When is Ana going to go on the potty?
We now have a newborn and my 33-month-old daughter in diapers.
The only good thing about that is that we have races to see who can get their diaper changed faster, Ana or Lucas. He's three weeks old. That way Ana won't fuss about a diaper change as she often does.
But we think it's time that she starts learning to go on the potty. We have two: A plain one and a Dora one. But so far, no interest.
Ana says she's scared of the flush.
A friend of my wife let us borrow a couple of potty books. My mother-in-law got her big-girl underwear. And we talk about the using the potty often.
I know there's a school of thought that says she'll go on the potty when she's ready and to push her only invites a lot of cleaning up little accidents.
But I got think there's more we can do to encourage her using the potty. Any suggestions?
Comments
I'm sorry, but if your little girl is 33 months old, she should be at least starting to use the potty now. None of this "she'll go when she's ready" when she's nearly 3 years old.
Posted by: Tina | May 26, 2008 8:37 AM
We used a calendar and stickers. Every time she went to the potty she got to put a sticker on the calendar. We also put an ABC poster up and other pictures or calendars. Also, we had to try and get an idea of WHEN she was going to need to go. We had to talk to her and ask her to tell us when she needed to go, before she went. Of course we had some spills but we are doing pretty good now. She is 3.5 years old now. Now we are trying to get her to go ALL BY HERSELF. That is the next step. She can, but she still doesn't want to. I think she just likes to talk about the pictures on the wall.
Posted by: Clint | May 29, 2008 10:18 PM
Have you thought about switching to cloth training pants? The disposable diapers will prevent her from feeling the moisture. She doesn't have a real-time connection to her elimination. If her attention is not brought to her bodily function, as it is happening she will never make the leap.
Try cloth training pants. She will know immediately when she is wet,and uncomfortable, and start to take steps to prevent that feeling.
Posted by: Kathy | June 3, 2008 4:39 AM
I am currently in the midst potty-training also (on Day 28.) I had no idea where to begin, so I checked out a half-dozen books from the library. My favorite so far is: Early-Start Potty Training. I have reviewed a number of other books on my blog, where I've been detailing our progress. A little trick I've been using is that I give her a big glass of juice and have her sit on the potty whenever she watches TV. What jump-started our progress was a full morning outside with nothing on under a dress, and as much lemonade as she could drink. I had the potty outside with us, but didn't push it. It really let her see what was happening, and she actually chose to use the potty. We do the stickers mentioned in the previous comments as well. She seems to like them. I also agree with the training pants idea. When she's wearing pull-ups, my daughter sometimes doesn't even believe that she's wet.
Good luck!
Posted by: Liz | June 3, 2008 1:39 PM