I've been trying to potty train my daughter Madelyn (2 1/2) for nearly a year now. I started plopping her on one of those plastic potties at about 18 months. I went with the Fisher Price Royal Flush -- a potty that also serves as a step stool to the sink. Madelyn loved to sit on the Royal Flush but she rarely actually peed in it. Instead she'd stick her finger on the sensor in the bowl to set off its congratulations song. (The sensor was so sensitive that the steam from our bathroom heating pipes would also set it off -- sometimes in the middle of the night which would scare the crap out of me!)
Even getting her to wear panties was a struggle; she actually preferred her diapers. I was hoping that peer pressure would help nudge her along. So a couple months ago, my best friend, Kristen, took Madelyn into a public bathroom with her fully potty-trained twin 3-year old daughters, Annabelle and Estelle (that's the three of them, above). This is the conversation that transpired:
Madelyn: Do you wear diapers or panties?
Annabelle: I wear panties! (pulling up dress to proudly
show panties.
Madelyn: Oh, well. I wear diapers (pulling down shorts to proudly show diapers!)
Deep sigh. Soon after, I was working on our It's Potty Time! story (in the upcoming August issue) and realized that Madelyn wasn't quite ready (check out the sidebar: 9 Signs It's Time). And I waited for her to ask to wear panties. Eventually she did. And I also got her a new potty gizmo: a seat that attaches to the toilet, the Baby Bijorn Toilet Trainer. Madelyn can put it on herself and uses the Royal Flush toilet as a step stool to climb up on the toilet with the Bijorn seat. So it takes two potties, essentially three if you count the toilet itself, to get her to use the potty. But at least she's doing it.
She does still wet her pants
(especially if she has to go in the middle of Dora) and she can't go to
bed without a diaper (as I learned yesterday when my husband forgot to change
her before her nap. Everything was soaked with pee). But we're getting
there. Slowly.
My daughter was 4 before we could talk her into using the toilet EVERY time not just when bribed. Her response: "I can't want to be a big girl"
Posted by: Kim | July 17, 2009 at 05:20 PM
We are in about the same situation with our 2&1/2 year old daughter, although we've only been trying for about 4-6 months. She only wears a diaper for naps, bedtime and if we'll be away from home. She does great peeing in the potty but will ask us to put a diaper on her so she can do "number two."
Posted by: Melanie | July 17, 2009 at 05:21 PM
I've never heard of a little one being so proud of their diaper-too cute! Thank goodness she is getting past that now! :-)
Posted by: Kristie | July 17, 2009 at 05:25 PM
Timely post - my daughter is 2 yr 8 mo and we've been trying since 18 mo (well, we'd try...fail..wait a few months..try...fail). Tomorrow we'll try naked day since we haven't tried in 6 months. I did read the article you wrote and as a result I'm still not sure she's ready, but some lists say she's ready and others say she's half ready. We shall see...
Posted by: E Simpson | July 17, 2009 at 09:42 PM
I had a problem trying to potty train my daughter too! My husband actually went out of town one weekend and accidentally took the keys to my truck. I had to tell Hannah there no diapers and I was not walking to buy any. She has been potty trained ever since.
Posted by: Stefani | July 18, 2009 at 01:58 PM
Well my girl was 2 years and 5 month old when she told me she wanted to wear what mom wears. We had the plastic potty way before but never forced her to use it, but she sat there to watch tv so she got used to it before actually using it for it´s purpose.
Once she told me about the panties, I never put diapers to her again, of course she wet her bed a lot of times back then, but it is said that if you have them wear diapers sometimes then you make them dizzy about what to wear or not.
(sorry my english, not my natural language)
Posted by: Patricia | July 18, 2009 at 02:59 PM
Grow a pair and take the diapers away. Yeesh.
Posted by: Justin | July 19, 2009 at 08:51 AM
We've been trying to full potty train our now 3 year old for about a year, with various rounds of success and setback. Her daycare has a week vacation in the summer, and that's right around her birthday, so we targeted that week for The Plan. She's been increasingly using the potty lately, so she was definitely ready for the push into big girl undies all the time.
Here's what we did:
(1) About a month before the week she'd be at home, we made a big deal of buying The Last Box of Diapers Ever. She went with us, and every time we put on a new diaper, we reminded her that when the box was empty, no more diapers, and only undies. We also jiggered the numbers so that we just to happened to run out of diapers for the first day of the long vacation!
(2) Lots and lots of undies, all of which she got to pick out. Undie shopping with mommy, undie shopping with Nana, lots of hoopla about picking them out, several times. Here is where I relented on my usual no licensed characters view -- if she'll wear undies because Elmo (or whoever) is one them, buy tons of Elmo undies.
(3) Once she was in the undies, no more diapers, not even at night. Instead, we got a brand of pull-ups she'd never seen, and said they were magic, and only worked at night (so she couldn't backslide and wear them during the day)
(4) The Bribe: We got this idea from a cousin, and it worked wonders!! We picked up a large dollhouse at a flea market, then bought *tons* of furniture & stuff to go inside. Every time she successfully used the potty, she got to pick something from the bag. Cousin had to modify her plan to pick once for every hour her daughter stayed dry. Our girl was dry all day, including through her nap, on the SAME DAY we started this. After a little more than a week, she's decided tha tshe has enough stuff for her house, and doesn't even want to pick from the bag anymore.
Good luck!
Posted by: Kellie | July 20, 2009 at 10:29 AM
My daughter was 22 months when we potty trained her. We used the 3 day intensive potty training method and it worked like a charm, not only for us, but for EVERY one of my friends who followed it whose kids were around the same age. My daughter just turned 2 and is fully potty trained, including nights and has not had any setbacks. I have passed along the info to at least 6 friends who have followed it, and their kids have also been fully trained in 3 days! Its tough, but it works!! Website is www.3daypottytraining.com
Posted by: Amy | July 21, 2009 at 11:52 PM
I would have loved to have heard that whole conversation!! My daughter did great not peeing in her panties, but #2 was a different story. I just told her, "Do you think Ariel likes to get pooped on? No, so please try not to poop on Ariel." (Her panties had her favorite princess on them.) That worked! Good luck!
Posted by: Jennifer | July 24, 2009 at 10:45 PM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Deborah
http://maternitymotherhood.net
Posted by: Deborah | August 04, 2009 at 03:51 AM