I am so Proud of her...

[KansasMom]

As I have written before, we have been potty training our 22 month old. I am so proud of her. She is doing great! We have little to no accidents and she is telling me when she has to go and we are wearing big girl pants...all this in about a month worth of training! She even wakes up from most naps dry and she will get up in the night if she has to go too. We have very few wet night time diapers!

I know many a story of potty training nightmares and I just had to share the success we have had! I think we all need encouraging stories to help counteract all the negative ones we hear!

And the best thing I learned from this PT experience is to listen to your children, study your children. I think we would still be struggling and fighting and having one of those nightmare experiences if I wouldn't have stopped and evaluated what was going on with my little girl. I spent time praying about the problems we were having and I prayed with her regarding her PTing. And I beleive that because we involved God in this training session He was able to guide is through it.

(We'll see how much of this I remember when I get to child number two! :lol: )

[JoyLynn]

Congratulations! You sound like a wonderful mom!! [dancing]

Joy [welcomewave]

[KansasMom]

Thanks for those kind words Joy! I don't know how wonderful of a mom I am...most days I just try to scrape by, but when something does go right, it does make it a little easier to keep scraping!

Melanie

[Godzgirl]

That's awesome! :D

[stephwhiz]

That's great! Stephanie

Woohoo! :D I hope I have as much success with my Abby. I just started PTing her last night. She has sat on the toilet three times. She didn't want to sit on it the last time I asked her so I just left it. She is really interested in the toilet but she tells me after she has done poos ... not before. And I don't know when she has done wees. She doesn't say. I don't think she is ready yet. I was hoping she would be almost PT'd by the time Sophie is born but I don't think she will be.

I am thinking about getting a potty doll or that Potty Elmo. And a book. She loves books.

[KansasMom]

What ended up working for us was just leaving the diaper on, setting a timer, and when the timer went off we sat on the potty. First we set the timer for 30 min. The timer beeps for 1 minute. I told her we had to hurry hurry to the potty before the timer stopped beeping and made it a race. If we got there before it stopped I would read to her, if I had to carry her or if she didn't make it we didn't read. Then we sat on the potty for 1-2 min trying. If we didn't go we got up and reset the timer, if we did go, we got a sticker! After a day or two at the 30 min, we moved it up to 45 min and stayed there for several days. I then tried the 60 min timer but she was really telling me before that so we never got to have the timer go off. We had a few more accdents too so I went back to the 45 min for a few more days and after a week, we no longer used the timer. Once she went for about a week and a half with no wet diapers during the day, we switched to big girl undies while at home and training pants while away. No we are pretty much just undies unless it is going to be a lONG time out. We still do diapers at night and naps for security reasons.

Oh, and because we used the timer. It wasn't optional to sit on the potty when the timer went off. It was an obedience issue. She didn't have to pee or poop but she HAD to SIT or there was a consequence. If she balked at it, I just told her that was the rule when the timer goes off she sits! It took the pressure off of Mommy being the bad guy...it was the timer!

[JoyLynn]

Hey, that sounds a lot like how we did it! :D I DO NOT like pting very much, but it sure is a great feeling when they really start to get it. Congrats again! [claphigh]

Joy [welcomewave]

Thanks for that! I think I'll try something similar. I don't know how well she'd understand a timer or racing. Your little girl sounds very clever for her age. But I was going to put her on the potty every 30 minutes for 1-2 minutes. So I think I'll do that. Because she doesn't tell me until after she's gone and that's no help :lol: So if I put her on it every 30 minutes she is far less likely to have done anything between each time. Well... hopefully! :wink:
I just got her a potty training book today. It has a star chart and stickers. I am hoping that will help me a bit! I'm just so tired of nappies... we go through 2 - 3 packs a week!

Hey Kansasmom... I'm not having much luck with this every 30 minutes thing. Every time she has gone before the 30 minutes. Should I increase it or decrease it? Like every 15 minutes or every 45 minutes?

[KansasMom]

How soon after she sits on the potty is she going? I guess I would look at that first. If she goes just shortly after she gets off, then I would say she needs to sit on the potty longer...maybe takes books or sing songs with her to get to to stay on a little longer. If it just seems that she isn't being able to hold it between times, then I would decrease the time to like 20 minutes and see how that goes...

Hope that is helpful! Melanie

I think she must be going every 15 minutes. Because we never make it to the potty in time. I just don't want to leave her on the potty for more than a minute or two because I've heard/been told that it isn't good for them to sit on a toilet or potty for longer than that because it can damage them (insides or something). My mum told me that :?

Also I don't know if she's ready for this or not. Because she will tell me after she's gone poos but not before. She doesn't even tell me if she's wet. She does understand wet and wee and poo though. And toilet and paper and clean and nappy. She says "go poos" or "toilet" after she's already gone poos. And she says "icky" when she is dirty and "all clean" after I change her nappy.

[KansasMom]

Renee...I am no expert here...really, I would just encourage you to take some time, pray about it, and study your little girl. If you really feel she is ready to pt, then be determined and consistant with it. Write your method down if need be and then follow through. She will benefit the most with consistancy and routine. (that is what I have read the most)

We decided to pt because Abi was taking her diaper off. She had been saying and doing all the things you listed for probably 4-5 months and one day she started taking her own diaper off. When that happened, it was clear to me she was ready...but that is just my experience. Every child is different and each parent is different as well.

If you really seriously need or want her pt'ed then I think you need to figure out what works best for your dd. Maybe for her, the naked method would work best because she could sense the feeling of the pee running down her legs and make the connection. Maybe your dd would benefit from the training method that says once they pee you take them to the potty and sit on it, then back to where they peed, show them the pee and say, you went potty here but potty goes in the potty and take them back to the potty again and repeat that 10 times each time they go. That is just two of the methods I read about online. There are also ones that include dollies and books and all kinds of things.

We tried the naked method and it just didn't work for our little girl...it made her feel out of control and self concious. So, I had to figure out what would work for my Abi...and that is what we did. So basically, my opinion is pray and ask God to show you if this is the right time, and if so to show you what is the best way to pt your dd.

I hope this helps you and encourages you some!

[Rach]

That's great!

Thanks I ended up deciding to give it a break for now. I don't think she is ready yet. I hope though... that she will start telling me when she needs to go instead of taking her diaper off :shock: first. YIKES!!! But whatever works I guess.
We got a PTing book and she likes it. I have been using the toilet and we do have a potty but I have to clean that up and then I'm going to put cat stickers on the outside and every time I go I'll put her on the potty. I guess we'll just do it slowly and go with the flow.

[BlessedMommy]

Here's an idea...My DH's aunt did this to potty train her daughter, Julie. She set a jar full of sugar free candy on the back of the potty and every time Julie used the potty, she got a candy. Julie was potty trained in no time!

:lol: That makes sense!!!