Potty training help!

[katymumof1]

Hello,

We have been potty training our 2yr 8month old since last August. She does both wees and poos on the potty however not voluntarily. You can see her dancing and crossing her legs but she will not take the initiative to go and sit on the potty or toilet. It is especially a problem if she is busy, for example, has a friend over or is at playschool, rather than go on the potty she slowly lets the wee out but stops so the full feeling goes away, consequently we end up with soggy knickers.
I have tried praise, sweets and reward charts and they do make a difference for a few days however we just seem to step back to the same problem. I don't know where to go from here.

My daughter will stay dry all day but it means my husband or I taking her to sit on the potty/toilet before she starts going in her knickers.
Please, please help me. :(

hello, sounds a tricky one! Only thing I can suggest is that she may now be expecting you to remind her so has 'given' that responsibility back to you...?

Would it be an idea to go back to basics again and explain to her that it is her responsibility to go to the potty when she needs to. Use a bribe (jelly babies worked for us) and say every time she manages a wee or poo in the potty she will have a jelly baby. You could then hold back the reminders and if she has an accident just quietly deal with it, saying 'never mind, next time try to get to the potty on time'. Might be worth doing it over a weekend when you can take in turns with your husband and spend a couple of days at home concentrating on it.

The other thing you could try is a new place to do her wees and poos. eg get a child's seat on the loo and steps so that she can get up and down herself. The novelty might encourage her...

Good luck.

A friend had similar issues with her DD of the same age, in the end they took a little more of a hard line (which isn't everyone's cup of tea) and did things like turning the tv off if their DD wet while watching (her tv time is very limited and very prized, she took herself to the toilet everytime after that). Or if she wet herself while on playdate they would leave and go home etc. Basically she needed to be given back the responsiblity for going to the toilet as they knew she knew what to do but was a bit lazy and stickers/sweets made no difference. Worked for them but understand not for everyone.

If you are at home you could try taking her pants off whilst wearing a skirt/dress? My two only really got the feeling when there wasn't an absorbent fabric in the way IYSWIM? Once they get the idea - less than a week in our case, then you can go back to pants on

just read this post and having the same problem with my dd. similar age, Did you try aything suggested and did it work????

We had similar problems with ds. He would stay dry only if we put him on the potty or toilet but would never tell us when he wanted to go. We also tried treats and reward charts with only little success. Taking the hard line didn't work either because that devoted into him having some major tantrums when he'd had an accident. In hindsight I think he genuinely didn't recognise the sensation as he would stand somewhere and wee and look at himself saying "see mummy" as if it was a surprise and he didn't know where it had come from. In the end it took patience and one day at just over 3years of age he got it and started asking /putting himself on the toilet. We have those family toilet seats where the child seat is in the lid, so its easier for him to sort himself.