I have been thinking about potty training Eva for a while now but wasn’t sure where to start. I’ve read all the information but still just wasn’t sure if she was ready and was worried about keeping it a positive experience. That is the most important thing to me, keeping it positive. Eva is such a strong-willed child that she often rebels against what mommy tells her to do so I wanted to make sure that potty training didn’t turn into a power struggle.
I introduced the little potty to her when she was 18 months old and bought her a little potty book that flushes when you push a button and has a place for stickers in the back. Even though she loves stickers using them as an incentive to go potty wasn’t working out so well (plus she wasn’t even close to being ready).
Now that she is two I am getting a little more serious with the potty training. This past weekend I put her in big girl underwear (with her favorite characters on them), set the timer for every 15 minutes and told her “When the beep beep goes off you get to sit on the potty and if you go pee pee or poo poo in it you will get a chocolate chip!” So far it has been working pretty well. I put the potty out in the living room so if she resists sitting on it I turn on a favorite cartoon and she sits there happily. She has had a couple of accidents but we just don’t make a big deal out of it. I know she still does not have the cognitive skills to be able to go on her own or the physical control to hold it. I just want to introduce her to the concept and hope that by doing this every day she gains the physical and cognitive control/skills.
I’ll update you on how it goes next week!
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wendy says...
from your description, we seem to have the same book. mine’s for the boys:-). good luck to you. my toddler got rid of pull-ups at 22months. we had some accidents from time to time but consistency was the key… and making it a fun and exciting experience helped a lot… now he would insist that daddy and mommy look at his poopoo, as if it’s something to be proud of! hahaha. now that he’s 28months, we started with nighttime training. we’re now on day 2. so far, so good.
March 17th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Cascia @ Healthy Moms says...
What a great idea! It sounds like you are off to a great start. I like the idea of setting the kitchen timer every fifteen minutes. I might have to try that one with my son. I used that same book when I trained my middle child. Now I need to get the one for boys.
March 18th, 2009 at 9:43 am
LeftLeaningLady says...
WHO are you training? What happens if you don’t set the timer? If it’s working for you, then that is great and good luck. But maybe you are getting in a hurry?
I don’t want to criticize, not my child, but I did have to throw my 2 cents in.
March 19th, 2009 at 7:25 am
Jill says...
No problem at all, I like ALL advice. I completely agree that if the child cannot get up to go on their own then they are not potty trained, it is the parent that is trained. But I have the time and the patience right now so I figure I’ll try this out and in a couple of weeks see how it is going. If she still doesn’t know when to sit on the potty by then and my patience is running thin then we can stop and try another time.
March 19th, 2009 at 9:20 am
LeftLeaningLady says...
I’ve read that stopping and starting are not good, BUT I did it with my son. He was only about 17 months old when I was setting the table at my mother’s for dinner. He told me he needed a new diaper and when I didn’t immediately stop what I was doing, he brought me a diaper and wipes and lay down at my feet in the middle of the kitchen! My mom told me to get him a potty chair NOW. So we worked on it for about a month and he just wasn’t ready. Several months later he decided he was never wearing diapers again. Looking back, he may have still been too young, but he did really well for only being 22 months old. (I didn’t even THINK about night training until he turned 3 and only worried about it then because I was out of PullUps and we were over seas!)
Good luck. Potty training is one of the most difficult things to do as a parent… at this age.
March 20th, 2009 at 6:19 am