Hello all
Your advice would be much appreciated.
My daughter is 2 yrs 10 months old. We had a couple of abortive starts at potty training from 2.5 onwards, but she never seemed to be ready (we never stuck at it for long).
Nappies finally came off on Sunday afternoon, she has had a potty for ages and definitely understands exactly what it's for. She is an articulate little girl and plays with her toys on the potty, making them wee and poo, she has a book "Lulu's Loo" and the Little Princess potty one which she loves, she even made up a little song about how you mustn't wee wee on the floor!
All sounds great - until it comes to actually going on the potty. She hates it. I know this because she says "I don't like my potty, I don't want my potty, I won't sit on the potty no no no". She sometimes throws it or kicks it. Since Sunday we have had one or two wees in the potty, both under protest, and countless wees on the floor.
She knows when she's going to go as she'll start getting agitated and saying "no I don't need to wee" before leaving the room to wee on the floor somewhere else. She also is able to hold it, as she has twice wet herself immediately on coming back home.
She only poos when she has her nappy on at night - so she can control it, but just outright refuses to go on the potty. We've tried bribes and incentives (5 mins telly, chocolate, etc.) and sometimes she'll sit on the potty for a bit but she generally freaks out when she actually needs to wee and stands up!
I've read a bit online about resistance and I definitely think there's an element of power struggle/refusal for the sake of it, maybe we've talked about it too much, plus I think she is a bit scared about weeing/pooing on the potty - not sure why. If you ask her she says "it's scary" and "it hurts me" but I'm sure it doesn't really. She will sit on the potty wearing a nappy.
The advice re resistance is to stop and come back in a few weeks once the power struggle has faded away, but I really feel like she is ready in so many ways and she understands exactly what needs doing, and that it would be a mistake to give up now.
I really really don't want to go back to nappies. Am 17 weeks pregnant with DC2 and want her safely trained before the baby comes along and she starts preschool.
On the other hand we're on day 5 and it feels like no progress at all. It doesn't help people who say "oh my daughter was dry in 2 days" or "you were potty trained by the age of 2".
Please, can anyone advise what we should do - keep going? will it get better or is this doomed to failure?! Thank you
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Potty training
Keep going or give up? She understands totally but refuses to use potty - please help!
14 replies
eccentrica · 25/07/2013 11:35
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