Potty Training - Leander,TX

I read this in a Parents magazine about 10 years ago and tried it with my son. We kept food color in the bathroom for when he would use his potty chair. After he would potty he got to pick out the color and put a drop of the food color in. When the toliet was flushed he would watch the color change. He thought it was fun and we were able to work on learning his colors also.
Good luck.

Maybe it just isn't the right time for her. My daughter was 3.5 before she potty trained... but when she did it was withing 1 week.

Hi T.,

Each child is different and except in the case of disabilities, all will learn to use the potty! The biggest thing here is to remember that each kid has their own schedule and that it will happen and to be patient - (that's the hard part). My first daughter, now 10, was a breeze - there was no "training" she handled it herself at two years old. Second daughter, now 4, was a different story. She wasn't even interested until a bit after three and it took much longer. Being consistent, showing her the potty, putting her on it at regular intervals (first thing in the morning, after eating, etc.) and calm (I didn't always manage this) will help. Offer an insentive, something she would like (her favorite character underwear). Some parents offer a candy treat that the child wouldn't get at any other time. Comparing your second child to your first will only frustrate you and isn't fair to your youngest - nobody wins then. Eventually, she'll get the desire and it will work out!
D.

Is your three year old in any type of pre-school program, or mother's day out? Usually, when other children her age are going to the bathroom, she will become motivated to be a big girl instead of a "baby." I would recommend sending her to a little program where other kids her age are toilet training too. Also, is she afraid of the big toilet? You can get little seats that snap onto the toilet and make the experience less frightening for kids. Be sure to keep her in simple, easy to take off (or up and down) clothing. No cute onesies, tights, overalls etc. She should wear shorts with elastic waist bands and simple t-shirts. This also facilitates toilet training.One more thought, use training pants instead of pull-ups. She will not feel as if she is in a diaper at all when in regular underwear. Yes, it is more of a hassle for you, but it is worth it. I have toilet trained several children besides my own since I have had childcare in my home and have taught both regular pre-k and special ed. PPCD (pre-school program for children with disabilities.) All children will toilet train at their own rates. Do not worry about this. J. K. :)

My brother and sister-in-law had this trouble with a couple of their children. With one, they told her if she would get potty trained she could get her ears pierced. Within a couple of days, there was success and she triumphantly told my brother and his wife, "I am on the potty train now! When can I get my ears pierced?" She is a cutey! With the twins, they tried ever so hard, one picked it up right away and the other, not so much. They decided to not push it and try not to give it so much attention. This approach seemed to work for her. I hope this is helpful. Good luck!

B.

If you have her in diapers or pull-ups, remove them immediately. Put her in big girl panties. After a few accidents, she will be motivated to use the potty. Try to make it positive. Put blue food coloring in the toilet, and when it turns green she will think its cool. Give her presents every time she goes (initially), stickers, presents from the dollar store), etc. Block out some time, set the kitchen timer for every 45 minutes or hour and put her on the potty. Read how to potty train your child in one day. Don't ask her if she wants to go potty. Just put her on it. She will object at first, but stick with it.

Here's what I did with two of my students with severe and multiple disabilities (both age 22 when I potty trained them):
1. put them in underwear
2. use a timer, set for 5 minutes. Each time the timer rang, helped/prompted them to put their hand to their crotch and let you know if they were clean or dirty.
3. When they were clean, they got a small reward (I have used juice, goldfish crackers, M&Ms but you could also use a high-five or something motivating and meaningful to your daughter).
3. When they were dirty, I indicated the location of the accident and that we pee/poop (insert your words of choice) in the toilet. Then helped them to the toilet, have them pull down their pants and sit on the toilet, then get back up, pull up their pants and walk back to the site of the accident. This procedure was repeated 5 times. Then I had them help me clean up the accident and take their clothes to the washer. I didn't make a huge deal about any of this--not much negativity--just was firm.
4. Each 30 minutes, I sat them on the toilet for 10-20 minutes, using a timer. When they were successful on the toilet, we had a "potty party" and they got a larger reinforcer.
For my student with autism, this took several months. My student with Down syndrome had it down in a few weeks. I'm sure your daughter will be quick to catch on and likely you will find that you don't have to be quite so rigorous with the program as I have described. It sounds like a lot, I know, but it *really* worked!! Whatever you decide to do, good luck!

