My grandbaby is 3 and she lives with me. I am having a hard time potty training her and I need advice. She is 3 years and 4 months old.
Submitted by senakandbooboonanny on Apr 19, 2012 - 10:27am
Our readers share ideas about timed potty training and other ideas for teaching toilet habits.
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Posted by Amber Bobnar on Apr 22, 2012 - 8:44pm
Does your granddaughter have any special needs? That can make the process much tougher.
I think the thing that worked best for us was keeping a chart of my son's pee and BMs while he was still in diapers before we even got started with potty training. Fortunately for us he was pretty regular with his schedule (for the most part).
Once we had the chart and had a pretty good idea of when he was going then we started putting him on the potty at those times. I think this approach is actually called "timed potty training" (or something like that) and I have seen people criticize it because they say you aren't training the child to use the potty so much as training the parent to place the child on the potty at the right time. But honestly, does it really make a difference? After a couple of weeks of "catching" him at the right time and getting him on the potty when he had to go anyway, my son began to understand the concept of what a potty is for... and that's the whole point right there.
Of course lots of praise and even prizes works well too. And don't get too upset about accidents - they are inevitable.
Posted by Amber Bobnar on Apr 22, 2012 - 8:46pm
From our Facebook Page:
"My son was 4 1/2 before he'd poop in the potty. The only thing that worked for us was telling him we were out of diapers and he was desperate and had no choice. He would withhold for days but that one time, he just couldn't hold it. When he saw his fears were unfounded, he was fine with it."
"Would she respond to a reward chart? A special one, maybe, you could make it together? Each time the potty is used correctly she would get a sticker (I always went for their favourite tv character etc). Then when she has used it, say, 5 times, a slightly bigger reward.....whatever she is passionate about (we never used sweets). I did this for about a week and then they had to use it 8 times etc etc. I made the reward chart simple and easy to follow (obviously :-)). Also, we were never negative, if they had an accident, just concentrated on the positive! Good luck."