Potty/toilet training

[babynatasha]

My DD has pee'd on the potty the last two Sundays, but no day in between. Today she has pee'd on the potty and doesn't want to wear a diaper. Some people have told me not to rush it and let her be in control. Other people say to use bribes. Others say to embrace it and put her in panties and remind her to go and deal with the accidents. Can anyone shed some light on the different methods and the issues with them? I'm not sure if I should be wholeheartedly encouraging and reminding her to use the potty or relaxing and letting her tell me when she wants to. Suggestions?

[sapphire_chan]

it depends on you and your child. Are you more stressed by using diapers or by puddles, does your dd mind being reminded?

do what lets you stay calm, work with what she tells you, take advantage of the warm weather.

[barefootmama0709]

If she is initiating and saying she doesn't want to wear a diaper, I say go for it. Try to keep it low-key; maybe just allow her to run around in a t-shirt (bare-bottom). Something that I found really helped when my ODS was potty-learning was to pay attention to the times he had accidents and put him on the potty shortly beforehand. Once he was going in the potty more regularly, he made the connection very fast.

[swd12422]

We've been following DS's lead and just letting it happen. Everyone kept telling me he's too young to PL (he's 28 months now) but I just let him use the potty when he asked and now and then would ask if he wanted to. Once he started with a naked bottom, he refused to put a diaper back on. (We'd do an hour or so in the afternoon to start with and then put diapers on when the accidents got to be too much for me to deal with or when he started refusing to sit on the potty.)

A couple of weeks ago, he had an afternoon where he didn't have any accidents for a good 3 hours straight, and then cried when it was time to put on a diaper, so I let him wear underwear the rest of the day til bedtime. The next day, I asked if he wanted to try underwear all day, and he said yes. He hasn't wanted to wear a diaper since then, and has been accident-free for 4-5 days now. He still wears a diaper over night and for naps, but that's it.

I really think that those who say to let it happen on the LO's terms are right. There's no fighting, no stress (except that of trying remember to go potty frequently enough to avoid accidents), and my son feels like it was all his idea. Sometimes I still ask him if he wants to wear a diaper or underwear when he wakes up, so that he knows he has the choice. He's never once chosen a diaper.

[~cassie~]

I was letting my son lead. He is 30 months but has a severe language delay which has led to a little cognitive delay, so he isn't quite in the same mind frame as kids his age yet. Anyway, he is stubborn and strong willed so I let him lead. He started by peeing before bath every night b/c that is what my oldest does, and after a week of him doing that, I started asking him every hour if he needed to go pee. That was all last week and we had 1 pee accident, and a poop accident every day as he hasn't gotten poop down. BUt heck, he's nearly fully pee trained and I let him lead by the most part, just gently asking him if he needed to go. And today he has actually been running to the potty himself with little probing from me.

I did the opposite with my oldest and did rewards with pottying and that worked great for my oldest. I think it depends on your child's personality quite a bit.