BTDT with Girls Advice

[Heidi]

If you have trained a girl, what is some of your advice.

[Lovebugg]

Sticker chart. When my eldest was 25 months, she was fully potty trianed (nights too), but then we moved and she regressed. So to get her back on track, we made a sticker chart and every time she pottied, she got a sticker, once she filled up the chart she got to go and get a toy. It worked very, very well with her to get her back to where she was, and only took two months.

[amylove]

This link has lots of good info for girls and boys:


http://potty-training.preschoolrock.com/index.php/potty-training-strategies-and-tips

[1stgradeteach]

Here is Sophia's story:

Sophia was 21 months old and the other girls at her babysitters house are almost 3 years. My awesome babysitter was working hard getting the 3 year old girls to potty etc. Sophia just picked up on it and wanted to go too. So this is what worked for us.

*putting her in toddler underwear all day-no diapers and no pullups!

*taking her potty every 10-15 minutes the first couple weeks and making her try.

*we have a potty seat (dora and sesame street) on all the toilets in our house so she can go in any bathroom.

*2 skittles for potty and 3 if she poo'ed (oh and this helped her learn all her colors too)

*Eventually after about 2 weeks, she started going longer periods of time in between bathroom and didn't need the skittles.

*I took a fold up potty seat EVERYWHERE we went so she was comfortable and would not fail

*Now she only gets skittles if she remembers to ask for them...which isn't very frequently.

*Now she goes potty when she tells us and the only time I make her go, is if we are getting ready to leave the house.

*sophia prefers to go #2 at our babysitters house...will actually not go over the weekend and will go as soon as she gets to her house. Any ideas why???

*she wears a diaper to bed because she still drinks a sippy of milk before bed. However her diaper is only damp and she holds it mostly...in the morning I usually wake to her yelling "mommy...mommy Potty potty!" She goes ALOT in the morning and then we put on her panties.

*currently we are cutting back the milk everynight and after we move we will take away the milk and wear panties to bed.

* I am a firm believer in underwear and NOT pullups/diapers while potty training. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me....I am probably forgetting something.

[LuTruPeMo]

Joni that's awesome. :) I think the Pull Ups are a bad idea too. We did them on & off for months and I think they just set us back. I think they might be ok for night time transitioning from a diaper to undies, but otherwise they're too diaper-y.

We think we learned a lot (the hard way) in PTing Lucy. We started when she was two - she was really verbal, really smart - but she did NOT want to potty train. She would throw huge tantrums and cry and get so upset about it. So after a week, we said no, she's not ready, we put all the undies & pull ups and potty chair away for like a month. We tried again. And again. And again. It was ridiculous!

What we finally learned, most of all, is that the child has to be the one in the lead. They have to WANT to do it. She didn't get to the point of being bothered by wetness or wearing a diaper til she was nearly three years old (so almost a year later). Then suddenly one day she was like, I've had enough, I'm using the potty! And about a month after she was doing #1 in the potty she started doing #2 as well. It was so great.

She just turned five and she still once in awhile pees a little in her pants, like if she doesn't stop playing and go right to the bathroom and waits too long. She's just really smart and really gets involved in her play, or coloring, or drawing, or whatever it is, and puts it off. Her body's not as mature as her mind. :)

[amylove]

What we finally learned, most of all, is that the child has to be the one in the lead. They have to WANT to do it. She didn't get to the point of being bothered by wetness or wearing a diaper til she was nearly three years old (so almost a year later). Then suddenly one day she was like, I've had enough, I'm using the potty! And about a month after she was doing #1 in the potty she started doing #2 as well. It was so great.


ITA. PT can be very frustrating for the child and the parents if the child isn't ready.

[virginia]

With my daughter, I let her go naked and used a sticker chart. The clincher for her though, was she wanted to go to school. She was like a week before her 3rd bday, we drove by the school and I told her: big girls go there, and keep their panties dry ALL DAY. If you do that, you can go too!

From that moment on, she was trained lol Even all night! I was somewhat SHOCKED to say the least.

[babysparkler]

With our daughter, we picked out "princess" panties (with the disney princesses on them) at the store together. I told her that someday, when she "made her peepee and poopee in the potty, that she could wear these all day... but the princesses don't like to be dirty or wet". Then I set them on her dresser in view. One day as she was helping me pack for a weekend trip she said that she wanted to wear them, and I told her that after the weekend we could start wearing them if she could use the potty every time and keep her princesses dry and clean. All weekend we discussed it, and come Monday morning, she declared she was ready! We had 1 accident on Monday, and 1 accident on Tuesday, and that was it! From Wed. on, she was perfectly using the potty! She was 2 years and 7 months old... and hasn't had any accidents since!

Now my boys, UGH! That is a totally different story!!!!! Girls are definitely easier!

