Potty Training - Thought We Were DONE

Get rid of the diapers and stick to it. She is using the diaper as a crutch. It will be hard at first, but you have to stick to it.

Dont put diapers on her any more!! Once you remove the diaper, you never want to put it back on, and no pull ups those are just diapers in disguise, its rough at first but she has to know either she is potty trained or not, and at 4 she is ready. Without the diaper she will have no choice but to go in the potty. She may go in her pants a couple of times, but if she tells you that she pooped then she knows to use the potty, she is ready. Dont stress about it tho, you may be doing extra laundry for a bit, no big deal. My daughter did that to, but when I took the diaper off, I refused to put one back on ever, not even at night or naps. She would go out to the pourch and poop in her pants, I got her some special panties, and told her that she has to use the potty so she dont make her panties dirty. That worked, she stopped pooping in her pants and she went in the potty, (she is 16 now and still is using the big girl potty!! lol) she was very proud of herself. Good luck and God Bless.

Ok, this may be silly and not scientific or no help at all! Having said that, Bear in the Big Blue House has a potty training tape. It is really great. After my daughter watched (over and over like kids do) I noticed a difference in her. It is a great video, funny for adults too. Talks about poop, wiping, washing hands, flushing, and that everything goes potty. There is even a scene where Tutter poops on the toilet. Very funny.

I just checked Amazon and they have it, new and used DVD. Search 'Bear in the Big Blue House potty'

Good luck,
J.

Hello!

I, among many others, answered a similar question yesterday for Tiffany P. If you click on the "Requests and Responses" menu option at the top of the mamasource website, search for Tiffany P. April 29th and you'll be able to read all her responses. Good luck!

Consider trying a cloth diaper on her. Don't wake her up in the middle of the night to go unless she wakes up naturally. The cloth will contain the mess but allow her to feel she's wet/stinky when she wakes up. After some time, she will start to associate eliminating with waking up with that uncomfortable feeling. I would recommend Kissaluvs for absorbancy and ease of use. My favorite website for cloth is www.jilliansdrawers.com (And no, I'm not getting any perks for mentioning them.)

S.,

I think this is one way your daughter feel in control of the situation. We all know how they want to have a little control over something in their lives.

Something that worked for me when I couldn't get my son to poop on the potty. We kept talking about it without any pressure but I encouraged him to big a "big boy". Then one time I could tell he was getting ready to poop and I talked him into just sitting on the potty while I read his favorite story to him. He finally agreed and sat on the potty for the story. As he listened to the story - probably for the third or fourth time his body relaxed without him realizing and it happened. Once he realized there wasn't anything to be afraid of it started happening on a regular basis.

As far as bedtime (pull ups vs. diapers) we used pull ups until my son was 3 1/2 years old. Then we started waking him up a couple hours after bedtime to get him to go pee in the potty. He still has accidents at least once a week.

My advice, concentrate on the pooping first and worry about getting through the night when she's a little older.

Good luck! It will happen.

my son did the same thing. we checked the internet and found that some children find that it hurts to poop. it suggested giving them a teaspoon of honey to help soften it. we asked our son if that was the case. he said yes. we then told him that we will be giving him honey to help his poop be soft so that he can go on the potty.

it worked.

don't give up. be patient. there's no rush. good luck.

That's a tough one. My son is a heavy sleeper too - like scary sometimes when I've tried to wake him up and he just won't wake up, or I get him to stand up, but then he falls down. He was potty trained just before 3 1/2. He is now almost 6 and still wets the bed 1-2 times a month on avg. I just have a sheet protector on his mattress and now he even takes his own sheets off for me to wash. I think what I would do (easier said than done, I know) is to stop ALL diapers. It'll be messy for awhile, but she'll get it. Humans tend to take the path of least resistance and if she can pee and poop in her diapers insteading of getting up out of her cozy bed and walking to the potty, then that's what she'll do. The only thing that helped my son was to take them away cold turkey. Eventually, that wet messy feeling will bother her.

My "seasoned" potty training advice:

Lose the diapers/pull-ups
Don't stress about the poop.
Plan on doing a little extra laundry for awhile.