Unless there are developmental delays, any 3-yr-old child is physically ready to potty train. I'm not saying this will work for every child, but with my third (of six) children, I started using the following method that worked wonderfully. First, block out a week when you'll be home to work on this. Second, put her in a double cloth diaper (to save your carpets) but no plastic pants, so she can feel the wet. Third, watch her closely and feel the diaper VERY often. As soon as it is wet, say "Wet! Wet! Let's run to the potty!" Get her on the potty as quickly as possible, verbalizing (simply and enthusiastically) each step of what you are doing. Although this may seem backwards, it only took a half to one day for each child to figure out that they should run to the potty calling "Wet! Wet!" BEFORE they actually wet. Fourth, when that happens, be ready with the treats and praise! Fifth, stay consistent all week and you should be ready to return to normalcy. With one child, after a couple days I had to tell her that she MUST run to the potty calling "Wet! Wet!" as soon as the diaper got wet. If I felt her and found her wet, she got a spanking and I made sure she knew it wasn't for wetting but for not running and calling when she wet. So I wasn't holding her responsible for staying dry, only for taking immediate action once she did wet. Within hours she was running and calling BEFORE she wet.

I am working on potty training my 2&1/2 year old son, and one fun/weird thing we have been doing is letting him walk around without anything on bottom. He didn't really know where things were coming from and how it happened. He had three accidents, but after that he only goes wee-wee in the potty and in his diaper. We don't have any problems when he has nothing on. He is getting better about letting me know that he has to go potty when he has a diaper/pull up on also. It is still a work in progress, but now that he knows what to feel for in his body it is going great.

my oldest and my second child were not potty trained until after 4, so I might not be a good person to answer this question. However, I just want to say that she won't be forever in diapers and she may just not be psychologically ready for it. Give her lots of praise for sitting on the potty and offer small special treats- perhaps even a 'goal' special treat like a princess castle cake or something equally as spectacular for a week of dry panties.

I have fond that going naked was the only way my oldest two girls potty trained.

S., mom to 4

I understand your frustration as I just went through this experience. My son had absolutely NO interest in using the potty seat until he was over 3 yrs. 2 mos.-old. Starting when he was about 2 1/2 years-old, I would even sit him on the potty seat in front of the television for 1-2 hours, to no avail. At first, I tried to force the issue because I was tired of criticisim from my in-laws. Other mothers, as well as my pediatrician, advised me that he "will not" potty until "he is ready." They were right, one day about a month ago, it just snapped in his head that "he wanted" to use the potty. We have been on a roll ever since. One thing that I do believe helped us is that I kept the potty seat in a corner of the living room and occasionally asked my son if he would like to use it. I thought that this would help him to avoid seeing the potty seat as a foreign object. I understand that some may think that this is gross and it is not appropriate to keep a potty seat in the living area. However, others do not know the character of my son and his habits. I had to do what I believed would encourage him...and it worked! Good Luck!

If your daughter is not both physically and emotionally ready to potty train and you try anyway, you will be frustrating both of you. Remember, every child is different. Just because her older sister was easy to potty train does not mean she will be easy to potty train.

My pediatrician told me that the best indicator that a child is physically ready to potty train is if he/she wakes up in the morning or from naps consistently with a dry diaper. This means that the bladder and spinchter mucsles are developed enough to hold everything in until the child is awake. I waited until my son started doing this before I tried to potty train him, and that didn't happen until a month before his third birthday. When I saw that he woke up with a dry diaper I would put him on the potty to teetee. I think this helped him realize what the potty was for and that he could teetee in it. I did this for about 2 weeks before I started to potty train him.

