peeing on floor

[carrie a.]

my 20 month old definitely knows about peeing on her potty. she wears chaps with no diaper when we're at home and puts herself on the potty when she has to go. she says "pee" and "poop". she never ever poops in a diaper or on the floor. but recently, she's been peeing on the floor - on purpose! anyone had this experience? i don't want to do the whole positive (or negative) reinforcment routine but i don't know what else to do when she squates on the floor and watches herself go. suggestions??

for those of you who might wonder about the chaps: we get them from ecwear.com and they are awesome for ecing.

[Carlyle]

My standard response to this was (as calmly as possible) "Oops, you peed. That's okay, you can try to get it in the potty again next time." Sometimes I'd add "did that catch you by surprise?" And then we'd clean it up. I had her "help" (if she was willing to) by stepping on the towel or pouring vinegar water on it. It was frustrating at times, but by not putting energy into it, it went away pretty quickly.

[hrsmom]

My guess would be that she's doing a little experimenting. I agree with Carlyle's suggestions. I'd probably go with training pants or something during a phase like that, but that would be for me and my level of patience.

[JMJ]

DD's been doing this right after diaper changes before I can get clothes back on and then stepping in it and slipping! Yikes! She's gone through a few phases of it. I think she's asserting her independence. I think she needs to have some control over her life, and this is an area she can easily demand the control. In the past, it's lasted a few weeks, once almost 2 months, and then she decided to use the potty again. I just calmly clean her up and talk to her about the pee on the floor, how it's scary to slip on it and hurts when she falls, how she doesn't like it when I wash off her legs and feet or change her clothes, how I am cleaning up the mess now, and how I trust her to start using the potty again when she's ready.

There are so many natural consequences built into going on the floor (not that I don't usually catch her when she slips or try to keep her from stepping in it in the first place), and I think that she finds going in the potty to be the more pleasant situation, and she does eventually decide to go back to the potty after a period of not.

[mckennasmomma]

I was just logging on to post almost the same topic! My dd definitely knows all about the potty, and even keeps her diapers dry when we are out (I do diaper when out in public, or cloth trainers, but usually diapers). But for some reason at home when she is nakey butt, she will pee on the floor 90% of the time. It doesn't really feel like a phase since she has never really had a phase where she didn't do this. She does pee on the potty when I take her there, and occasionally goes to it on her own (always takes herself for poops) but like I said more often than not it is on the floor, even when she is right next to the potty! Do I just need more time and patience and to continue with my standard, "oops! pee pee goes in the potty."??

[tutucrazy]

My son did this for about 5 months. He eventually got tired of it and stopped. Just don't make a big deal and make sure you take her to the potty afterward.

[curiouscanadian]

Just don't make a big deal and make sure you take her to the potty afterward.

What is the point of this? I've tried it with DS and it just seems to make him resist the potty even more. Like "I don't want to be here, I don't need to be here (after all I just peed!), I want to go play". I'm not trying to argue with you, I've just seen this suggested many places and don't really understand it.

OP, I too get DS to help clean up. I've also started changing him in the bathroom - rather than the change table in his bedroom - to try to reinforce the connection. We'll see if it helps...

[sapphire_chan]

I think it's more for kids who avoid going to the potty so they don't have to stop playing. It's like "nope, sorry kiddo, still have to interrupt your playing, in fact, it takes even longer since we have to clean up instead of just flushing."

Since it's warm, how about dress-only time in the back yard and some dandelion targets?

[carrie a.]

thanks everyone. she's got a bad cold and cough so pottying has almost stopped completely this week. she even pooped in her diaper yesterday! hopefully we'll be back to normal soon.