Explain to your daughter that poop is yucky and can make us sick if we don't respect our body's need to let it out or if we keep it touching our skin. We have to poop on the potty so we stay clean and healthy. It's what our bodies are supposed to do to keep us healthy! :) Don't stress about it, don't make a big deal about it. Your daughter is old enough to understand, even though she still can't communicate very well. Also, try not to make her feel guilty by saying things like leaving "tracks" in her undies aren't very nice to you. I'm absolutely sure you didn't mean anything bad by that but she could take it in a way that makes her feel guilty about it and therefore increases her stress and issues about the whole deal. Try to give her reasons why it is simply a good thing for her to do, and remind her that good potty skills are necessary and she will be learning them, because she is a big girl and it is time. There's no holding on or going back to babyhood no matter how much anyone might like to - that's simply a fact of life. Let her know you are there to help her, but you expect her to do it. Your daughter totally understands and hears you - though she may still argue to prove she doesn't *have* to agree with you. Stay firm, ignore the arguments, give her the good reasons, and make your expectations that she will go potty on the potty all the time clear. Oh, and don't forget that extra laundry! Lol Now that I'm *done* potty training, I look back on all that extra laundry with each child and think "it was SO worth it"! Being diaper free rocks! :)

When my son went to bed, I put pull-ups on OVER his underwear. It protected the sheets, but he felt the wetness. If your daughter is such a deep sleeper, she still might not wake up, but at least you won't have to worry about changing sheets all of the time.

If your daughter is in PreSchool... is anything upsetting her? Have you asked her? Sometimes even the smallest thing will set them back. What is going on at home. Did anything change?

My nephew freaked out when my SIL redid the floors (tiled). That is all it takes is the smallest change to stress a little body.

Consider every possibility, then check with the pediatrician, as there could be something more...

S.,
Well you've pinpointed part of the problem. You made the mistake of doing diapers after she was getting trained or trained. That's a step backwards, hon. Gotta eliminate the diapers. Because that's not sounding like it works all that well either, if she poops in them too.
DON'T wake her up, DON'T use the diapers. If she's a sound sleeper let her sleep. If she wakes up wet, she wakes up wet.
But I would definitely explain that if she wants to go to preschool and kindergarten, she really has to be a big big girl and learn the potty procedure for pee and poop. Some school systems will not allow a child in diapers or not potty trained. They aren't equipped for accidents. And you can't go running back and forth with dry clothes etc either. So it's time to take the bull by the horns and get some serious obstacles conquered.
It isn't easy, I know. But the prospect of pre school or kindergarten worked for my middle son that he got himself potty trained and was good for a school day.
I will share this with you, tho, because the same son experienced it. His system may not be fully developed. I kid you not; he was the soundest of sleepers. And sometimes, even till the age of 10 or 12, he had nighttime troubles. We tried this and that. But it just came down to that his bladder needed a little more time to catch up. You have poop issues with your daughter, I know. But it could be just a slightly underdeveloped system. But if she's 4, that means kindergarten in the fall??? Kids will potentially razz if she doesn't get the 'elimination process' down. And peer teasing is never positive. So you've got a few months to really work on it.
It'll work out.

Hi S......
Having 8 grandchildren I know what your going through.My grandsone was still going in his pants yet at 5. I had him for a weekend and decided he was way to big to be doing this.He would not go poop on the toliet..he told me a snake was going to bite his butt if he sat down on the toliet.So I decided enough was enough...I put him on the toliet and made him sit there until he went to show him there was no snake.After a full day of off and on the toliet he still refused to go, said he didn't have to go.I knew better. So the next morning at 8am sharp I put him on the toliet....put a tv tray next to him with a couple books...a glass of water and some graham crackers....told him i did not care if it took all day but he was not going to get off that toliet until he pooped.low and behold....4 hours and 7 min later he went...and with excitement at that.He said grandma there isn't no snakes in there...I said I told you there wasn't... Don't get me wrong he had a couple more accidents after that but when he seen his mom grab the tv tray and had 2 books a glass of water and some crackers on it....he threw up his hands and said no no no no no ran to the bathroom and went poop.(wonder if that was because he remembered the ring around his little bottom from the toliet seat?) lol......He is 8 now and has no more accidents and was completly potted trained again 1 week after the toliet thing.......You might have to use a little force on this one.....try making your little one sit on pot until she goes......do this everyday until she finally gives in and discovers that its alot better to go on potty then having to sit there for 4 hours or so.
Keep me posted how things are going....It might seem mean and she will think your mean but don't give in .....Hope this some what helped......D.

We also had trouble night/sleep potty training our daughter. We finally had to take the diapers away and go cold turkey. I had to change sheets every night for almost 2 months, but then she did start having a couple of dry nights and now she is completly dry. I would put several layers of waterproof pads and sheets on her bed so I didn't have to do a full change in the middle of the night.
Blessings, K.