Tips on potty training?


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Any tips on potty training? This is where we're at. My toddler will start grunting when she's ready to poop. I'll take her hand, walk her over to the training potty and tell her to sit. Sometimes she'll initiate needing to potty and will go to it herself. I give her as much time as she needs but so far she won't actually use the potty. We've only been at this a couple days but I was hoping for at least one deposit by now.. Haha.

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She's only about 21 months, right? Personally, I wouldn't bother starting yet.

Really? Well I guess that would make life easier for me.. Changing diapers is easy. But I thought that once kids start to verbally tell you that they've soiled themselves, that that's a good time to start potty training? She'll say, "poop" and point to her diaper before she goes but we haven't had a successful BM in the pot yet! It happens after we pull up her diapers and then she goes.

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There are as many theories on potty training as there are people in the world. That's why I emphasized the "personally." It's true that (theoretically) you should start associating the toilet when they can verbally express their need, but there's also the school of thought that says not to bother until at least two years old, maybe even three.

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I would say just keep at it and give it more time. Never show anger or frustration about it, the stress will take you backwards.

It sounds like if she is telling you, sitting (and nothing), putting diaper back on and then going it's an issue with learning to relax. That just needs more time to learn how to go. It might help to get her more comfortable with sitting there by sitting at other times and doing something relaxing/distracting.

My daughter had a "potty book", a special book we only read on the potty. She would sit and I would read it to her, sometimes she'd go sometimes not. But the reading helped to relax her and over time she became comfortable sitting there. She would get excited when she would go and we'd go overboard with the excitement. lol Only mom's know what it means to be truly excited about a BM. My sis and I let our kids call and tell their aunt the awesome news and then we get excited all over again. lol

There is a lot more to a BM than most ppl realize, we've been doing it so long it seems simple. When learning you have to recognize the signals from your body, resist them until you get to the toilet and then reverse all of that to a full relaxing and then pushing to complete the task. That's a lot to ask of a child. lol Give her time she is still young (most of mine were 3 before fully potty training).

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FWIW, our just-turned-three-year-old had been urinating on the toilet for nearly a year; but just just got the bowel movement thing reliably down a couple of weeks ago.

As a dad who probably way underthinks these things, I say: wait until the timing's right before you start training. It's a lot easier to do diapers for an extra six months, than to be following the kid around with a mop and spare set of underwear for six months.

On the other hand: once you do start potty training, be consistent--calling an "off day" and putting the kid in a diaper will set you back several weeks.

(We never bothered with pull-ups, by the way--horrendously expensive, and our kids could never figure out how to get the dag-blasted things off until it was already too late.)

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Any tips on potty training? This is where we're at. My toddler will start grunting when she's ready to poop. I'll take her hand, walk her over to the training potty and tell her to sit. Sometimes she'll initiate needing to potty and will go to it herself. I give her as much time as she needs but so far she won't actually use the potty. We've only been at this a couple days but I was hoping for at least one deposit by now.. Haha.

It seems to me like she is ready to start. Keep in mind that being ready doesn't mean she will get the hand of it immediately, it means that it will take her weeks to know what to do. All my kids were potty-trained by age 2 and a few months after they were also without diapers for the night. If you are very patient and you don't mind the extra work of keeping going with her to the potty then you will see results soon. Often times, a lot of parents find this is a lot of work and they prefer to let the children to continue wearing diapers. I suppose it is a personal choice.

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I agree with the advice. Potty-training takes time. Depending on the child, it can take months or even years before a child is fully potty-trained. Patience and lots of cheering when things do happen. :)

M.

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Thanks everyone. Brief update. We have had two successful bowel movements inside the pot! Both times were when daddy was helping her, she still hasn't used the training potty with me yet. We're both trying to stay diligent though but it's a lot of work! While we do make an effort for her to use the potty at home, I still put a regular diaper on her while we're out and about because I don't like having her sit on public toilets.. Even with liners, her little legs will hit the toilet bowl -- eeyuck! So I guess I'm postponing that aspect of the potty training.

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Sounds like you're on the right track! I'm going though potty training my 2 and a half year old daughter right now. I should have started much earlier but honestly I've just been putting it off since she's my baby. I don't want her to grow up! This poor kid didn't have any solid foods (cereal or baby food) until after 6 months and didn't' start walking until 17 months (because I carried her around everywhere). I still cradle her in my arms and carry her even though she's a heavy, lanky legged toddler. In my eyes she's still about 6 months old.

Anyway, I also have a four year old son. When he was potty training he picked up going pee fairly easy but would not poop in the potty. He was terrified of it. I looked it up and it's pretty common. I bought him a book called "I Can't, I Won't, No Way!" about a little boy who's scared to go. He loved the book and he really understood what the kid was going through, but he still had problems. It was so bad. He would grab his butt and cry because he had to go so bad that it hurt but we'd sit him on the potty and he'd freeze up. As soon as we put his nighttime diaper on, he'd go poop.

So finally we made a deal. I told him he could poop in the diaper but he had to be sitting on the potty. He could do that. We did that for a few nights to get him comfortable. Then one night I took his diaper into the other room and cut a big hole in that back of it. I'd didn't let I'm see it and just put it on him fast and set him on the potty before he could even realize that his booty was hanging out. He sat there for a few minutes and then stood and and said "I'm done!" His little face was priceless when I told him to look in the potty! He kept saying "I just pooped in the potty and it didn't even hurt!"

We never had another problem. :)

It doesn't sound like you'll need to go that far, I just thought I'd share.

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...So finally we made a deal. I told him he could poop in the diaper but he had to be sitting on the potty. He could do that. We did that for a few nights to get him comfortable. Then one night I took his diaper into the other room and cut a big hole in that back of it. I'd didn't let I'm see it and just put it on him fast and set him on the potty before he could even realize that his booty was hanging out. He sat there for a few minutes and then stood and and said "I'm done!" His little face was priceless when I told him to look in the potty! He kept saying "I just pooped in the potty and it didn't even hurt!"

We never had another problem. :)...

That's a brillant idea.

M.

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