Potty training my toddler questions?

Question

My daughter is 2 years, 8 months. She is very intelligent, talks really good, sings songs, knows how to count and sing ABC's to an extent. I have been trying to potty train her for about 8 months now. At first it was me being so busy and forgetting to take her potty, so I have been setting a timer. It was going great until now, I thought she was doing good, so I thought I better take that step, and take away the pull-ups except when she is sleeping. All of a sudden it is rebellion city, she is peeing in her pants repeatedly, and pooping (which I can't get the pooping in the potty done anyways, that used to be all I could get her to do, and now she won't let me know and doesn't want to p**p in the potty). I set the timer for less and less time, and I am trying to study for school, and she's getting worse and worse. She is begging for her diapers back, but I won't give in. I give her a peice of pez if she goes potty, without pottying in her pants first.

Answer 1

I read all their suggestions everybody has a point in their explanations. Now the decision would be all depends on your way on how you want to discipline your little angel on handleling her potty thing.

But for me, I like to try Lynnae's suggestion I know my little girl (1y'8m) will gonna like to be potty trained by now.  I'll not gonna force her I want her to treat it as if she is just playing like what kids really like to do.

If it went out to be disaster then I'll gonna put her back to diaper thing. I even want my baby to fully experience the convinience of pull-ups btw.

One more thing, making the potty trainer pee-sable so that she'll be motivated to do it and ofcourse the great rewards.

Answer 2

Right now she is just pushing you back.  It is war!  Just let her have the diapers back and she will soon want to potty train on her own.

Answer 3

If you've been at it for 8 months, she is probably frustrated and bored with the whole process. (She was almost certainly too young when you started, and may well STILL be too young.)

2 1/2 is not too old to be in diapers.  Relatively few toddlers are fully trained at this age.  If she wants diapers, put her back in diapers and forget about it for a while.  When she shows signs of interest/readiness, start again. This might be in a month, or a year.

Answer 4

Often kids aren't ready to be potty trained so young. When they're ready, they let YOU know so you don't have to do so much work. I mean, it's still a lot of work, but you know what i mean. I've seen kids as old as 4 still being trained because that was when they were ready. That's also when the musculature is fully developed as far as being able to control it, so while YOU may be ready for her to be potty trained, it sounds as if she is not.

Answer 5

I started out pretty hardcore with my son when he turned 3, hounding him every 30 min etc... I made a big chart drew a toilet on it and hung it in the bathroom, every time he used the toilet he got to pick a ticker for his chart. every morning we counted yesterdays stickers and aimed to earn at leas 1 more sticker. This worked really well for him. I have had 2 friends have good success with easing off, going back to diapers and rewarding with stickers. She will do it, like everyone else has said, when she is ready!

Answer 6

I have a lot of potty training experience and I really don't think you should give in to your daughters pleas for a diaper.  First of all you aren't worthless, a huge number of parents have hard-to-train children, it isn't your fault.  Some kids get attatched to diaper security like they do to a pacifier and they just fight to the death to stay in diapers until 3 or 4 or even 5 years old.  Just because a child doesn't easily wean off the pacifier doesn't mean the parenting style is bad and just because she doesn't want to be potty trained doesn't mean that she shouldn't be.  I know she WANTS diapers, but as a parent, what do you think is best for her? My son was 24 months and had been 100% dry for one week, when I wanted him to start wearing underwear, he refused to stay dry because he wanted diapers. I didn't want to be too pushy. I was pleased because he had trained so young and I thought I'd just wait until this phase passed.  The phase didn't pass.  At three years old I took his diapers away like it or not  and had to re-potty train him. During the year he had become completely desensitized to the sensations of needing to go to the toilet. This time training was harder and took 8 months and the accidents continued much longer. Children can be quite vocal about what they want, but if it isn't good for them, I would encourage parents not to give in. I had to clean up a lot of my sons accidents during potty training.  I wish I had done it at 2 years old instead of 4 years old. It seems that all I did was give in to a toddler and reinforce a poor hygiene habit (soiling himself in a diaper when he was physically old enough to go to a toilet) for an additional year.

