brought the potty chair into the living room so that it was in front of the t.v. And he would sit on it and still be able to enjoy his morning cartoons. Now, i didn't have a baby crawling around that could disturb the potty chair. So this may not work for you. But for my son, I had him completely potty trained in 6 months. Which is how long it took with the twins. Like I said, I don't agree with having a disgusting, germ covered potty chair in the living room. But like the problem you are having, nothing else was working. I guess since every child is different, we have to bend the rules to fit each one. I hope you get it figured out and get your daughter potty trained! Good Luck!

I put a blue tablet in the water and when my daughter peed it turned green. Wow magic!

I hate potty training. It is my least favorite thing so far about being a mom. :( I started potty training my daughter before she was 2 and was not completely done until after she turned 3. Now I realize I was pushing her too early, but oh well. Maybe we'll have better luck next time. Anyway, just wanted to mention one other idea that helped with her. I bought a little timer and would set it for 15 minutes. When it went off she had to go sit on the potty. Once she actually peed in the potty, I would set the timer for longer, like 30 minutes before the next time she had to try. It takes awhile before they transition from being told to go to asking to go when they need to, but it is a glorious day when they do. And I second the advice to get out of pull-ups. We would do pull-ups at naptime and nighttime (actually we still do at night-time because she's still not night trained, ugh.) but I would try to get her out of them during awake time so she wouldn't be tempted to go in the pullup instead of the toilet. HTH
M.

My daughter-in-law, mother of four, used Dr. Phil's method. I don't know exactly what that is, but I'm sure there's an article or book somewhere... Anyhow, 24-48 hours max...worked like a charm!

Read the book Toilet Training in Less Than a Day by Azrin & Foxx.

I tried this on a suggestion from a friend, and it worked for us. My daughter was never bothered by being wet...not even in panties. So a friend said that when she was training her son, she let him go bare-bottomed for a few days. Well, we did it one morning, and it worked! The first time my daughter SAW the "tee-tee," she stopped mid-stream and asked to go to the potty. For the rest of the day, she had no messes. She's done really well since we started with panties...a little accident here and there, but really, it's been awesome how quick she caught on. I will say this...one day she had 2 or 3 accidents, so I just let her go bare bottomed again,letting her have her panties back as a reward after a few times of getting to the potty....worked like a charm...not one accident since that day. I have a 5 month old son, so it's much easier to bring my daughter to the potty than to be changing 2 sets of diapers! Not to mention much less expensive. I'm so grateful to my friend.

My daughter did so much better with consistency when I would put her in a dress or skirtat home with no pull up or diaper. Yes we hada few messes, and she even went in the litter boxa few times, but she caught on to the feelin gof having to go and the security of something to catch it was not there, yes not even panties. She could be like one of my friend kids, he didn't like to whoha and would revert everytime people mdea big deal about it. Kids will be kids.

My daughter(she is 3) would go at daycare, but not at home. We heard that using food coloring in the water would help. I would let her pick what color and help me put a few drops in and it was all fun and games from there. Good luck. I also heard that if they like to wear like your lipstick then let them put a little on after they use the potty.

Hi, I have never responded to these before but since my child is the same age I would jump in. My suggestion is about 1/2 hour after your child drinks anything, take her to the bathroom and sit her on the potty (even if she says she does not have to use the bathroom). Run or drip the facet water if necessary to see if this helps. You mentioned that you can tell when she has to have a BM so do the same at that time. I hate to tell you this, but potty training, for the mom, is very time consuming. However, it does pay off in the long run. I was so tired of diapers, I could not wait for panties and honestly I introduced the potty at 1 yr old and started potty training my daughters shortly after. Both of my girls were using the potty by 2yrs old. Hope this helps

The movie Potty Power. My daughter LOVED it and it got her going to the potty all by herself!

Hi M.. I sincerely think that PT is one of the most highly googled searches on the planet! lol! Anyway, we just went through this with my daughter. First, just commit yourself. It will take you much less time when you fully commit than it will by flipping back and forth. Just dedicate a week for both her and you, and stick to it. You can do it!

One, put her in big girl panties - no pullups. Sorry to the Huggies and Pampers folks but those things are useless for teaching a child they are wetting themselves. Panties go on the minute she wakes out of bed and stay on until she goes to sleep at night. Buy at least 3 multi-packs, or you'll run out quickly.

