Our potty training expedition continues.. it has been a slow journey unfortunately. For my new readers, you can read all about the part 1 frustrations at the 24 month mark here. Since that first real attempt at potty training we’ve continued the conversations and she had a couple potty themed books we’ve read daily. We’ve also kept asking the Little Monkey if she wants to go to the potty. She kept saying “No. Not yet”… to which we’d ask ” Then when?”…. and the reply always was “YESTERDAY!” These are the kind of conversations we’ve been having for the past five months.
She’s a month shy of 2.5 years and our conversations are still the same. She now had a huge list of items she’d get if she goes to the potty. Every time we did a diaper change our conversations would be as follows :
Me : You should have gone to the potty!
Little Monkey : Too Late! Could have got a Kinder Egg!
Me : Yes! You could have! When are you going to the potty?
Little Monkey : … umm…. YESTERDAY!! I’ll get a Kinder Egg, a brown balloon, a party.. lots and lots of things!
This past Sunday she woke up and told us that she HAS to go to the potty. Umm. Say WHAT? Well we jumped on it and I took her to the bathroom where she didn’t want to sit in her potty. No, she wanted to sit on the regular toilet. So there I sat on the ledge of the bathtub whilst prodding her up so she wouldn’t fall into the bowl. Looked like she was constipated so we decided she’d drink some water and come back again. She also told us that she didn’t want to wear a diaper or underwear. Okaay.. this could be trouble but we went with the flow. Ten minutes later she peed on the playmat and Baby Boy!.. urrrgh… cleaned up the mess and put on a pair of Super Undies we still had at home. An hour later she told us ” Potty! Mum.. I need the potty” .. we went and she did the job! Immediately she got her Kinder Egg and then big celebrations ensued. We got my folks and my brother over for an impromptu party. Skyped with her other grandparents. I even hunted down a brown balloon!
That was ONE time. The hubs and I had heard many a tale about them doing it ONCE and then nothing happens for the next couple months so our hopes weren’t high. Sure enough at the end of her party she pooped herself once again. We took it in stride and told her she’d have to go back to diapers for the night and coincidentally her brown balloon burst (seriously, we did nothing!) which was perfect for us. We told her that since she didn’t use the potty the brown balloon went away! Perhaps a green one next time?
Monday came and we went back to diapers. We kept asking her if she wanted to visit the potty and we got “no not yet”. We also had no poops on Monday. Tuesday rolled by and she wanted to poop on the potty. I’m getting tired of running to the potty every fifteen minutes! I’m in horrible shape! She kept telling me she needed to go and then did NOTHING! This happened for three hours and then finally she pooped in her underwear. YUCK!!! Everything eating toddlers should never poop in their underwear! ABSOLUTELY GROSS!! I’m still struggling to get the stench off my hands!! It’s hard for me to have her run diaper free and cleaning up messes from the underwear is disgusting so I’m going back to diapers though it really won’t help us in the long run. I know this…..
This potty training is going nowhere! We’re going to keep listening to her and she what she wants…but if nothing happens over the next three months I may have to call in some professionals! I’m assuming potty training doulas exist? Similar to sleep training ones?
Marina
March 26, 2014 at 5:45 pmI hear you… Potty was a gift for his 1st Birthday. Well, he played with it since it was a car shaped potty. Then when I really decided to start training him I got a white plain potty that doesn’t look like a toy. Again, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. And in all this you hear your Mom’s stories on how you and your brother were trained very early and you wonder, Was I born trained??
Well, long story short, one day I spoke to a woman that just trained her son (2 yr old). She used 3 day rule: diapers are thrown in the garbage the first morning and underwear is the only thing that he/she can wear. It’s important for them to feel that they are wet. Then the first time they do it in the potty (we went directly to the toilet as he liked it more)you remind them every 45-60 min. Initially he would do only few drops and stop but it got better. It’s important to stay in the house for these 3 days which is probably the hardest part. This is the theory. In our case it took him about 10 days to tell me that he has to go (in our case all 3 days rules were multiplied by 3, at least). After the third day we went out and did usual things but I would try to manage the getting out about an hour after his last visit to the bathroom. So before we would step out of the house he would do it one more time. In this way you avoid rushes to the public toilets and wet undies. Also at the beginning I would sit him on the toilet facing backwards and would hold him pretending to sit with him (he felt safer I think). Now we are using the ring and it’s fine. He takes long naps and wakes up dry! At night I still put a diaper on but most of the times it’s dry in the morning.
With all this effort #2 is still an issue… He always did it standing (weird I know) and I think he still has to understand that he can do it when sitting on the toilet. However no diapers during the day. I always have at least one full change with me. And eventually it will happen for #2, that’s what everyone says…
Sorry for the long comment, hope it helps a little.
Good luck!
Yashy
March 26, 2014 at 5:48 pmThanks for the comment! Really helps us… you’re right I only managed three days without the diapers so I may need to go back to the cold turkey method and give it more than the three days! I also like the idea of sitting with them! Never thought about that. Stay tuned for the updates and I hope #2 comes by quickly for you.. that’s the messiest to clean up!
Nisreen
March 27, 2014 at 4:13 pmI just had Z on the pot for over an hour….no result….so poop training continues….I’d try and do the pee training first, cold turkey didn’t sound fun since I have carpeting and fabric couches so we did it gradually along with her teacher at school…she wanted us to not use any kiddie seats so she learned to get on the adult seat using a foot stool and balance by holding on the seat (this helps when they need to pee in public bathrooms and there is no kiddie seat available, unless you want to lug one around)I kept her in pull ups but told her no pee in the undies and kept telling her it was pee time every 30 to 45 mins (even though her teacher said 15 mins) so sometimes there would only be drops but you still have to keep telling them to go rather than asking them cuz the answer is always no….within a month she was going all day with dry pull ups so now she’s in undies and I still make her go every hour or hour n half… She’s only had one accident and that was because she was busy playing at a friend’s house….but yea still cleaning poopie undies everyday and that’s not fun! Maybe it was my mistake for not incorporating poop time, which is why she’s only trained to pee, so I’d suggest you keep telling her to go poop also if you know her timing