potty training

[Guest guest]

,

I think that watching get potty trained earlier really helped . Aside from that, once I decided to focus on it, here are the things that helped her/me. . .doesn't mean they will help you, just ideas.

About every 10-15 minutes I would ask her if she was still dry and praise like crazy when the answer was yes.

If it was no, I would say "run, run, run to the potty", trying to instill a sense of urgency, even after the fact.

Every time she sat on the potty and was still dry, she received a sticker. She was really into "Dora" at the time, so those are the ones I used, from the dollar store.

She has her "LeapPad" with 2 books that can only be used on the potty. It encourages her to sit for 10 min or so, when necessary, because she loves the toy and can only use it there.

After she clearly knew the routine, if she chose to wet her pants because she was too involved (with a toy or a movie) to want to go to the bathroom, she lost that activity for a period of time (couple hours?) with the reminder that she didn't go to the bathroom when she was watching/doing the activity.

She gets a magnet on her "responsibility chart" if she is dry all day.

Within earshot of her I tell people she is a big girl, staying dry in big girl pants and encourage her to tell her teacher, grandma, babysitter that she's been dry, or pooped on the potty, whatever that day's accomplishment has been. She began to feel proud, and I think that helped her motivation.

I remind her frequently that she is in "big girl pants" and needs to stay dry. "Run to the potty, or ask mom, if you need to go."

I think the biggest factor in her wetting was simple forgetfulness, and the going back and forth between pull-ups and cotton. Now that she she gets frequent reminders and knows can't just pee at random because she might have a pull-up on, it has improved a lot. There were lots of accidents at first, but with the absorbancy of training pants they were seldom on the furniture, just on her clothes.

Good luck, I know it is a huge project!

Casey, mom to (DS) and , 4