First, one big fat disclaimer . . . I am not a potty training expert! This is more of a, “I feel your pain!” kind of post. So if your looking for advice keep looking. (Although, if it’s been written in a book or on the web, I’ve probably read it!) If you want to laugh and commiserate please keep reading. When MacGyver was about 2 1/2 years old, I found just the right reward / bribe and three days later he was potty trained. I always heard girls are easier to train than boys. So when Miss Enigma came along, I just knew she would be potty trained early. Wow, was I wrong! We read and tried everything!
So let the bribing begin . . .
“Look Miss Enigma! Each time you pee-pee in the potty you can pick a Littlest Pet Shop toy!”
Miss Enigma proceeded to occasionally use the potty until she “earned” all twelve animals. However, she was NOT even near to being potty trained.
“Look Miss Enigma! Each time you pee-pee or poop in the potty you can get a m&m!”
Miss Enigma is a little salty so this sweet treat was snubbed. So we turned to big brother who has an enormous sweet tooth:
“Hey MacGyver, each time you get Miss Enigma to pee-pee in the potty you can get a m&m too!”
MacGyver was highly motivated; however, the positive peer pressure was also snubbed!
“Look Miss Enigma, Mommy is running the water. Just sit for a minute. The water will help you go potty.”
It didn’t work on Miss Enigma; however, it still works on Mommy!
“Look Miss Enigma! Mommy has big girl Hello Kitty underwear! We are getting rid of all of your diapers! From now on you’re going to wear only big girl underwear!”
The cold turkey experiment almost sent Mommy to the funny farm. So we went back to pull-ups. Much easier than cleaning poop off of Hello Kitty!
Enter the picture Aunt Joyce the preschool expert.
“Look Miss Enigma! Let’s put water color in the toilet! Then you can pee-pee!”
Well, the preschool expert met her match.
Then Miss Enigma discovered lollipops. She LOVES lollipops.
“Look Miss Enigma! Each time you use the potty you can have a lollipop!”
“Thanks, but no thanks!”
By this time the entire extended family was in on the potty training endevour. Alyssa was certain that she had found the answer to all of our potty training troubles. Since Miss Enigma is madly in love with Scooby-Doo, Alyssa just knew that this Scooby-Doo potty seat would just do the trick.
“Look Miss Enigma! You can use this new Scooby-Doo potty seat every time you go pee-pee!”
“I love it! I love it! I love it! I’ll use it tomorrow.” Tomorrow never came!
There were numerous other bribes including a puffy pink potty, reading during potty time, a promise of a trip to the beach and Belle.
“Look Miss Enigma! If you poop in the potty just one time you can take Belle out of the plastic package!”
Belle sat by the toilet in the plastic wrapper for at least 6 months. Then one day Miss Enigma did a little tiny poop by accident in the potty! Party time!!! Belle came out of the package. We drove to Dairy Queen for an ice cream. We played in the dark at the park at 9:00 pm. Miss Enigma called everyone she knows to celebrate the good news. Then it never happened again!!!
Daddy had been engaged in the potty training adventure from the beginning. By this time he was even beginning to worry. So he found our solution on the internet:
Step 1: Get the child to poop in her diaper in the bathroom.
Step 2: Get the child to sit on potty wearing diaper. Allow her to poop in the diaper sitting on the potty.
Step 3: Cut a hole in the diaper. Let the child poop on the potty wearing the diaper with the hole.
Step 4: Cut around the diaper so the child is basically wearing a waistband. Have the child poop on the potty wearing the waistband.
These steps are guaranteed to work!
We accomplished Step 1. That’s it!!!
So I continued researching and found a website about children who are afraid to poop on the potty. Wow, children six years-old still afraid to poop in the potty.
Again, I have no advice! I had to try some unconventional tactics to get Miss Enigma over her fear, none of which included any kind of punishment. Thankfully, she will not be one of those poor children who are still afraid to poop at age five or six.
Why does potty training have to be so difficult?
So let’s talk potty training. What has been your experience?
*Yes, I know I overused the exclamation points in this post. Please forgive me, but this potty training stuff was a very traumatic experience!
For those of you who would like to read while potty training, we’re GIVING AWAY a set of board books.
Life with Jeannine
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
toilet training took a long time with us for Princess, even longer for pooping because she had had so many bad experiences with it before this new step that it was already a traumatic thing for her (constant constipation issues).
Then we introduced the “gold coin” method (over here $1 is a gold coin). Whenever she went to the toilet she got a gold coin.
Seems even young children know the value of money, because she was pooping and peeing with no trouble in no time! And she has more money in her pocket than me ….
Only one of my kids is potty trained so far, and she did it literally in a day – the day before her third birthday (which was also the day of her birthday party). Johnny sits on the potty all the time, but nothing happens. Since he’s not even three yet, I’ll take my time. But, I want to hear, what unconventional antics finally worked?
I totally agree potty training has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever done… harder than reading recovery training year! We’re making progress here but no poo in the potty yet. Bribery seems to work. Logan is obsessed with stickers!!
I had a pretty good time potty training Ryan. I purchased a potty chair, a doll that potties and lots of stickers and lots of training undies. Took him out of the diapers, put him in underwear. Showed him how the potty worked with the doll.
The first week was terrible. Accident after accident. I ended up having to buy two more packs of undies to keep from washing clothes 3 times a day.
And then it just clicked. Like, overnight. He peed first thing in the morning in the potty and he hasn’t had an accident since.
No bribery. No lavish rewards. No tears.
He was 23 months old and the entire process was done in less than 2 weeks. It’s been 5 months now and still hasn’t had an accident since that day and he’s had to hold it for up to 10 minutes while we were in the middle of driving somewhere when he decided he needed to go. LOL.
Now, I don’t know how much of a difference all this makes, but Ryan hated diapers and he hated them being wet even more. Like, we were still going through 6 – 12 diapers per day when he was 18 months old. As soon as he peed, the diaper came off.
He is also extremely verbal. He was speaking in 6+ word sentences by 18 months. According to his developmental pedi (we were worried about Aspergers) he is on a 4 – 5 year old level in speech, early literacy and verbal understanding. So maybe that helped a lot.
He’s the only kid that I have so far, so he’s the only experience that I’ve got. I, personally, think pull ups are the most detrimental thing in the world to potty training.
<3 Just my two cents.