Two, make yourself a chart. Flip a ruled spiral notebook on it's side. Write the day of the week on the left down the page, and along the top, write the time in 1/2 hour increments. Ex: 7-7:30, and in the next square, which is conveniently lined for you to make a box, write 7:30-8, 8-8:30. Etc. Each time she goes to the potty, whether it's an accident or in the potty, write it down on the chart. What you will find it that somehow (I don't know how, or maybe I'm just lucky!) after a few days you can just about TIME when your child will need to go.

Three, take her in to the potty when she has to go or when you think she should have to go. Entertain her while she's there and don't let her off until she goes. In our house, we had used shameless bribery! lol! Normally there are NO bubbles inside the house, but in this instance, I let her sit on the potty and we blow bubbles together. Her brother gets to blow them too, even though he's not in PT mode yet. Once I painted her toenails while on the potty. That was exciting for her. Anything that doesn't freak them out about being on this huge white bowl. She also has a "potty bag" which is a small bag of dollar-store toys and she can play with those too, but she ONLY gets to play with them while she's on the potty, and that gave her an incentive to want to go to the bathroom. I only needed that stuff for the first week (until I made the chart for myself!). Now, I know when she'll go, I sit her down on her portable potty and w/in a couple minutes we are peeing. Not one accident in 6 days. Yippee!

Also, we use special potty stickers. She gets one for each time she goes, and if she goes #2, her daddy came up with putting the sticker ON her potty so she could see how well she was doing. She likes that too!

Good luck!

Hello M.,
I know exactly where you are coming from!!!! I have a little boy who was 3 this last october and I was having a terrible time with him. I didn't think he would ever get it! I also have an 18 month old little boy and the oldest showed a little bit of interest right after the baby was born and I did't have the time to devote to him like I should have. I blame myself for that. We tried everything, bribery, books, treats, anything you can think of! Nothing seemed to work. He knew waht he was supposed to do he was just too stuborn to do it! Then one Sunday it just clicked! We talked about it on the way home from church and it was just like ok it's time! He's done great since then, that has been about a month or 2 ago. Yes he still has an accident every now and then but he's doing great. I think you just have to give her time. She'll eventually just decide it's time and do great! Good Luck!!
A.

You have probably tried everything I'm about to suggest, but I thought I'd offer these ideas up anyway.

We had some trouble potty training my daughter. These are the three things we did that together finally worked!

We first changed from pull ups to panties. We let her pick out pretty panties that she didn't want to get dirty or wet. She was so proud of her panties. If she started to go at all, it would upset her, and she would run to the potty.

Of course, we took her every time we thought about it. We just took her and let her sit. If tinkle came, then of course, we were ecstatic. If not, oh well, we'll try again. We encouraged her to go whenever she thought about it. She was very excited to try because...

We also put a gumball machine in the bathroom. If she went potty, then after washing her hands, she could put a penny in a $3 Wal-mart gum ball machine, and get a piece of gum. Worked like a charm!

We added a few fun and exciting things about potty time. May not work for you, but it worked for our daughter. Good luck!

Take her shopping and have her pick out some 'big girl' panties. Then choose a day when you'll be home for the next few days and tell her she now a big girl (Or that 3 yr olds wear panties) put her in the panties and no more diapers. She should be trained within a week. Also discuss how she doesn't want to get her pretty big girl panties wet or dirty.

M.,
Do you think she can feel the sensation that she has to pee or poo? There are quite a few of the kids that I work with and they do not potty train until later because their vestibular system is not quite integrated yet.

This sensory system is in the middle ear where you have your vestibular nerve. The vestibular nerve makes many connections in the brain, one of which is the reticular activating system. The retcular activating system helps with bowel/bladder control, if a child is running high and more on the activ side, is running slow and jus kind of sits around and zones off, or if they are just right and can manage very well going from an excited to a "just right" attention level.

If you find that she has some of those things going on let me know and I can give you some ideas of how to pull that system together at home with some movement strategies.

L. Malagarie

Dear M.,
I am going through the same thing with my three year old. I too have tried every idea known. I spoke with my pediatrician to see if she had any ideas. Basically, she told me just to hang in there and summer months were the best to potty train in. So, I plan this Summer to really focus on the potty training. The pediatrician also let me know that not all children are ready at the same times and that when she was ready, it would be a breeze. Good luck and hang in there.

I have a thirteen year old, a twenty-one month old, and a three year old.

A.

no training pants. and at home no pants/panties at all.

with your little one try putting the potty out as soon as he can walk and let him follow you to the bathroom and mimick. then go to no pants days as he gains bowel and bladder control.