Topic : Potty Training

I need help with ideas on how to potty train2 1/2 year old twins. (boy/girl).  I have three older girls and it was never a issue.  They all just decided one day to use the toilet.  Now I have the twins and they act like they don't even care.  They will play will the potty chairs and pull their diapers off and then go to the bathroom on the floor.  On top of all this, my mother-in-law tells me that I am a lazy mom because they are not potty trained yet and all of her kids along with her favorite grandson ( she tells us this) was out of diapers by the age of 2.  Any ideas?

I totally agree with you.  How can you jugde others who are only asking for help?  I have twins who are 4 (boy/girl).  For the life of me I can't get them to poop in the potty.  We have tried stickers, suckers, gum, time-out, spanking, and even the character underwear and panties and nothing seems to be working.  My daughter has always hated when you have to clean her up.  She just screams "don't hurt me" and clamps her legs together.  You would think that as many times as I have told her that if she would just go to the potty we wouldn't have to do this, she would get the hang of it and not want to go in her panties.  I feel like I do nothing but change dirty panties/underwear.  As soon as I get one cleaned up, there goes the other one.  My 12 year old was a breeze to train.  Not these.  Hang in there.  Maybe someting will help us one day.

I have twin girls who are 2 1/2 years old. I started potty training them when they were almost 2 years old and it just didnt work out, when they got on the potty all they would do is cry. Since then, everytime me or my sister would go to the bathroom we would bring them with us. They seemed so excited when they would go with us. We made a final decison that we were gonna start up again because they couldnt leave their clothes on.It was a constant thing, they did not want to keep the diaper on. So we started back up agin with the potty training, and its failing again.  

  

HERE'S WHAT WE DO: 

* I put then on the potty, there drinking water or juice. w read them a book, sing songs, we count just to keep them occupied. It works int he begining, then they get all anxious and they dont want to sit on the potty. so they get up i put either pull ups or panties on them. and the next thing u know they have wet themselves. they understand being wet down there, but i just cant seem to get them to understand that feeling and going to the potty when they need to go.  

  

I just need some advice on what to do. 

any advice will be greatly appreciated! 

My almost 3 year old will go potty when SHE feels like it. She knows what it's all about and will do #1 and #2 on it - but not consistently. She wears pull-ups and uses them when it is more convenient - ie: busy playing - no time for potty. 

  

I am going to try your ideas and cross my fingers!  

  

Thanks! 

                When I potty trained my daughter my strategy was to make a complete idiot out of myself every time she did go to the potty.  I would jump up and down, clap my hands, dance around the room, sing and shout things like "Yeah! Alright! You go girl! Wow, you went to the potty!" It made her think that going to the potty was just the greatest thing in the world.  I completely went over the top, which made the whole potty-going-process stand out in her mind and was also alot of fun to her.  Exhausting to me, but fun to her.  She began to realize that if she wanted that fun excitement again, all she had to do was go to the potty.  Soon she was running to her potty chair the second she felt the slightest need to go.  I also kept a large bowl filled with small toys and treats, and would let her choose one every time she went on her own, while exclaiming with excitement, "Wow! You get a prize for going to the potty!" or "You get a reward for doing so great!".   Toward the end of her training,  I very slowly tapered off on the excitement and rewards until she was fine with just "going",  because I didn't want her to stop going on her own in order to get the "fun" again.   If she did have an accident, I made sure never to get upset,  but just  gave her a hug and said "that's o.k., everybody has an accident sometimes, we'll just try again next time".  

                        Of course, every child is different.  This is just what worked for us.  I started training her at fourteen months, because she was consistantly waking up with a dry diaper and she was pretty much trained by the time she was two.   

                         I hope this will help you and others who read this.  Good Luck!   

Hi,  

I posted about this same thing earlier this month with my daughter. I will copy/paste it below for you and wish you the best of luck. Since I did this with my 4 yr old she hasn't once had an accident (so far). I asked her yesterday why she didn't poop in the potty before since she was so good at it and she said, "Mommy, the book said Prudence had to sit & sit & sit & sit and I don't like sitting that long!" Once she told me that I understood completely. I had been reading to her a potty book and the little girl in it had to sit (a whole page of "sit") before she finally went in her potty. Evidently this didn't "sit" well with my daughter so she decided pooping in the potty was too much trouble for her. I wish I had never read her that book or let her get so dependant on PullUps. After the first week I stopped giving rewards but she still gets lots of hugs, kisses and praise for being a "big girl!" 

 

 

My 4 year old would pee in the potty but would refuse to "poop" in it. On the 30th I got real fed up with it and took a stubborn stance against the "Pullup for Poop" time. I told her we ran out of them and all 4 year olds had to poop in the potty it was the "rule." Needless to say she was not a happy camper. She held it in and cried all day for one, on the second day (yesterday) she went in her panties a bit at a time, still stubborn about sitting on the potty. I just cleaned her up but made her sit on the potty while I was getting clean undies for her and kept up telling her she was 4 and needed to use the potty for "poop" too. I also told her that if she would finally use the potty for both we would get out the paints, glitter, etc. but not until then.  I believe I washed 16 pair of undies in the last 2 days, sheesh! My back ached from cleaning the messes but I had decided to be as stubborn as she was :o) This morning she asked yet again for the Pullup and I said No, took her and sat next to her while she was on the potty. She kept getting up and everytime she would ask for a Pullup I kept taking her back to the potty. When it looked like I was about to give up and toss the Pullups back to her a sneaky idea came to me, I made some fake "poop" with a piece of brown clay. Right before I placed her on the potty again for what seemed like the millionth time I dropped it in. When she got up and looked she saw it and thought she had actually "pooped!" I made a big fuss over her and let her call Daddy & her favorite aunt to tell them. She was so proud of herself that everytime she felt the urge she would run to the potty (seemed like a million more times) and try to poop. She still didn't do it and when I saw that she was getting discouraged I put the fake in again and praised her and we did something fun. After all that she FINALLY did it herself and 2 times after that this evening so hopefully we have broken the Pullup habit and  I've given you an idea to help your little one. I feel your pain on this one & wish you all good luck! Feel free to email me if you just need to talk or vent, hee hee. My advice is to not let them get dependant on the Pullups, that was my mistake. 

  

Happy Weekend Everyone! 

Steff 

Hi,  

Have you tried gently waking him during the night for a trip to the bathroom? My nephew did the same thing and his doctor suggested doing that for a couple of weeks. If he woke the next morning and he was dry he was praised and fussed over, if he was wet he would get a hug and told "you'll wake up dry tomorrow!" I think it took a few weeks before he finally stayed dry and he still had occasional accidents for a few months but it really helped him.  

  

Hope this helps! 

  

Steff 

Hey; I am still trying to potty train my 6 yr. old boy; and boy is it a challenge...... 

He has been thru the rewards,punishment, comparison, and the Dr. Phil Potty Training In A Week methods..... 

He has been thru the only "big boy underwear" methods and the "no underwear" methods; 

HELP?!?!?!?!?!!!!????? 

If there is any new suggestions..... 

He has been diagnosed with PDD> It is an umbrelic diagnosis> they don't seem to be worried about his not potty training and will not offer any other suggestion or counseling....... 

HELP??????!!!!????? 

  

I have finally had some luck.  I took all the toys out of my sons room, took all movies, games, and anything else that he liked and put it in the garage. When he went to the potty then he got a toy, but when he hid from me then I took all of them away again.... we are not trained yet but its working better than anything else..... good luck...