Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Potty Training Advice, anyone?

Today, in an impulsive move on my part, I changed Ada from her diaper to panties. 

It is the understatement of the century to say that I am ready for her to be potty trained.  So...she put the panties on.  And very soon after, I hear a panicked voice and turn to see tee-tee trickling down her leg onto the floor. 

I was not discouraged. 

I simply picked her up and rinsed her off in the tub.  I changed her panties, and I cleaned up the floor.  And we discussed that next time she should tell me if she needs to go to the bathroom.  She said okay, and we got on with the morning. 

I continued to ask her if she needed to use the bathroom every ten minutes or so, and she continued to say no.  Then, in a moment when I was upstairs "seeing about John," I heard the same panicked voice, and sure enough, another accident.  Again, I picked her up, rinsed her off, and put clean panties on.

At this point, Ada told me that she wants to wear a diaper because panties are "too hard."  I told her, no, you can do it, and we went over a list of all of her little friends who wear panties instead of diapers.  She didn't care.

My question...am I going about this the right way?  I just don't know what else to do.  She really needs to use the potty.  I am sick of changing her diaper.  It's time, ya'll, it's time, to cross over to "big girl" land.  Any advice?  Please share. 

9 comments:

Jenny said...

I used the Huggies Potty Training video you can get for free on the Huggies web site. I didn't watch the video, but in the bonus material section they have a whole bunch of songs about using the potty. We would sing the potty songs and watch the video constantly. It helped too, that we had Andrew watch some little boys go, otherwise he had no idea what we wanted him to do!
And we got an Elmo potty that talks. I know Ada likes Elmo, that might do the trick! And, we checked out zillions of childrens' potty books from the library.
But my biggest, hardest piece of advice: once you start, don't stop. Consistency is key. And pullups are just a fancy diaper. Let her continue to wear panties, she'll get tired of being wet and will eventually associate that with the urge to pee. Hope that helps!!

Suehaad said...

I like Jenny's advice and I think it's more about the parent being ready than anything. Bribes, oh bribes! They work and it's worth every piece of sugar filled candy your give her.

The Glovers said...

that's what Tiff did...when Everett was 2 she tried...it didn't work so good. She figured he wasn't ready. A few months later she did the same thing again - instant success.

6kids4me said...

I always trained my children, all 6 of them, for BMs before training them for urine. I watched for a signal that they had to go and also put them on the potty after every meal. Once I got them trained for BMs I used panties and within a couple of weeks they were trained. They don't like the peeing down the leg sensation and pull ups hide the fact that they are wet. I hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

I almost hate to say this because I don't want you to be discouraged...but I've "trained" my two older kids so far, and to say that I "did" anything would be a lie. With my daughter (oldest) we tried a few sporadic times like you just did, to no avail. I refused to use pullups, so we just quit as soon as she peed her pants more than twice. Then, a few months later, she told me she wanted to wear panties and use the toilet. And she hasn't had an accident ever since. She still wears a diaper at night, but it's dry most mornings. She was twenty nine months.
My son...ugh. I NEEDED that kid out of diapers! We tried only once to "train" him and he peed EVERYWHERE! So again, I quit and left it alone, then same story, one day he wanted to wear undies. He needed a little more encouragement than my daughter, but still, it was HIS idea. He had (and still has) the occasional accident, and his diapers are soaked at night every night.
Sooo...I would wait. Wait until she brings it up. Wait until summer, where she can run around bare bottomed. Wait until John isn't new and exciting. And for goodness sake, don't buy pullups!

Bethany said...

Pull ups are DEFINITELY a more expensive form of a diaper. Don't even bother with them! I had Caroline 'run around' the house without her panties and took her to the potty every 20-25 minutes (set a kitchen timer). I also talked about "squeezing it out" to help her get the urge. Increase her water/juice and you will be able to see some progress in those timeframes. VERY IMPORTANT....once you start DON'T GO BACK. It's too confusing for them and they really will enjoy the freedom from diapers.

Laura Forman said...

Hey Friend!
Here is a link that you need to check out, potty training in 3 days...my two mom friends here have used it and instant success. I haven't fully tried it with Sadie because it requires a lot of attention and I just can't do it with Jack right now. Which I am sure you will find will be the same with Ada and John. But at least check it out and see what you think!!
http://www.babycenter.com/0_potty-training-in-three-days-or-less_10310078.bc?page=1

Love you and praying for you!!

Jessica said...

We did the BM first. No pull ups. Caught her once when she was starting to pee pee, put her on the potty and it was smooth sailing from there. Keep it up! You're doing a great job!

jane said...

i did a big post on my blog recently with a lot of my advice from our experience... i link to it from the side bar... don't know if you read it already or not... hope it helps...