Yes, my sisters teased me that my child would be in diapers forever because I waited longer than they did, but again every child is different. Some mothers may even see it as laziness on my part because I didn't try to potty train my son sooner, but I don't care about that. I believe that I made the right choice because I instilled in my son a feeling of success and accomplishment with potty training. He had very few accidents. If I had tried too early I could have instilled in him a feeling of failure and shame with accident after accident. Who wants to do that to their child???!!!

One more thing, I found that pull-ups kept my son just as dry as a diaper, so he never realized when he peed in them. I would recommend putting your daughter in panties. This way she will know when she has wet herself, and she will learn faster what the sensation is signalling before she goes.

I don't know how you feel about this, but when my daughter was younger (she's now 23) and we were potty training, she wet her pants. I noticed that she made no effort to go to the bathroom, but was quick to tell me she was wet. With that, I made no effort to provide her with dry clothing. Yes, I made her stay in the wet clothes until she could take it no more. She could only stand and she had to stay in the bathroom. Her little tail was itchy and very uncomfortable. She did not like that one bit. I guarantee you we didn't have any problems after that. She was 18 months old. Let her see how it feels to be all wet and "pissy". It's not comfortable...it's like having on a wet diaper. Then on the other hand , you could spend your hard earned money on pull ups and just let her be...she's 3 yrs old, consult your pediatrician. That is a little old to be wetting on oneself and she's telling you she's NOT going. Take her to a doctor...there could be an underlying cause.

when you are at home with her put her only in panties (except at night of course),
get a portable timer that has a bell that will ring. Take her potty, set the timer for 10 min.(whether she goes or not),when the timer goes off, repeat the process.over and over and over. Deidacate your weekend to this.
NO MORE DIAPER, NO PULL UPS JUST PANTIES. LOTS OF PANTIES!!!!
This is how we potty trained our kids. It took 2 weeknds of staying at home doing this. I,too am a working mom and when I got home with them on school days , that process started.( I did have them diapered for the car ride home , put panties went on the minute we got in the door.
Good luck and let us know how it's going!

Is your daughter showing any of the typical potty training signs? If not, you may want to hold off for a while and just not worry about it. Sometimes, the more you push them, the more they push away. Our daughter was like this. She showed all the signs of ready to be potty trained, but it just wasn't happening. We backed off and a few months later, she was ready to go. If you feel she is ready, have you tried any incentives or anything like that?

We used a potty seat that fit into our toilet and a step stool up to the toilet. We started out with the leak-proof/potty training underwear. Each time our daughter went on the potty, she was rewarded with a few M&M's (her favorite - and this was the ONLY time she got to have them) and a sticker on her chart. Once she got the hang of this, we started phasing out the M&M's and lead up to bigger things. If she went on the potty 2 days in a row, she got to pick out a small toy or something. If she went on the potty 4 days in a row, she got to pick out her favorite character big girl undies and so on. All the while we are still doing the sticker chart. Once she had the chart full, her last reward was a new Barbie movie.

I just have to tell you what worked for my 3.5 year old son...who just started using the potty and wearing his real "spiderman" underwear last week (a week ago today). I made him clean himself up after a huge poop in his pull-up. I stood him in the bathroom and handed him wipe after wipe and made him clean his own bottom. He cried and gagged..it was pretty gross...but I held fast that "big boys" went in the potty or they had to clean up themselves if they wanted to go in their pants. (Previously, I had tried candy, prizes, stickers...he just didn't care...he just liked the diaper and me doing all the work of cleaning). He used pull-ups and regular underwear like a diaper...he just went. But after the second time of having to clean up his poop, he decided that it needed to go in the toilet. And other than a few accidents due to him playing so hard the pee just caught up to him as he was running to the toilet...he has been doing great ("knock wood")...so good luck. I was at my wits end. {{{hugs}}}

