potty help needed

[sillysmile]

My nearly-21-month DD has a small potty as well as a seat that goes over a regular toilet. We have lots of naked time at home, and she sits on both potties at least a half dozen times a day (sometimes at her request, sometimes at mine when I think she has to go). We've been doing this for at least 3-4 months, and she has still never actually done anything but sit there for a few minutes and then request to get off. She has recently started announcing that she's peeing right before it happens (i.e. on the floor), and sometimes I rush her over to the potty right then. After she's peed on the floor I always say, "next time, we pee in the potty", and she always runs right over and sits on the potty. Will she magically "get it" at some point, or should I be doing something different? I would LOVE any suggestions. Thanks!!

[taramoon13]

sounds to me like she just isn't ready yet. ds was kinda the same, he had the concept of sitting on the potty down, it was just a matter of coordinating going potty while on the potty! you could try a reward system. since ds rarely gets candy i got a bag of organic choc. chips & he got one every time he sat on the potty to start out & then once he had the hang of that he got one when he actually did something on it. pretty early on he forgot about the choc. chips too, so that didn't become a prob., but you could do it with stickers or something else. i read somewhere about making a little bin of cheap, small toys that they get to pick one of when they go. i know it's hard to believe right now, but when your lo is ready she really will just start doing it! you and your lo obviously have a positive attitude which is one of the most important things!!

[lifeguard]

Sounds like what we went through with ds (although he didn't announce he peed but rather stood there & watched it). I was very consistent with bringing him to the potty after every pee. Then we suddenly had a few really bad nights of sleep & he suddenly got it. I really think those nights were his brain putting it altogether. He's fairly reliable now.

[sillysmile]

Thanks for the suggestions, taramoon13! I guess I should just try to be more patient and trust that it will happen in her own time. Chocolate chips might be a really compelling motivator, though, since she LOVES chocolate and doesn't get it very often. At the same time, I'd feel bad offering a reward for something that she doesn't really understand or have the ability to do. Maybe I could try it for a few days and see how she responds.

[sillysmile]

lifeguard that is really interesting about the bad nights and then "getting it". Kids are pretty amazing, aren't they?

My DD avidly watches her pee stream too, and lately has started trying to catch it in her hands

[taramoon13]

i know what you mean about the whole reward thing and i was torn about doing it too. like i said i was pleasantly surprised to see that ds just wasn't that into the choc., it just happened when he was ready. i also think it's good that you have the two different kinds of potties. we started out with the separate kind that he wasn't into and as soon as we got the topper it was comfortable to him and that kind of helped things along in a big way too. have you gotten her any "big girl" underwear? we got the cotton kind that have the extra padding and he really liked the idea of wearing underwear. i would still have him go commando in the house, but he would get to wear the undies out. just make sure you buy a couple packs as you'll be changing them a couple times a day at first!!!

[sillysmile]

No, no underwear yet.. but maybe it's time for that as well. She loves new clothes. This morning I put on a dry diaper, and within 5 minutes she had it off and had put on a new one (pull-up) all by herself. I thought she was just playing games, but the first one was actually wet. Just seems like she should be able to use the toilet at the point at which she can change her own diapers