One more tip, in my potty training support group (yes I was that desperate) the moms said that accidents and defiance got really, really bad just before total independance occurred.  Maybe your daughter is that close.  I hope so!!!

Answer 7

Ok first stop and breath! That is step one. You can not control your child's bodily functions and she is letting you know that. Tell your friends/ family that they are not helping by making comments like that. This child is picking up on those kinds of comments, and it is not good for her self esteem (or yours) You are the most important thing in that child's life. And you need to make sure that she knows it. You love her if she goes in the potty or in diapers. There are plenty of kids much older still in diapers. First stop putting pressure on her, She feels it and doesn't like it. Second have more faith in yourself and her she will see that. And third take a break. When you start back be consistent and do not send mixed messages. dedicate a week to training. Stay home, don't make any plans, your job that week is potty training.  My guess is that she will start back on her own, given the opportunity. And that time it will not be nearly as complicated.

Answer 8

I have two daughters of my own.  I will try to keep this short.

Give her space.  Throw out the timer.  This is not an issue you can control.  It has become a control issue.

Sorry for being up front and frank, I'm just speaking from experience.  My oldest daughter who is now 6 1/2 (not in pullups or diapers) was pretty much trained by 2 1/2.  She is pretty strong-willed, too.  Then I had her sister and she regressed.  It is completely normal for kids to regress.  My daughter would go in her pants, (both numbers) when she totally new better.  So, I put her back in pullups and told her to tell me when she was ready.  (I took this advice from another mother who went through the same thing.)  It took 3 mos., but she didn't like being dirty and so she finally told me she was ready to be a "big girl" and try to stay dry.

Start with the day time.  Night time comes much later.

My 4 year old wears pullups still at night.  Totally normal.  When it's not is when they are 7+.  

So relax.  Girls pick up very keenly on mommy's emotions.  Go to the listed websites.  Very helpful, and you can still throw in the rewards, when she's ready.

Be consistent.

Answer 9

Totally going about it the wrong way!

You need to spend a weekend (or 2-3 days) and have her run around bare. This requires constant vigilance from you - you can't just not pay attention to her sometimes and study. Pick a few days when you can do this. NO PULL UPS (worst invention in the world). She needs to be all done with diapers - just get rid of them.

Have a talk with her and tell her, "You will be using the potty because you're a big girl now. You get treats everytime you do use the potty!" and when she does - get very excited - make a big deal about it! Positive reinforcement!

Have her pants off - give her lots to drink. She will have to go. As soon as she does - run her in there. Then give her more to drink! Do this all day long! It will take a little while for both of you to catch it everytime, but it gets easier as you go. You have to watch her like a hawk though - if she gets a funny look, run her into the bathroom. BIG CELEBRATION everytime she gets it right. Sound disappointed when there's an accident and have her help clean it up. That's not fun and she won't want to do it over and over again.

You can't just set a timer and expect that she'll go try every so often and that's that - you have to spend a few days concentrating on this for her to learn it. My kids all trained in 2 days without any accidents afterward - they had just turned 2 yrs old. My grandmother taught me this method - she had 6 kids and cloth diapers and a wringer washer. She didn't have time for accidents. This is the only way that I know that absolutely works!

Try it! Good Luck!

Answer 10

mellisa d is right, if you push her, she won't want to do it, trust me, my son is three and i am more than ready for him to be on the john! he went yesturday for the time pee on the potty! he did twice and then decided to pee on the floor. he went again this morning and now refuses to sit on it, or put a diaper on. so its gonna be hard, but don't puch her to it. the rewards thing is great! i forgto that part and don't have anything to give him so when me and my fiance go shopping tonight, im getting him a bag of suckers, so when he does go one the potty, i have a reward waiting for him right away. that might be why he is refusing now. im not sure, but good luck and stick with it. you may have to put the diapers back on her, but still keep enoouraging her to go on the potty.......great job though. i wish i started at 2, then maybe we wouldve been done by now!!!! lol good luck!