[MegMamaof3]

When we started out with DD we tried the Pull-ups, BIG no-no!! She thought she could just go in them, becuase it is pratically a diaper! So we got rid of those and let her go naken for about a week, yes NAKED! because they will make LOTS of accident, and they will realize it and begin to hate making these messes on themselves. I tried just taking her all the time, that didn't work. 2 two things that helped us the most:

#1- Elmo's Potty Time DVD, the key is to let your toddler sit on his potty chair WHILE watching the movie, this was the 1st time my DD ever went on it, and I praised her
#2- Sticker charts, it feels so great to them to earn these stickers for their achivements!
#3- A doll that pottys, and after the doll pottys, you praise the doll, give it lots of hugs and tell them what a "big girl" it was. Your DD will want to be like her!

Good luck!! :D

[Hannahsmom]

We have been PT our 22 month old DD for a little over a month. We do the stickers, not a chart since she loves to stick them on herself and show them off. We did get her panties and still use diapers at night and if we go out for long periods of time. We have used Pull Ups we call them fancy panties, and for the most part does not go in them. She is now regressing but I think I know why. I agree with the going naked and/or the panties. It is hard work though since there are a LOT of accidents. She no longer uses her kiddie potty she uses only the big ones, it's odd.

[queenj919]

I thought it was really easy pt dd because she's a girl like me! When I started, her poops were really predictable, right after breakfast. So as soon as she could sit up really well, I sat her on the potty. She was in pullups for about 2 weeks (we called them underwear) and then real undies.

Another thing that helped was that she sat on her potty when I sat on mine! No stickers, no candy, but positive verbal reinforcement. Very easy to say "do what mom is doing". Complete pt at 18 mths.

[Julbella78]

For the parent of a strong willed stubborn child.....

Mistakes I made:
* Introduced the potty seat too early
*Kept asking telling her she needed to use the potty (strong willed kids do it when THEY want to)

What I learned:
*Wait until your child is really ready. For my DD it was at 33 1/2 months. I tried and tried but it had to be on her terms.
*Presents: My DD is all about getting presents. So I bought about $35 worth of little trinkets and wrapped everything. She got one present for peeing and two for pooping.
*Ditched the pull-ups. When we got serious the diapers/pull-ups hit the road. She wore plastic covers over her underwear at daycare for the first week. I tried pull-ups at night and naps but she got confused or lazy and peed. When I stopped, she stopped wetting.
*Offer TONS of praise. Do a potty dance, take pictures, and let her flush the pee/poop down the toilet.
*Potty chair in the living room. Our bathroom is upstairs and it's hard to make it when your first learning.
*Flip-n-flush or seat cover for the main toilet. Also, invest in a stool to help her get up and down on the potty alone.
*Sticker chart for when the presents run out. Fill up the chart and get a treat. Eventually this will fade too.
*When first starting, get lots of undies and plenty of liquids. Fill that kid up with beverages and when she starts to pee, catch her and put her on the potty then offer a present. She will get the idea. It took my daughter a few times but by day two she had it down and she started pooping by day three. A week later, she was completely day and night trained.

[ITZALLFORME]

For the parent of a strong willed stubborn child.....

Mistakes I made:
* Introduced the potty seat too early
*Kept asking telling her she needed to use the potty (strong willed kids do it when THEY want to)

What I learned:
*Wait until your child is really ready. For my DD it was at 33 1/2 months. I tried and tried but it had to be on her terms.
*Presents: My DD is all about getting presents. So I bought about $35 worth of little trinkets and wrapped everything. She got one present for peeing and two for pooping.
*Ditched the pull-ups. When we got serious the diapers/pull-ups hit the road. She wore plastic covers over her underwear at daycare for the first week. I tried pull-ups at night and naps but she got confused or lazy and peed. When I stopped, she stopped wetting.
*Offer TONS of praise. Do a potty dance, take pictures, and let her flush the pee/poop down the toilet.
*Potty chair in the living room. Our bathroom is upstairs and it's hard to make it when your first learning.
*Flip-n-flush or seat cover for the main toilet. Also, invest in a stool to help her get up and down on the potty alone.
*Sticker chart for when the presents run out. Fill up the chart and get a treat. Eventually this will fade too.
*When first starting, get lots of undies and plenty of liquids. Fill that kid up with beverages and when she starts to pee, catch her and put her on the potty then offer a present. She will get the idea. It took my daughter a few times but by day two she had it down and she started pooping by day three. A week later, she was completely day and night trained.

What she said ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^thats what I did too pretty darned close

[ExpectingNumber6]

I started potty training when the child was old enough to recognize the diaper needed changing, usually around 2 years old. The child would either bring me a diaper and say, "Change me" or come to me and say, "Wet" or "Stinky" and point to their bottom.

I took my daughters potty whenever I went to the bathroom. I would say, "See Mommy is a big girl. She went potty. Now let's see Mommy's big girl go potty." Then we would use the schedule method. Just about every 2 hours I would sit them on the potty for a few minutes. I found it extremely effective if I sat the potty in front of the television. Oprah helped my oldest daughter learn potty training. LOL!!

As a potty treat, we used cherries. 3 cherries for urinating and 5 cherries for pooping. They loved them, it was good for them, and everybody wins!!