Potty Training Advice

PhysChic7685

I'm sure there are plenty of posts on this forum asking about potty training advice, so I'm hoping I'm not being too repetitive here.

My daughter is currently 26 months old.  We "introduced" the idea of using the potty when she was 18 months (bought her a potty seat and showed her how it worked).  She stays dry for hours on end (50% of nights, she stays dry until morning).  We do potty checks with her every 2-3 hours.  Most of the time, she's dry and she'll pee on the potty (provided we're reading her a book; otherwise, she doesn't want to sit on the potty).  However, we've been in this rut for months now.  Even though she'll use the potty when we put her on it, she'll never tell us she needs to pee.  She also doesn't mind having a wet diaper on (she'd wear it until it started leaking out into her pants if we let her).

I know the standard advice would be to let it go and try again later, or something like that.  Here's my concern:  We're expecting another baby in February and I know we're not supposed to try potty training anywhere near the arrival of the new LO (before or after).  The daycare/preschool where we have her requires that she be potty trained by next August to stay with them (we really like them, so we want her to stay there).  I'm just not sure how to make sure she's trained by then without forcing anything.  How do I get her to tell me when she needs to go?  Should I be trying to do this before or after the new baby? 

voyey

We had the same problem until LITERALLY just recently, with DD she just never told us, when we had to find a new sitter because the old one moved away, the new one was an experienced mom with two grown boys.  She puts DD in big girl panies instead of pull ups and after the first day of having accidents all day long, she's been doing great since.

lewis514

DD was like this too. One night I went in and she had taken her pullup off. I asked her the next morning and she told me she didn't want to wear them anymore. I told her that she would have to use the potty all the time.

We started potty training in late June/early July (27 months) and I would have her in underwear or naked at home and still wore diapers to daycare for about 2 weeks. Then I pulled the pullups and went all underwear - we have had less than 10 accidents since July 1 which is when we started all underwear (including night). Putting her in underwear really helped DD understand and want to stay dry (she hates if she spills like 2 drops of water on her shirt).

You may want to try pulling the diapers and see how she does.

sunnyday016

It sounds like undies & the 3 day method could really help you. I'm not saying she'll be fully trained by the end of day 3, but I think she'll be a lot further along in understanding when she's about to go and initiating getting herself to the potty. It's worth a try if you've got 3 days to spare!

TeamK07

This is long!!!!

I am going through the same thing. Like your DD my DS started to show interest and go on the potty around 18 months.  But since then never REALLY told us when he needed to go.  I tried a couple times before my 2nd was born to really potty train him (3 day method included) but nothing worked that was around 24 months.

I gave it a rest for 4ish months (2nd came) and then last week I stayed at home ALL WEEK LONG to potty train.  It was awful! ha!  But we just practiced using the toilet all day long and having him tell me when he had to go. I put him is undies all day (night and nap included .... he hasn't had a nap/night accident yet!!) and gave him M&Ms each time he used the toilet (I've tried stickers, little presents, and "happy dances" as well).

Also, I told him when he becomes potty trained that we'll buy him a camera as a special big boy present. I also really talked up potty training for two weeks leading up to it. I said how excited I was about it and how fun it was going to be, to get him excited too.

He's doing a lot better and telling me when he has to go.  He is not accident free yet - I had family over last night and while he was outside playing he wet himself, but that is part of learning. For the next few days I am going to keep saying don't worry about it we all have accidents, but eventually am going to say, you had an accident, come help me wash out your shorts and undies, just so he knows that there are consequences.

I could go on forever, b/c I have done a lot of reading and tried so many things over the past year! ha!  But one last thing is today I started a new incentive I told him every time he goes on the toilet without be asking him to that I'll give him a penny to put in the "potty training penny jar" then at the end of each day he can put the pennies into his piggy bank.  He loves his piggy bank so this idea I hope is going to work well.