**After waiting and waiting....and more waiting, Blogger still hadn't recovered my post so I had to republish this, but in doing so, I lost all of your comments :( Thank you all for your helpful tips on potty training! We've had 2 small successes (with a little bribing with chocolate chips), and I'm hoping for more progress! Feel free to leave more tips if you want! We need some advice from you experienced potty trainers :)**
My daughter has officially started potty training. Again. Ok well this is our second try, but for REAL this time, she's started potty training.
The first time we tried was in December. The Hubs and I did some research and found the Boon Potty Bench.
Part potty, part functional bench for standing at the sink, kneeling at the bathtub, etc. You know I love me some combo's when it comes to kid stuff - it's just so much easier to buy things that function as more than one item rather than having to buy something else separately later. We have the crib that converts to a toddler bed, the combo kid's bath tub/kneeling bench (yes another bench, don't judge me), the stroller/carseat/blender. Ok, that last part isn't true, but wouldn't it be sweet to be able to make a smoothie as you're walking your kid around the block?
Anyway, Haley got a potty for Christmas and acted relatively interested in it. A good sign, I thought. Until we actually tried the potty training thing with panties and all. I was on maternity leave with Connor, so it seemed like the obvious time to try to train her. I spent a good part of the day with a bottle of carpet cleaner and a rag in my hand following her around going, "Do you need to go pee pee? You need to go pee pee. Please pee pee?" And then after I put her on the potty, she'd stand up 10 seconds later and say, "No pee pee." Then she'd go in her panties 5 minutes later, and I'd be scrubbing the floor yet again. So we decided she wasn't ready yet.
Well as luck would have it, there are 2 other kids in her daycare that needed to be potty trained as well so with that and the fact that she's now over 2, we decided to give it another go beginning last week. We bought the Pull Ups (becase we don't want to torture the daycare workers with the possibility of 3 wet children running around all day) and started being consistent with taking her to the potty at home and at daycare. We've tried to bribe her with everything she loves: chips, stickers, candy, ice cream.
Nothing.
We've given her praise, I made up a potty song, we've set her on the potty for a set time, and still, "no pee pee." If I was a stay-at-home mom, I feel like things would be so much easier because I could let her run around naked all day long and let her do her thing. But since that's generally frowned upon in public settings, we need to get creative.
Anybody else have any good ideas? We've never done this before, so any pointers would be welcome.
Try setting a timer for 45 minutes while you're at home, and on weekends. Every time the timer goes off, set her on the potty, and "make" her stay there for 1 minute or so. (I know how stupid that sounds- books, putting on a video, super glue are all helpful suggestions for this) and give her like one skittle or M&M. Make that step one in the potty routine, and see how that goes! When she goes for the first time, praise her like crazy and hopefully that will encourage her to do it more. I know... it's tough and a LONG process. But she will get it eventually...
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine struggled and struggled with potty training, and then one day her son just woke up and went to the potty. I think it's probably an exercise in frustration until they're ready, and then it's the easiest thing ever. Lucy got a potty/stool combo for Christmas too. She doesn't do anything with it except sit on it sometimes, and stand on it other times. I have no interest in potty training her though so I'm probably a bad influence. It's so much easier to lay both kids on the ground, do two diapers at once, and let them both run (or squirm) on their merry way.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter liked a potty book that we had. She was all for candy bribery, something small like skittles.
ReplyDeleteMy son was a whole different story though. After several tries he didn't potty train until he was 3.5. No joke. He had zero interest and didn't care about rewards. What finally got him was going to preschool. The class he was signed up for the kids had to be potty trained or in the process of learning but no diapers. Being around other kids that also used the potty helped to reinforce what we were doing at home.
I hope she comes around sooner than my son did but doing it when he was ready was so much easier than doing it before.
OH & I would sit them on the potty every 30 minutes, eventually they'd go on the potty.
I'm in the same boat... so I don't have suggestions. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThe best advice I can give you is not to push it. She'll do it when she's good and ready to. No matter what we did, each trick only worked in the short term. And when my youngest was born, my oldest completely reverted and we had to start again. Give her lots of time and encouragement. She'll get there :)
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