Potty Training Tips??? - Fort Worth,TX

You could have her rinse out her own underwear when she goes in them. Don't shame her about it, but let her know that if she potties in her panties, she has to clean them.

We had some challenges with my daughter as well. We started saying "Uh-oh! Wet undies are YUCK!" with a lot of drama to get her to NOT want to be in wet undies. Note that we said the UNDIES are yuck - NOT her and we never made a big deal about the fact that the undies were yuck because SHE made them that way. Just simply that wet undies are yuck and we have to change them and wash them. She caught on pretty quickly that wet undies are NOT something that she wanted to wear, so she started letting us know as soon as she went a tiny bit in her undies because she didn't want them on (because they were yuck). It wasn't long after that she caught on all by herself that she needed to tell us when she had to potty in order to keep her undies dry. She still has occasional accidents, but that's to be expected.

We have the same situation with my son. He has really good control of his bladder, and does really well when bare-bottomed.

My son is NOT good at dressing/undressing himself, so think when he has something on his bottom, not only is he not thinking about using the potty, but getting his clothes off is also just plain frustrating for him.
Also, I think he gets very focused on what he is doing/playing/watching, and when there is added step of getting his shorts and pullups off, he doesn't want to stop doing the fun stuff. It takes too long.

I am getting ready to go cold turkey on the pullups. I plan to just put him in underpants (no shorts) this weekend. Hoping that the feel of wet undies will be a deterrent, but by only having to deal with undies, not shorts/pants, to use the potty, it won't be so frustrating for him.

Honestly, she just may not be ready emotionally even if you think she's ready physically. Sometimes they aren't as ready as we think - they get excited in the beginning, and then the novelty wears off. They're not always aware of the feeling of having to go when we're not on top of them asking "Do you have to go? Do you? Do you?" Sometimes they're defiant - inside they're thinking "I know what you want, but I'm 3 now, and you can't make me!"

You can't have so much invested in this that you let her know she disappoints you. Not every kid learns at the same age. She's still young. If she's at least your 3rd kid, you're probably incredibly sick of diapers and pull ups. I get that. But maybe it's just not her time.

I learned from our pediatrician that you cannot control their potty use, their eating, and their sleeping. It's best to ease up for a couple of months, and she'll figure it out. Either she'll grow into it, or she'll see other kids using the potty or something else will "click". I just don't think you can rush it. Leave her potty in the bathroom with a little basket of books, and hope for the best. But take the pressure of her. And you.

Our son did not like the bare bottom idea, so we just did shorts, but no undies or pull up at home. He did the same thing a few times if he had something under his shorts.

You need to teach her with clothes on. So act as if she doesn't know, and start from there. Put the potty seat out in the room she's playing in, leave her with training pants on (gerber), and tell her to use the potty when she feels pressure here (put your hand on her lower abs). Put aside a few days, and just let her experiment. No more pullups, however, buy some gerber trainers. She needs to feel it to learn.

How often does she go? I would try to take her in timed increments before she'd go. Say, if she goes every 1/2 hour take her every 25 minutes. That's your job in potty training until she "gets" it, to take her. Don't ask if she needs to go, just say, "It's time to go potty." And smile.

Take her with you when you go so she learns the basics, pulling her bottoms up and down, doing her business, wiping, flushing, and washing her hands, they're all part of potty training and as her mom you're her most influential role model.

And save the pullups for bedtime, they feel like diapers so naturally she'll go in them. Have her change her wet panties, rinse them in the sink and tell her "Accidents happen," and smile, because they do, it's normal. Forget getting frustrated, she'll pick up on that and training will just take longer.

As far as incentives to use the potty you might take away the cute panties, use plain white thicker trainers (Gerber), and tell her she gets the panties when she stays dry "X" amount of days in a row (daytime.) And, I used this site when my guy refused to poop in the potty, you might find it of help, the "power incentive" had him pooping on his own in the potty in a little over a day -
http://www.rogerknapp.com/medical/pottytrainingrefusals.htm

She's just 3. She's very young to be potty trained completely. Just be patient.

Our child felt the security of going in whatever he had on too. That is why we had a "pants-off boot-camp weekend". We prepared ourselves for accidents and let him go commando starting Saturday morning. We took him to the potty every 30 minutes. There was one pee accident in the morning, but he was using the potty by 1:00. Diaper back on for nap and bedtime. By Sunday afternoon he was trained for pee-pee, and poopy trained about 2 weeks later. We did all this right after his 3rd birthday.