Lots of good advice here. I remember my mom telling me that she got me potty trained by telling me that she would buy me pretty little lace panties if I would start using the toilet. She said I started using the toilet and she bought me the pretty panties. hee-hee! I have boys and they take a little longer than girls in general. We pushed our first one too soon and had to back off and let him do it at his own pace. Poor little guy would get constipated and we'd end up using "positories" as he called them to help him. He was about 4 before he was fully trained. Our second son started potty training himself wanting to do everything big brother was doing, then went backwards when son number three was born, but eventually got back on track. Third son copied older brothers but also enjoyed going pee outside in the backyard and once on the garage floor - 'cause it made a loud noise and was funny to him. I think the thing that got my boys to using the potty was watching one of those potty training videos. There was one where the song went, "Now I'm going to the potty, potty . . . Yes, I'm going to the potty, potty, etc." They enjoyed singing that song when they went to the potty and it was just one of those songs I couldn't get out of my head! A friend of mine started laughing at me a couple months ago when I was talking about this subject to someone and started singing that song. She said it was the same video she used for her daughter! Check your local library to see if they have any potty training videos available for check out. We checked this one out for two weeks with my second son since he enjoyed watching it so much!

For some reason, she felt empowered.....and didn't need to control you with the potty issue. For a lot of years, kids learned not to soil their pants well before the age that is the norm these days....do you suppose we have suddenly evolved into a species of creatures with late maturing bladders? Do you suppose your great-great grandmother washed on a washboard the diapers and other clothing, or her children for 4 years?...2 or 3 at a time?....and stoked the fire and made her bread etc? I know my children pottied themselves by 2 years.....and I know my brother and I did.....and I know that my grandmother said her children were trained before 2 ( my brother is 10 years younger....and my grandmother lived with us...so she expressed her opinion.....a lot!) It seems that Freud started the whole "anal retentive" thing. We used to put a child on the potty at 6 months for a little while at a "certain time" each day. If by chance, they performed....the bells and whistles all went off! But...it got them used to the potty....and I used that time to put on my face, brush my teeth and curl my hair. Now it seems we are afraid of scarring a child's psyche by putting them on the potty too young.....but not afraid to give them Karate lessons at 3. A child that has never worn a disposable, nor a pair of waterproof pants will be very uncomfortable when wet. And you'd be surprised at how fast they catch on to how nice it is to always have a warm, dry bottom. I think that after...or about...age 2 it becomes a control issue.....the child is using the potty issue to have some control. I belive it's the same sort of thing that sometimes leads teen age girls with parents who are perfectionists to become anorexic. It's the one area of their life over which they have total control.....when to eat and when to poop. I suggest finding another area of her life to control....like total choice on what to wear.... But....please don't misunderstand.....I wouldn't want to return to the cloth diaper, wash board days for anything!! Linda C

My daughter was potty trained at 22 months, and not because I forced the issue either. Once she got to where she could let us know that she had to go, and she was sitting on the potty with her clothes on, we moved the potty to the living room and took off all of her clothes. She ran to the potty when she had to go. We rewarded her with mini M&M's (only one). She never got candy, so that was a real treat for her. From that day on, she always wore panties because I'd been told not to use pull-ups for the reasons stated above. I think she had maybe 3 accidents in the following month. If we went out of the house, I also didn't use pull-ups. I put a plastic liner over regular panties, and I had a change of clothes of course. Also, the car seat was a big concern because mine is a pain to clean, so I'd lay a waterproof pad in it before I put her in it. Anytime she said she had to potty, we ran to the bathroom no matter how inconvenient it was. I remember going into some store bathrooms 4 times before getting out of the store. I think she just liked to see new bathrooms. Poop-This was a problem for about 2 weeks because she had trouble with constipation from the time she was an infant. She didn't like to poop, and she tried not to. She must have thought it's hurt worse on the potty because she would ask for a diaper when she had to poop. I gave in for the first few days, but then I decided that if she knew she had to poop, then there must be a reason that she wouldn't. I figured she was scared. I still had to put her in diapers for naps and bedtime, and she would actually wait for those times to poop. She would also wait until she woke up, so she didn't have to sleep in it. I wouldn't rush to change her when she did. I'd try to wait 10-15 minutes. When I did change her, I'd let her flush the poop down the toilet. We'd say bye-bye to it. I'd always tell her that the potty was where she should do that, and that if she did, we'd do a really special dance called the potty dance, but she couldn't see what it was until she pooped on the potty. I also told her that she'd get two big cookies if she pooped on the potty. She never got cookies either except from Grandma, so this was exciting to her as well. One day (within the two weeks from starting to wear panties), she went to the bathroom and pooped. We danced and had cookies! Also, anytime before that when she would pee on the potty, I'd try to get her to poop by telling her to push way down in her back. I had a friend tell me that. I think some kids know that they have to poop, but they can't figure out how to make it come out on the potty, but rather they wait until it is on it's way, and then can't make it.

My son's Potty Time book is his favorite, like all kids he loves repetition, sometimes we'd read that book 10 times in a row before he'd be ready to move on to something else else. A few weeks ago he told me that he wanted to wear "big undies" just like the boy in his book. Remebering what my Grandma said "once you start, you can't go back, no matter how messy it gets", I let him spend the day in his big undies. He only had one accident, and 3 weeks later I can only count a handle full of times that he's had a potty accident, including at night and at naptime. Now poopy is a totally different story. I've timed him, and it seems a few minutes after eating luch is his "regular" time. I can set him on the potty and we'll read books or play with cars, and he refuses to go. For some reason the little man will not go poopy on the potty chair. I've even stopped caling it a potty chair thinking that maybe he was taking it literally, now it's the "Big Boy Toilet". I guess patience and perseverance will win out. I know he's not going to graduate from college without being properly toilet trained! BTW - At this point I refuse to be like my mother and resort to bribery, but I must admit she convinced both of my daughters in one weekend to use the potty with a pack of Juicy Fruit!!!