Potty training can be quite the journey. The day after my daughter turned two I plopped her on her little princess potty. My goal was to get her potty trained right away! After a week of her fighting potty time, I gave up. We tried again at age 2 1/2 and she still wanted nothing to do with it. Age 3 came around and I started hearing from more people that she should be potty trained already. I started getting frustrated with myself and felt like a complete failure. I thought “I got this!”, and tried everything on my list of potty training tips, but my toddler wasn’t having it.
Potty training tips that DID NOT work:
- Sticker rewards
- M&M rewards
- Letting her use the tablet to play games on the potty
- Taking reward systems and the tablet away
- Staying consistent
- Having her watch TV shows about potty training
- Watch her little friends use the potty
- Having her walk around the house naked
- Wearing big girl panties around the house
- Buying the summer potty because it looks like an actual toilet
- Locking ourselves in the bathroom till she would go
- Telling her that her new baby cousin would be taking all her diapers away soon
Maybe some of these tips have or will work for you. After turning 3 my daughter still wouldn’t cooperate with potty training, even after using all those tips. I gave up three times! Then I had a friend tell me that she would do it when she’s ready. I went with that! I mean she isn’t going to college in diapers! At least I hope not.
Waiting til my child was ready was the best decision I could make. It took the pressure off, even when people would question me on why she wasn’t potty trained yet and suggesting that she should be by now.
At now almost 3 1/2 she made the decision to start sitting on her potty when she has to pee pee. When she pee pees in the potty, she is super proud and yells for me to come see.
When you praise a toddler for an accomplishment it can really boost their confidence! So make sure to praise every time!
Her interest for using the potty came out of nowhere. I quit the pressuring. It was all her decision! She has had a few accidents here and there and wears a diaper when we leave the house and when she goes to bed which is completely normal. But she is getting there.
If you’re a mama whose toddler is a late potty trainer, know it’s okay! You are a good mom! Not a failure. Every child will get there in their own time. The day of no more diapers will come. I promise! At 3 1/2 I’m still waiting for that day. It happens one step at a time.
My daughter was 4 and 3 months before we got her potty trained. She only pees and poops at home in her potty, not sure if that counts as being fully potty trained. But she hasn’t been in a diaper at nighttime for a year. So there’s that. It gets easier. You got this.
We tried before she was 3 a couple different times she could have cared less and it was super frustrating. When she turned three we started trying again then she showed more interest now she’s 80% potty trained. She is 3 years and 4 months. Hang in there! It’s frustrating to hear from everyone she should have been trained already.
All the things you listed that failed, failed for my triplet boys as well. I focused on 2 of them that were developmentally ahead of the 3rd. I did everything you had listed. I learned the pressure was too much for them, and made potty training a source of stress for them. The 3rd boy who I allowed to do it at his own pace was the first of the 3 to be completely potty train with no accidents at bed time. If I could do it again I would have ignored all the people that felt like they should be potty trained at X age. I would allow them to do it at their own pace. By 3.5 all three boys are potty trained