Potty Training - Leander,TX

Nora,

I am not a potty training expert just a Mom who is almost finished potty training my 3rd child. Here is my advice. Get the cloth training pants and use only those. I had to go to Babies R US to get mine as Walmart did not carry the size for a 3 yr old. I warn you they seem expensive but hey they are cheaper than diapers and pull ups. Anyway make a big deal about how she is a big girl etc. Let her help pick out the panties. Find a time to start when you are going to be home all day and can deal with the multitude of accidents that will occur. Make sure she can get to a potty easily it can be a big potty with a stool or a little potty whatever you decide to use. Monitor the time she goes to the bathroom to her first accident and approx how much fluid she took in (large cup of milk etc) Then ask her if she needs to go potty that often. So for example if she is able to stay dry for an hour and a half don't try to take her to the potty every 10 minutes or you are creating a power struggle. She is going to have accidents but I promise after a couple of days she will get it. I used pullups for outings and over night in the beginning and now I just take extra pants as we are down to maybe one accident a day. Overnight takes a bit longer and you can use a pull up or just be ready to change the sheets. I had to get rid of the diapers as they were just stopping the progress. My son knew it was ok to potty in those and they do such a good job of keeping them dry it didn't bother him to stay in a wet diaper. I also have a video of Elmo and the potty that he has watched a few times that seemed to get him motivated.
I think the biggest trick is that once you start you can not stop. If you start and feels she is not ready or you are not ready to stick to it she will be set back and become resistant. Just make the committment and stick with it and you will be suprised how quick it will happen. I didn't think my son would ever be interested but once I saw he knew what the potty was for etc. I just had to go for it. If you need support just send me a message. I know how frustrating it can be.

Best of luck!
S.

Relax - remember, potty training is a process - not an event. It won't happen overnight. I would start working on a few prerequisite skills first. For example, any time she is dressing (diaper changing, mornng, evening, whatever), have her in charge of taking off and putting on her shorts/skirts. Its hard for them to get the clothes over their tush, and they should master this first (or you'll go crazy in the potty all the time with them). Oh, here's a fun little test! lol! Let her go around without a diaper (or anything for that matter - that's right - commando!) and see how she reacts when she pee pees. If she freaks out, stops and cries, looks concerned, etc - Yeah! If she doesn't seem to notice - you are in for a long road ahead and perhaps she truly isn't ready. When she does though, just calmly say, "Look you pee peed! Let's practice putting pee pees on the potty like mommy!" and go and set her on it to clean up. When you do put her in panties, make sure to take her to the potty when she has an accident to clean her. Clean her in as much the same way as you would if she pottied on the toliet the whole time. What I mean is, don't lay her down diaper style to clean it up - It'll reinforce the hold habit not the new one. Some people subscribe to that every 10 mintues rule, I personally do not. I more like to "learn their flow" so to speak and take them as often as they need to. If she normally poops mid morning, be sure to have her in there around that time. If she tends to pee every couple of hours, take her in then. If that makes sense. My sister's pediatrician recommends letting little girls go bottomless at first to learn about the pee pee as diapers are so good nowadays, they really don't know when they've done it or not. Good luck and just make sure you're ready to fully commit before starting! :)A.

My daughter turned three last week and she also showed minimal interest in going to the potty herself, though she would get very excited to see that I am a "big girl". About 3 weeks ago I started putting her in panties during the day (please remind your husband she will need diapers at night only or when she is sick for another couple of months). Anyway, the first day she wet about six pair. The second day was better with 2-3 accidents. The third day was even better, but then she caught a slight cold so we started all over again- 5-6 accidents per day on the fifth day. All of the while we're chanting " don't wet mickey mouse or winnie the pooh" every few minutes. Long story short, we're having better days now. I took her out to the store for about an hour yesterday without a diaper or pull up and she did fine. My daughter was a preemie and she still is not talking very clearly yet, but she is figuring it out. Thank God I'm home all day because the laundry is incredible. Good luck...you'll just have to jump in with two feet and put the panties on her. I've potty trained four children and the girls were definitely more difficult to work with.

You could put her on the potty every ten minutes but then it's the parent who is potty trained. As with every child out there - she will potty train when she's developmentally ready. and when she's ready she will make it easy, it will be a breeze. No stress for either of you. I learned that the hard way with my child and igored this advice from other moms. One day I gave up and then quite a few months later he was ready and it was all done in a morning.

As far as parenting advice, we started using Love and Logic with our son. As a family we are much happier, he's stopped being aggressive and he learns much quicker from his mistakes, which we joyfully allow him to make. I'm also glad for this site. I've met some incredible women!

Nora,
You have to train with underwears. The potty training did not work with the pull ups at all. One of my twin is totallyy potty trained and the other ones still likes to go poop in the underwear/pullup but goes pee pee in the toilet, go figure :)
I got 2T size from Gymboree, there were seven in a pack very cute and looks very comfortable. I couldn't start earlier because my girls have very tiny waist and they started to fit in them very recently. I started training by taking turns, first mommy went and then it was their turn. Then slowly they wanted to go first :)
So it was very cool. I still use pullups at night. But one of the twin's pullup is totally dry and we all get up and go straight to the toilet to pee :)
And then its all day long to see if they have to go. First started with 1/2 hr and now for every hour. And definetly first thing to do before bed and first thing after bed.
And please try and stay calm. The more you are upset or frustated the more they will resist. Speaking from experience :) Now I am training the dad to be calm :)
And don't forget to compliment with cheers and claps when she goes potty :)
Oh and my twin girls are 31 months old now.
Started with pullups a monbth ago And I seriously started about 1 week ago with underwears all day long.
Good Luck