Okay, my year olds do NOT want to even sit on the potty...we've tried bribery, rewards, praise, offers of big girl panties (which they put on over diapers--I took them away), you name it.

They have all gone on the potty several times (mostly at school) and received stickers and huge praise from teachers and mom (When I get there).

I've read not to force the issue, so I haven't pushed them to sit on the potty, but...I am starting to worry.

I should add that the girls are not delayed or having any other developmental problems that might affect their readiness...they just don't seem interested.

Several folks suggested that I ditch the pull ups completely...will that work or just cause huge messes for me to clean up.

Any thoughts??

Alice

GGG born 9/3/05 at 35w3d

If they don't want to, they won't. Not worth your effort to keep pushing it. Just make sure they have a good intro to the potty (understand what it is, what goes in there, the steps involved, etc). I would put them in diapers (commenting to them each time that diapers are for babies, and when they are big girls they will get panties). Eventually they will ask for panties, and then go to panties but not Pullups. The problem with Pullups is they don't learn the lesson of what happens if they pee in it.

Once my girls were potty trained, we went to Pullups for school or extended trips away from the house just so I wouldn't have to worry about accidents. But they think the Pullups are panties. And they haven't had an accident yet. And then there's James...

BGG born 4/25/05 at 31w1d




New baby girl born 9/19/06

If you want to try it, you could let them run around naked. I had one (Kristin) who HATED to see that the yucky stuff came out of her body, lol. I thought she just wasn't interested until she cried when she saw the poop come out. (Sorry, TMI!) So when I forced her to see it, she decided she wanted to use the potty.

Good luck! I can say with full confidence that potty training SUCKED.

Loren
GGG Jan.2005 @ 28wks

Sweetened Taters - http://sweetenedtaters.blogspot.com

Gosh. Your situation sounds very much like mine and we've been working on potty training for months now. My son does great at home. He'll tell us he has to pee, we march him over, pull his pants down and he goes. Lots of praise. At preschool, he doesn't do so well. (Mine are in pull-ups all the time.) My girls on the other hand, will pee in the potty at school, but not home. Go figure. They just don't seem interested at home. On occasion, while at home if I let them walk around naked and say, "do NOT pee on the floor! DO NOT!", one of my girls will come and tell me when she has go and then will successfully go on the potty. My other girl - not interested in going potty at home at all. Like I said, we're using pull-ups, but I may switch to underwear while at home to see how that goes. (Mind you, we've tried underwear in the past and we did more cleaning up than we had successes.) We haven't even begun to work on pooping in the potty yet. That seems like a distant dream......

Sorry to ramble on. Just wanted to say that our new 3-year-olds aren't trained yet either. Good luck.

Joan
mom to Caroline, Erin and Robbie
born 9/26/05 @ 35 weeks
visit us at http://www.babyhomepages.net/greenetriplets

Have you tried using the seats you set on the big pottty and a stool versus the training potty? It gave my daughter such a sense of pride to go on the big potty that she just started going all by herself. Big rewards for every time that they do go, and put them in regular diapers when they go in their pants. And don't make ANY fuss when they do go in their pants. Simply clean it up as quickly as possible without saying a word. When they do go on the potty, HUGE praise and reward. I don't think anyone has a right way to potty train, but hearing other people's ideas always helps! Good luck!!!