Saturday, March 29, 2008
Any Tips??
So, I've started potty training Rachel. She initiated it on her own a couple weeks ago, so I figured she was "ready". It's been just a few days since I dove into it and each day she's had one or two successes and lot of accidents. But it seems she's starting to really resent the potty more and more, like maybe she's scared of it. She'll sit on it when she doesn't need to go...and most the time she can acknowledge when she needs to go but won't go near it. Sorry for the graphic topic...but I would appreciate and welcome any and all advice. I realize every kid is different and there's lots of ways to approach it, but maybe hearing other success stories will give me motivation to keep with it. Or, should I just try again in a few months???
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12 comments:
Oh Mel, I wish I had advice to give you, but sadly I don't. I have heard that she might regress when the baby is born if you do it within a couple of months though, but I like you would want it done before. Let me know when you have mastered it and I might gain the courage to try!
I've never potty trained, but i've seen a lot of people going through it and one thing I've noticed is that if they're ready you should just go for it. If you wait longer it becomes harder and harder.
I had a friend, that when she found out she was pregnant her very FIRST thought was "Oh no! Another one to potty train!" It wasn't the pregnancy nor the labor nor the recovery. Oh no, her greatest dread and fear was that lovely potty training.
I say since you have nice warm weather, let her run around naked for a day in the house. Then you catch her immediately. You certainly don't have to take that advice though!
Hi Mel,
Grant has been on the potty, #2 about 6 times, just because we see him pushing and rush him to the potty or wake him up and sit the pot. But he won't ever tell me when he has to go. I bought big boy underwear and his own special seat and everything. he cries and says no when I ask if he'd like to go sit the pot and try. So he resents the potty and does not want it. I think I am going to wait a couple months or maybe even til he's three and then go for it.
A couple kids in the play group have had success though. One mom said she stayed home for a week or more and left her daughter in big girl underwear and nothing else. Another Mom took her son to the toy store and they picked out a ton of toys. Then she made a chart and he gets stickers and earns toys. She also scrapped the pull ups and went to big boy underwear so that if he has accidents he knows and hates them. Good luck.
I think Potty training is the worst part of parenthood (thus far, at least). I'm dreading doing it again. One thing that sort of worked (it took us almost a year, but I was pregnant with my second so there were days when I wasn't up to it completely) was I gave my Rachel an M&M everytime she went Pee Pee in the Potty as a reward. That went over really well. I also suggest skipping over the pull-ups if you think Rachel is really ready because as was already mentioned they can then feel when they've had an accident. But be prepared to clean up messes.
My two older kids took about a week. I let them choose a toy from my prize bag for keeping their pants dry all day. I started Scarlet the week I was put on bed rest and then of course had to stop. I have been meaning to start her again.
My only advice is that if they get resentful stop and give it a rest for a few days. Zane started to really hated it so I just let him alone for a week and then started again. I think he just hated all the pressure. The second time around was the charm. He was ready and I made sure to give him lots of control and choices. It was super important to him to have it be his idea. I would let him choose which potty to sit on, what underwear to put on, and we would set the timer so that he would know to go potty every 25 minutes so it wouldn't be me bossy him.
Good luck!!!
No advice here, but you certainly have my sympathy!
I would agree with some of the other comments, potty training is very trying and up there on the most difficult parts of parenthood. Nothing has taken more patience for me than potty training Annika. I know you posted this a few days ago, so you may have already figured out what you are going to do, but here's what worked with Annika.
The biggest thing with her was the parent/toddler power struggle. We went straight to panties, no pull-ups and I let her pick out which panties she wanted--elmo, dora, etc. We started with a little potty and when she went in it, she emptied it in the big potty. She thought that was fun. We also had her teach a doll how to use the potty. She praised the doll and gave the doll treats. (I'm not really sure how much that helped, but I think it helped her grasp the concept.) The biggest thing for Annika was lots of hype, positivity, praise, making everything a big deal, talking about dora, elmo, etc. having dry panties and being proud of her, and letting her tell me when she needed to go potty most of the time. If I asked her if she wanted to go and she screamed no and ran away, I would just ask her to tell me when she needed to go. If she had an accident afterward I would do my best to portray disappointment, but that it was ok. Also, we had Annika help clean up her accidents. I know that helped her understand that accidents were no fun. One more thing, after about a week I was still always asking her when she needed to go potty and putting her on there myself and she started to resent the potty. I had to just step back, relax, and let her tell me--maybe I'd ask her every now and again and if she'd agree to go potty I'd take her, but the focus was always her having dry panties. Ok, I wrote way more than I planned. I guess since we just did it with Annika it's fresh in my mind and I know how difficult it is, so I will share anything if it might help in the slightest! More than anything, you have my sympathy!! Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Ehhh.. I feel for you. Potty training was no fun. The first go round with Riley was an absolute disaster. He would yell and scream whenever I tried to get him to go the the potty and it was just accident after accident. So I just gave up for a few months but kept talking to him about the potty and about how all his little friends were all wearing underwear (hey, nothing works like peer pressure, right?) After about a month, he just woke up one morning and decided he wanted to wear underwear and since then, it has really gone very smoothly. So..it's not that i'm completely advocating that you give up. I just know that for me, it would have been impossible to get Riley potty trained before he was ready.
Good luck!
hey from sardinia. it is beautiful here and the beaches are stunning. we miss you and wish you were here. next time, right<-
love, mom
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