What's the next step?

[KateandtheGirls]

My youngest who will be 3 at the end of March, seems to be almost there with potty training, but I just can't get her over the last hurdle.

Let me explain - when we're at home, I'll strip down her bottom half so she's naked from the waste down, and she will go to the potty all the time - wees, poops, and hasn't had an accident for weeks. The problem is whenever I put something on her bottom, whether it's undies, trousers or a pull up. It's like she feels there is something there and forgets and she'll then wee. Sometimes if she just has underpants on she will go to the potty and pull them down and use the potty, but then 10 minutes later she'll wee in her knickers. I figured I'd keep trying the other afternoon but she weed 3 times in her knickers, and after a while I start to lose my patience, especially as she never tells me when it happens and I don't know where in the house the wee is!

If I put her in a pull up she never tries to use the potty, and doesn't care if she poos in there, or even if it gets so wet that her trousers are wet.

So what do I do to get her to use the potty when she's dressed?

Have you tried some sort of reward/bribery?

Sorry, not sure what else to suggest. We had a couple of days where dd couldn't wear clothes but she hated being wet and always came and told me. She's very finicky, my dd!

Good luck finding a solution.

I guess I could give bribery a try. Any other ideas?

BUMP

BUMP.

Has nobody else experienced this problem?

A friend of mine had this and didn't hurry to change the pants IYKWIM (wet pants feeling horrid compared to a nappy).

You've reminded me, I've got to go through this AGAIN soon. AAAARGH!!!

I do sympathise with you. I haven't had this exact problem but I have had a variety of them over my three. NO, in fact ds1 was a sinch, but dd has had her ups and downs and ds2, who is a couple of weeks younger than your dd has been quite a long haul and we are now having pooing issues - mainly that he saves them for nap/night time and his nappy which is gross all the time.

Your situation is perplexing. When I "did" ds2, it was the end of the summer hols, and he really wasn't ready, but I just went for it, because I reckoned once the term started again we are on the move so much it just wouldn't happen. The first couple of days in pants he just peed willy nilly (excuse the pun!) and I followed him round mopping up. Then, I started taking him regularly, every hour or so, and he peed, then waited for the next trip, peed again and so on. He didn't actually inform me of any activity or ask to go for about 3 months which was slow, but as long as I kept taking him we were generally ok.
What is strange about your dd is that she doesn't seem to be holding on at all - ie she'll pee in the potty and then again, as you say, 10 mins later. You must be exhausted. Pull-ups, I think, are not the answer. Either it's OK to wee or it's not. But have you tried the towelling (washable) ones you can get? It doesn't move you forward at all but it does help with the current state of affairs - they let enough out to let them be aware that they've done it and shouldn't have, but hold more in than a regular pair of pants so there's less mopping.
Apart from that, my instinct is that you just need to keep going as you are. She's obviously doing well when (semi)naked, so if you allow her to do this to the absolute max, she will, gradually, build up her bladder control, int he same way that my ds gradually became aware of needing to go before it happened.
Another thought - have a word with your GP and just see what he/she says. It MIGHT just be worth a urine test in case she has an infection. My dd had a suspected one (suspected because she was still in nappies so we couldn't get a sample) when she was almost 2. This could be increasing the frequency of urination.
HTH xx

Thanks.

Flashingnose, she doesn't seem to mind being in wet pants. I only know she's peed when I notice that her knickers are wet. And half the time I don't even know where she was when she peed. [gross]

Bellababe, interesting point about the possible infection. Might be worth getting checked out. Sometimes she doesn't go for ages, so it's not as though she's constantly weeing, but it's certainly not predictable. I don't think I could put her on the potty every hour, because sometimes she wouldn't need to go and other times she would have gone already.

I haven't seen the towelling pants. I'm in the US, so I wonder if they have them here. You're right that she just treats a pullup as a regular nappy.

Maybe there's nothing I can do other than what I'm doing and wait until she gets better at it. It's just frustrating because I know she's capapble of being out of nappies.

If you can't find the towelling things then contact me - not sure how you do that but I'm sure you can find out if you need to! I have several pairs and I'm done with babies so have no intention of using them again!! I'll send them to you.