Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Potty Training

Julie D. asked for the following thread to be started. Please help her out. My husband is a full time SAHD. He does a great job, but he just hasn't done anything with potty training. We have a 4 year old (in July) girl and a 2 year old (in May) boy. My daughter has absolutely no interest. She will sit when I make her. Saturdays are the only days I can really work with her. And that's only if I stay home all day. Last Saturday, DH was gone (men's retreat) and we did panties all day. But no matter how often she sat (every 30 minutes), she peed 4 time and had no success. I know she needs consistency, but I'm not home to do offer it.I haven't even tried to start with my 2 year old. Maybe I should skip the 4 year old and go straight to the 2 year old?

18 comments:

Coach Kimberly said...

Julie,

You may have a point about starting with your 2 year old. If he is successful, your daughter may get jealous and want to be like him. I have always heard boys are harder to potty train, but in my house my daughter took longer than my son. I also found the old fashion training pants, thick heavy cotton underwear, works much better than pull-ups. The children feel the pee and don't like it as much. I sure know it is frustrating. Some other CWM's may have some good ideas as well.

Anonymous said...

Some of my friends who have potty trained older children have made a "potty chart" and let their children put a sticker on it every time they went in the potty. I potty trained my daughter at 2, and she did not seem to understand this concept really well, but my friend found that it worked really well with her 4 year old. It may also serve as a reminder for your hubby to take her potty more regularly, as at her age, she will probably remind him about the stickers and going potty.

Julie Donahue said...

Kimberly, Thanks for starting this thread!

I have had trouble finding the old training pants. I did find 3 or 4 pairs at yard sale (and washed them really good!) Those are the ones we went through last Saturday before I gave up.

I have a long weekend this weekend (and no money to go anywhere!) so I guess I'll try again.

As for stickers and stuff...I'm going to try it again, but so far it hasn't been a motivation for her. She's quite stubborn. :(

Coach Kimberly said...

Hi Julie,

You are welcome. I think I got my training panties at Walmart. They are the thick cotton underwear.

When I did stickers I had a big poster board. Every 3 to 4 sticker boxes had a C in it and that meant you got candy. Every 8 boxes or so had a S. That was a surprise and it could be a little book, small car, whatever my kids were interested in. So, think what your daughter may like and then she could get a prize. Hope the weekend goes well. Potty training can be very frustrating. Ultimately, I think they do it when they want to no matter how hard we try. (I guess that wasn't very encouraging). Let us know how it goes.

Anonymous said...

Julie, I am just about to start potty training my son who is closing in on 2 1/2. I found those thicker potty training pants on Amazon.com. I think they were 5.99 for 3. I know it's easier to keep little ones in diapers as it's so convenient, but I hope your husband will see that this is a good transition for your children. :) My sister in law said after one good week, you see a lot more success. Maybe he could agree to try it for one full week as a trial? MK

Jennifer said...

Julie,

Dearheart, I feel your pain all too well. I am feeling a bit frustrated that I don't have the time needed to potty train my child. I came across a link from an internet site I often use called Parent Center.
http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/0_toilet-training-in-three-easy-steps_72318.pc

Anonymous said...

Oh Julie~ I totally understand....my daughter was so much harder to potty train than my son. We did read Potty Books...there is even a "POOP book" and that is what it is called....of course this was a few years ago. My son really did well from the books. My daughter liked the chart and stickers and candy better. It is so hard to know what is going to work for each child. This is really bad, but my mom thougth that there was a "power struggle" going on with my daughter~ she has a pretty strong personality so basically when I got the "whatever" attitude, she decided to be potty trained~ Literally it just happened all the sudden. It was like she woke up and decided that was the day she would go in the toilet and from then on she didn't have any more accidents.

Coach Kim may have a point with going on with your son instead~ Your kids are pretty close in age so it may be an attention thing...since she knows that you or daddy have to help her when she does have accidents. Please don't take that wrong, it's just a thought that I had. My mom did daycare for years so I have seen so many children thru the potty training stages!!! LOL :) and they all do it differently~
hope you find what works!!
love in Christ~
jenlon

Coach Kimberly said...

Julie D.

Any updates? How is it going?

Julie Donahue said...

No real updates. :( Heather is willing to sit more than before. And she got excited about stickers for one day. But she hasn't put anything in the potty. Several times she's sat on the potty after being dry for a long time (like overnight) and then peed less than 5 minutes later.

It would be different if she was having some success, but she hasn't had any success (pee or poop) in 2 years! (She had some accidental pees before that).

Keep praying!

BTW...my Wal-Mart and Target do not have training pants. And we are 3 hours from the nearest Toys R Us. :(

Coach Kimberly said...

Hi Julie,

We will keep praying. I found the training pants at Amazon. Here is the link, http://www.amazon.com/Luvable-Friends-3-Pack-Training-Pants/dp/B0007RYCVY?tag=dogpile-20.
Hopefully, you can figure out what size.

Believe me I have been there Julie and I was about to pull my hair out. I hope your daughter decides soon it is time to train.

Take care.

Julie Donahue said...

We have some success!! Last night we got home from Bible study and I was getting her ready for bed. She still had crowns on her princess pull-ups. So I told her to hurry to the potty. When I walked in, I could see the success! We cheered and danced, and then she got to pick a prize from the "Potty Treasures". She picked a bottle of nail polish (she had been asking to paint her nails). So we went into her room and I painted her fingernails AND her toe nails. :)

This morning I reminded Daddy that he needs to play off her success. He just sent me a text message. She peed in the potty this morning!! :) About 15 minutes later she had a loose BM in her pull up, but we are making progress!!

Thanks for the prayers!

Coach Kimberly said...

Julie,

Woo hoo!!!! That is terrific! Thanks so much for sharing. A little nail polish can do anything for little girls and big girls. I'm excited for everybody.

Anonymous said...

Great!!!!!!!

Julie I am so excited for your daugther's success! I have to rejoice with you inorder that I reap the rewards when I start to potty train my child. Take care and continued success.

Anonymous said...

Julie,

Yesterday, my son had a poo poo on the toilet. I believe that because I rejoiced with you and your daughter's success like I had hoped the same success would happen for child. I know it sounds silly, but it happened! Take care and God bless.

Julie Donahue said...

I'm happy to update you all that Heather got it!! Last Friday, when I got home from work, I put her in panties. She's been in panties ever since (except for sleeping.) She's only had two accidents. She's even pooping in the potty!

YEAH!!! Thanks for your help and prayers. Now...for the two year old....

Coach Kimberly said...

Yeah Julie!!!! What an answer to prayer. How exciting for Heather and for you. I'm so happy for you. Hopefully, the two year old will want to be like big sister. Way to go.

Julie Donahue said...

Update again:
We are having some bumps in the potty training road. :( She keeps having accidents--many in the bathroom. I'm not sure if she just doesn't make it in time?!? But one day this week, she went and hid in her closet.

She knows the feeling now, and she is capable of getting her pants down, going potty, and getting dressed by herself. (She still needs help with wiping after BMs).

So, is this defiance? Do we punish as defiance?

Coach Kimberly said...

Hi Julie,

I don't think it is defiance. Most kids really have a hard time judging how long it takes to go to the bathroom, they do wait too long. Also, they don't want to interupt their play in order to go to the bathroom. One more thing, they often need help for a while with wiping after BMs. They takes a while to learn. She will improve. You might want to change the stickers to getting to the bathroom on time or something like that. Thanks for updating us.