Potty Training.....What Else Can I Do?

She is almost ready, don't try to push her to do it too soon. She will let you know when she wants to use the potty and not the diaper. I have a child the same age going through the same thing. (My fifth child is now 2.) The "naked method" works when they are willing, just not quite getting everything. But when they are still not willing, they are not ready.

I didn't read the other post, as I'm not an advocate of running around naked, but hopefully I won't say the same thing that someone else has.

I didn't even try to potty train my boys until they were 2 1/2 years old. They wore underwear day and night from the first day on. What I did was buy a bunch of hot wheel cars and each and every time they went potty, they got to pick a toy out of a bag. (Oh, the toy thing was a suggestion from a former pediatrician of mine...that's what she did with hers.)

I now have a 2yo girl...she is 2.2years old. I'm going to wait another month and give it a try, I would wait until exactly 2 1/2 years old, but I have another due in September, so I'm going to try and get this one going a little early. I may do the same thing and just get a bunch of toys that I think she may be interested in...not sure what yet...the boys were easier to get toys for. But she loves stickers too. So I might try getting a plain poster on the wall and let her put a few stickers anywhere on the poster everytime she goes potty. I'll be doing this in a about a month as well.

Good luck!

Hi B.,
I know that you are frustrated and discouraged. These can be tying times! Of course, as you are teaching them to drive a car, you look back on these times and laugh, wishing they were 2 once again.
Your daughter has learned the "ropes" of getting the comfort that she desires to do her business. I know 4 year olds that use this trick also.
I am a prechool teacher of Older 2's and Mixed 3's. I have also raised 4 children myself.
The main train of thought is to ALWAYS keep in mind that you are the adult, the mom, here. She is 2. She will do her best to break you down to achieve her means (the diaper).
I also do not recommend that parents sit for long periods of time with them while on the potty. That becomes a captive audience for attention. The bathroom is a room where we do our business then move on to other fun things. I never ask the children if they need to go. I tell them that it is their turn to go. They don't take toys in there with them but I have a special place for them to set them so no one else will get them while they are in the bathroom. No books are allowed, but I have walls of interesting posters to view and they are changed often.
I am just saying, change your approach. If you have to tell her the diapers are all gone by a certain date on the calendar, etc. She will soon get with the program.
If your child is a young 2, with a birthday after Janaury, you might want to wait until they are 30 mos. or so.
My rule of thumb is that if you can talk to me about the bathroom procedure, then you understand and recognize your need to use the facility. If she doesn't recognize the urges, she isn't ready. It sounds like she does, though, wanting to take off her wet diaper, etc.
These are frustrating times.Hang in there and remember who is mom in the house. What she says is the rule of the house!
Good luck!
Cathy

It sounds like she is physically ready since she knows right away when she has wet/soiled her diaper and has the control to not go when she doesn't want to. She may not be ready emotionally yet, so I would take it slowly and not make it become a battle.

i don't think I saw this idea, but when my son was potty-training, i kept a bag of nestle's chocolate chips in the freezer (cheaper than toys and doesn't provide clutter of alot of lil toys like I just threw away LOL) and everytime he went pee or tried to go, he got a lil tiny handful, like about his hand-size of the special treat and that was the ONLY time he got them. find something that is not allowed (like chocolate or candy) and let that be her motivation. also, I agree with waiting, some kids are early (one friend had hers PT'd by 2!) and some are late, most are later :) so don't fret! as long as your trying that's all us Mom's can do!

OH eventually, as he got better at it, his portions got smaller until he was told that he knew how to go now and treats were not needed and he was unusually fine with that answer. good luck!

B.,

I've got to say that looking back at how I potty trained my 2 boys, (one last fall) I really must say that I learned 3 valuable lessons. 1- if its not happening, let it go. Try again in a few weeks, or a month. Drop it completely, don't even act like you care. 2- naked training is totally the best way to go. My son was the same, he would be fine if he didn't have any pants on, but would go as soon as he had a pullup on. Once he got it, iot got easier and easier, but we had to be persistant. 3- No matter what, it will happen. Not according to your schedule, probably, but it will happen. Try to be paitent. You can do it!!! Good luck!!!!

I wish you luck in school. It is going to be hard, I am doing it now. But I think your 2 year old is probably regressing because of the new baby. It is going to take sometime, you just need to be careful and be patient. She will get it soon.

I'm a mom that did the naked thing with my son when he turned two and it worked great for him but my daughter... she's about to be three at the end of June. She has been work in progress. I've kind of let her do it on her own. She's in pull ups and she knows how to go to the potty for both pee and poop but she has her occasional accidents. I was at Walmart one day to buy some pull ups when I saw a Disney Princess box and when I checked it out, I found out that it was a sort of toy box for the pull ups. When lifted the lid, there was an area for stickers. My daughter loves put putting stickers on things so it was a perfect way to reward her for going on the potty. She has books that she can only look at while she's on the potty and I've done allot of singing while I waited for her to go. It has been hard especially on the days when she needs to go to the potty five times in one hour because she's had allot to drink. Some people my disagree but I did do the make the kid feel bad for me because I did the I am so disappointed act. My daughter also knows what presents are and I told her when she had so many stickers on the box that she would get one. Even when she would have an accident in the pull ups but still asked to get on the potty, I rewarded her because she knew to go to the potty. Both my kids were thrilled about making mommy and daddy happy so it got easier and easier. I don't know if that's helped at all... good luck!

I would maybe ease off for a while. Mine both trained closer to three years old. Both of my kids were exposed to the potty for several months before we got serious about training. Both would sit on it and usually "go" right before bathtime. Just once a day. Then when we got serious they at least knew how it's done. Maybe it's just too much pressure and she should get used to the potty without it being an all or nothing scenario right now. Put her on it once in a while or once a day... read some books, wait for it to happen. And make a big deal of it when it does! Good luck.