Ways to relax on the toilet

[bessie26]

DD1 (3.5) has been potty trained since last August, but has never been very keen on using the loo. She's been practicing just sitting on it for the last couple of weeks & are now on day 2 of actually using it.

She is obviously desperate for a wee (I am giving her lots to drink), wriggling around etc, but doesn't seem to be able to relax enough to let the wee out properly. She'll sit on the loo & a tiny bit comes out (enough to relieve the pressure I guess?) and she tells me the rest of the wee doesn't want to come out yet

So far I have tried:

• running the tap
• watching fireman Sam on YouTube
• watching a waterfall on YouTube
• having a snack
• reading a story
• practicing blowing bubbles (she gets to blow real ones when she does a wee!)

Do you have any more suggestions?!

hmm i an not sure we have a bit of this with ds4 who is 4.2 mths and still prefers potty to the toilet! i havent made a huge effort to make him use the toilet, i let him choose and he does both at the moment depending on his mood, when out he will use the toilet tho as he has no choice, ditto at pre-school.

one thing tho does she have a step so she has something to put her feet on, only its not very comfortable or safe feeling sitting on a toilet with your legs dangling down, something like that might make her feel better?

Hmmm. She does have a step, but she just uses it to get on & off the loo, it's not big enough for her to rest her feet on. I did try putting her feet on me (I was sat on the step), but she told me to get out of the way!

Sounds daft but is she sitting far enough back with legs apart and sitting upright rather than hunched forward ?

Thank-you for all your suggestions!

I found a wooden box for her to rest her feet on & made sure she was sitting back & upright (I think the box helped with this too), sang silly tunes, and promised babybell rewards.

I'm not sure which of those did the trick, but she started doing "proper" wees . She has also now done them at her GPs house, and at pre-school. She is so pleased with herself and I am ridiculously proud of her .

I'm bringing the potty out of partial retirement every day for poos, but hope to make some progress on that this weekend....

Operation Poo has been a success too! I can't quite believe it!