I thought I’d give an update on my Potty Training Adventures with our three and a half year old daughter. If you are new to reading my blog you’ll want to start at the beginning of the story.
It has been almost four months since I originally shared my sad tale of potty training woe. During that time I have vacillated between declaring,
“You cannot force potty training upon a child. She will do it when she is ready and I’m just going to accept that. It’s perfectly normal for some children to be five before they are potty trained.”
to begging and bribing,
“Honey, Don’t you think you are ready to be a big girl? What toy would you like most in the world? Mommy will buy you that if you start wearing big girl underwear.”
And sadly I even broke down and sobbed,
“Santa will not bring you any presents if you are in still in pull ups so you HAVE TO STOP WEARING THEM RIGHT NOW!”
During this time I also bought the highly recommended potty watch. It was broken within hours of giving it to darling daughter. I have no idea what happened. I just know I’m not replacing that thing.
But all is not lost. After purchasing THREE Barbie’s for pooping on the potty, my daughter now poops on the potty regularly. It is fantastic. She is so proud she saves it in the potty so we can all see, and I’m fine with that.
Unfortunately, she still wears a pull up and she still pees in her pull up the majority of the time. But all is not lost because she then changes her own diaper (pull up). So while I have not been able to fully potty train my daughter, I have been able to get her to change her own diaper. Now that she is pooping on the potty exclusively this is a much cleaner streamlined experience.
We’re currently working on her changing her nine month old sister’s diaper.
Hey, if you cannot beat ’em, join ’em.
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I love it! “If you can’t beat them, join them!”
I found your blog on SITS and thought I’d visit.
I’m ‘almost’ certain you’ll have her potty trained by the time she is five! LOL!
Bahahahah! Love it! Good luck with the 9 month old!
Congratulations on small victories. You must be so frustrated. Potty training in itself is tough and then with an unwilling toddler…I would probably resort to screaming incoherently at my kid. I must have been really, really lucky since my daughter wanted to use the big potty early.
It will happen. You just might go crazy in the meanwhile. 🙂
It’s interesting to read about your potty training experiences!
Here are some little-known facts about potty training to consider:
When the disposable diaper was introduced in 1961, 95% of all babies in the US were potty trained by 18 months. Today the AVERAGE age of potty training is 37 months.
Parents are told to “wait until their child is ready” to potty train. This advice originated from well-known pediatricians who were paid consultants to the diaper companies.
So parents wait and babies wearing disposable diapers and pull-up aren’t feeling any discomfort, so peeing and pooping in a diaper becomes a habit – and one that is hard to change as a child grows older (while parents wait).
The truth is that it’s actually EASIER to potty train a baby under the age of 2. Why? Babies are more cooperative at this age, and they like to imitate. Once a child turns two, they naturally move toward asserting their own will.
But the diaper companies don’t want you to know this. However, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, babies are ready to start potty training soon after they turn 1.
The challenge in doing that is babies at that age can’t tell you when they need to go. But if you teach them the sign for “potty” they overcome this communication barrier.
Not only is potty training before 2 easier for parents, it’s better for babies’ self-esteem and it good for the environment.
You can get more information at http://www.PottyTrainWithBabySigns.com.
Who knows, maybe in 2009, BOTH of your daughters will become completely potty trained!
Bribing kids is so underrated as a parenting technique. Glad it is going well.
Glad she’s making some progress! And hey, if you aren’t the one changing the diaper since she’s changing her own, who cares, right?