I am the mom of two, son 3 1/2, daughter 9m, and my son just this week started using the potty. Up until then we faced the same problems you have. I finally decided to let him decide when the potty was right for him. I told him that he makes pee and poop every day and that it is his pee and poop but they wanted to be in the potty and it was his job to get it there, so he just up and went one day. I am using a reward system. I took all candy away from him in October to use as an incentive to potty train, once he figured out he gets one piece for going pee and chocolate for poo he has been very eager to go; he is by no means completely trained but we are on our way (no diapers in three days!). People have been telling me that the kid will let you know when they are ready, and he did just that.
Good luck

I have 3 children and each one of them were different with the potty training thing. My middle son was real hesitant about it. A trick that I learned was to let him have a phone call from some one important. His favorite charicter was sponge bob and when he would make it to the potty and go potty I would call spongbob (my husband) and he would give him praises. Would tell him things like arnt you a big boy ect. My middle son enjoyed talking to "spongebob" so much that getting him to go was no longer a problem. This also was a way that i got around the treat thing. Alot of people suggest candies and stickers none of thoughs worked on my guys but this did. You can also change up the characters. It will also give them exciting news to tell daddy when he gets home.

Hello T. B, My name is Rita Elie,and I don't have any children, but I train both of my nice and nephew to go to the pot.What I would do let the water run while they sat on the pot,let them play with what ever toy.But just make sure they sat their until they do something, and after they use the pot they would get any treat of there choice.And sometime I would sat there with them.And tell them that he or she is a big girl or boy.And praise them for taking that step forward.

My best advise is RELAX! I have a 3 1/2 year old that has shown interest right after she turned 2. We have been trying ever since. I have tried everything in every book. We are finaly just now making good progress. She still wont tell anybody when she has to go- we just have to remind her every hour. I found a book called "The pocket idiots guide to potty training problems." I found it the most helpful.
Good Luck!!!

Instead of asking her, take her to the toilet about every 30 minutes. Try turning on the water faucet for a second. If she does go then offer her a reward. We gave 1 m&m or a skittle. After she got used to the idea then we did wean her away from the treats!! It could also be some other reward, but thats what worked for us

My only advice would be to not pressure her, or it will backfire. in fact you might be surprised if you drop the subject all together if she picks it up on her own - that happened to me with my three yr old. Being over three, I decided to just not even nicely suggest or ask about going potty, after months of trying, then it took a week, and he just decided to do it himself! Good luck!

Remember: She will not go to college in training pants! My daughter didn't want to potty train when she was 3. We bought panties that she picked out, we would do stickers, candy, everything. She was in a day school and so I let the teacher potty train her at school. Then I just stopped buying diapers. I told her the only option was panties. After a couple of days of going diaperless she opted for panties. It worked. She was not happy the 1st couple of days, so be prepared. I was never ugly or pushy, but I did limit her option. Make sure you do this when you have TIME. My daughter just turned 4 and still wears pull ups for bedtime, but she rarely has accidents. Good luck.

Our 23 month old grandson became potty trained on his own when he discovered training pants. He wanted to wear underwear like his sister, but of course, boy underwear. We explained that when he could stay dry and not wet thick training pants, he could wear underwear. In a matter of days he was trained. Now, if he wears paper pullup training pants he may not tell us when he needs to go, but in cotton training pants, he does not have any accidents.
Within 2 weeks he changed from soaking bed at night to waking up dry. His sister seemed to be his motivation to be a big boy. And no, we are not potty trained, he is because at a young age he was ready.

I have a 3 1/2 year old son and had the same problem. My sister gave me a suggestion and it worked. I took him to the dollar store and let him pick out about ten little toys. He wanted them so bad but I told him that they were potty prizes and when he went potty he would get one. Seriously within 3 days he was going and asking for his prize. It was a challenge for him. He was 2 1/2 at the time we started this. I explained to him right before he turned 3 that 3 year olds don't get potty prizes they get to do bigger and better things cuz they are big boys. So by 3 he was fully potty trained and just accepted that no more prizes after his birthday. It worked and we have had no accidents in over a year now. Hope this helps