How do you toilet train?

[pinkandblue]

Hi

I just wanted some help with toilet training my 2 1/2 year old daughter.

I sit her on the toilet occassionally and they also sit her on the toilet at childcare. The only problem is that she likes to sit there and put toilet paper down the toilet and then push the button to flush it. She has never done a wee on the toilet.

How do I get her to do a wee in the toilet? Do I leave her in nappies and just put her on the toilet every 30 minutes or so and hope she does a wee? Or do I leave her in undies and keep putting her on the toilet every 30 minutes? And how long do you leave them sitting on the toilet? 2 minutes? 5 minutes? Or do you do something different all together?

She does like to wear undies because I have put her in them occassionally but when she wets herself she will start to cry because she doesnt know what is happening.

Do you think I should wait a bit longer or start trying now? Any tips or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

[Charley_05]

this sounds exactly like my little sister (22 months). she likes to sit on the toilet and put toilet paper down there but never does a wee. she sometimes likes to take off her nappie and sit on the potty in the living room but seems to be using it as a chair and rarely goes.
does your daughter mix with older children at the child carers? my sister also goes to one and will sit on the toilet there if she needs to go to copy the older children. when she does go, give her alot of praise and she will realise how "grown up" she is being, also give her a treat and she will want to do it again (hopefully). this seems to work so far.
good luck!!
Charley xx :)

[Tea Lady]

There's a book that's supposed to be good - it's called something like "Toilet train your child in just one day" or something to that effect. It's out of print (I think) but I found it in my uni library, so there must be others around. My mum used it for me and my siblings in the 70s and it must work because I haven't worn a nappy for years! :p It was recommended to us in our Early Childhood education degree, so it's not just my mum's opinion.

Good luck!

Lucy

[Baby Girl]

I read a couple of different books but wouldn't swear by any one of them having the best method.

One that had many different suggestions regarding different ways you can toilet train was an american book called "Mommy, I need to go Potty".

I found the best way to find out was to ask other mothers - I guess that is what you are doing here, right??

I waited until my DD was interested in everyone else using the toilet, she would ask if she could sit on it and amazingly did a poo before anything else (only happened once then a long time till the next poo in the loo!). I explained that as she got older she needed to use the toilet because they didn't make nappies for big girls and mummy and daddy (and everyone else she knew) wore undies!! I bought her undies but gave her the choice each morning what she wanted to wear - nappies or undies. If she was in nappies she didn't have to tell me if she needed to go unless she wanted to but if she was in undies she did. She usually chose undies. We had lots of accidents and lots of times she would get upset about having wet pants but because she could see the effect of what happened if she didn't use the toilet she latched onto the idea pretty quick. If she wanted to help me clean up the puddles, I would let her (she is a bit of a clean freak). If she didn't I would do it with as little fuss as possible and just say 'remember next time you need to do a wee or a poo try and do it in the toilet' and leave it at that and go on as if nothing had happened.

It took about 8 weeks for her to master it completely and about another 4 weeks before she was happy to poo in the toilet, rather than waiting for her night nappy or asking me to put one on so she could poo. If she did poo in either nappy or undies we would tip it in the toilet and go through the motions of wiping, flushing, hand washing etc. then I would remind her to try and do it in the toilet and leave it at that.

After all of that, the best tip, I can give you is be patient - it is so hard because just when you think they've got it sussed........8 wet pairs of pants before lunchtime when you are trying to get everything washed so you can pack bags to go away for a weekend!! Sometimes it feels like 2 steps forward, 3 steps back but they do get the hang of it!!

UPDATE: In addition to the 2 forward 3 back comment, DD hasn't done a poo in the toilet from, ooohhh probably about 2 days after I posted this so we are back to the night nappy or in her undies, on the upside she is now telling me that she has done it in her knickers rather than not saying anything and waiting for me to smell it!! The joys....

[Melissa1983]

Hi
I have just trained Mikayla, had a few problems to begin with but just kept taking her, try the wee wee dance, dance around like a little child (move your body and shake your arms around in the air, and say mikayla done wee wee yippee) , she loved it, and now she goes all the time. I am starting her sister now as well, and Mikayla actually does the dance for her. I found that worked.

[melzy]

First of all I bought some small story books from Big W which I read to her. It was called Big Toilet and was very basic and they could even press a button that would make a flushing sound. This was so she understood the process of taking nappy off, wee, wipe,flush etc.

For quite some time I used to have a potty sitting in the lounge which she just played on and she used to just sit on it and watch TV while having nappy free. One day she did a wee and she told me what she did. She was so happy. I always said to her if she did a wee then she has the honour of pouring it in the big toilet and flushing - this was her reward. She was so excited. After several months I started asking her every day if she wanted to use the big toilet like mummy and daddy and she said yes. At times she just sat there and starting taking the paper off and flushing when nothing was done so I told her that we get rewarded using the paper and flusher once we heard her wee or poo hit the water in the toilet. After a couple of days she was weeing in it quite happily but she wanted to do poos in the nappy. I could always tell when she needed to do one of those so I'd race her to the big toilet and put her on there myself, and one day it happened and her eyes lit up and was so excited.

In regards to nappies, putting pull ups on etc, I personally found pull ups made my little girl lazy. I put undies on her straight away and made sure that I'd ask her if she needed to do a wee before we go out and never too far, plus when we got to our destination ask her if she needed one. They say no more than yes so I'd put her on there anyway. I ensure I take 3 sets of undies, and clothes with me just in case.

My little girl is also 2 and a half and to date she has only had 3 accidents. She now goes to the toilet by herself, takes her pants off, does her business and calls me if she has done a poo. She flushes the toilet and says goodbye to it (which is quite cute).

I can actually see her cute little bum instead of a huge bulky nappy.

[Mumof3Princesses]

My older girls were wonderful and practically toilet trained themselves by the time they were two! DD3 is finally there after four months, she will be three next month. So happy. :)

Each afternoon, I would put them in undies while they were playing outside and if they peed, it was no big deal. Being in disposables (which keep them so dry) they didn't really know what it felt like to pee themselves until they wore underpants!

I would put them in nappies at night and when I found that they were dry for a week straight, I stopped using them. :D

I would explain that when they felt a pee-pee coming that they should take off their undies and run under the tree and pee. Then tell them that "big girls" do pee-pee in the toilet. I would show them what mine looked like as it went into the loo too (pee and poo). TMI I know but visual aids are great! We always say goodbye to the poo too as it got flushed away.

When it finally does happen in the toilet, make a BIG deal out of it and clap and cheer and praise, praise, praise. Also make sure they realise in time that this is a daily occurence - not a one-time event like my little one thought! :D Always have a clean pair of underpants with you for when those accidents happen.

Just gradually bring it up in conversation - explain what you do, and other big people do and eventually it will all come together.

GOOD LUCK!!!!! ;)