I haven’t written much about this in the past because, well, because it’s a little embarrassing. It’s not easy to share that your VERY (yes, very) smart 3 1/2-year-old girl is STILL not potty trained. It’s more frustrating that a child as smart as she is can still pee and poo in her diaper. Is it a reflection of my parenting, or a reflection of the control she’s administering on us. Either way, it’s not a good thing. Don’t get me wrong, I hate seeing my girls grow up so fast, and then again I love every new thing they can do. But, I’m getting really tired of changing real human poo. Not baby poo. Human poo. It’s geeeerooosssss.
For a while, I attributed the lack of potty use to the fact that The Boss (how apropos) has characteristics of Einstein Syndrome, and part of those characteristics is late potty training. Joy - late talking + smart kid + late potty training = changing human-sized poo. She’ll be in gifted classes explaining to the teacher that no, 8×8 isn’t 62, it’s 64 all they while crapping in her pants.
We’ve tried everything. I mean everything. We’ve tried bribery (a trip on the Disney cruise, M&Ms, toys), we’ve tried shame (with shame), and we’ve tried reasoning (you can’t reason with a toddler). Nothing.
I thought we had a breakthrough. All of a sudden, 2 Mondays ago, she decided out of the blue to sit on the crapper and poo and pee and pee. All in the span of 3 hours. I was over-joyed! We called everyone we knew, we had a party, we bought toys, we carried her on our shoulders, we got a banner plane. Apparently, it was too much, because the next morning, nada. Same ole, same ole.
Scared shitless of the crapper.
We actually scared the shit into her a few weeks ago so much that she didn’t poo for 3 days. I know - mother of the year.
The other day, my ma suggested something she read about 3-year-old potty training. Lock her in the bathroom with no diaper until she goes on the crapper. So, this morning with a dry diaper, I put her in the crapper sans diaper. She stood at the gate crying/begging/demanding that I let her out while I calmly told her she was going to stay in there until she peed in the crapper.
Her response - pee on the floor.
Nice.
Now what?
Oh, that’s a pisser (sorry, couldn’t help myself)! My soon-to-be three year old is doing the VERY same thing. He sobs hysterically at the mere mention of the potty. I’m stealing the idea that he’s gifted and that is responsible for the delay. Just know you aren’t alone.
My son absolutely refused to be trained until he was 4. What can you do. Not much.
My oldest son wasn’t trained fully until he was well past 3 and my middle son had this deal where he would pee in the potty but not poo. I tried everything and was at my wits end, 1 day I told him fine if you want to poo in the diaper you have to do it on the potty. I set the diaper on the potty chair and he did the deed, after that he gave up the diaper all together. They all do it when they are good and ready and not before. She’ll get there.
Hope wasn’t trained until the day before she turned 4. She just had to be ready and she wasn’t until that point. After she decided to do it (I plopped her on the potty) she was trained with no accidents the next week.
All in good time I say and anyone that has an issue with her not being trained can stuff it in their nose.
My twin 3 1/2 year old girls are going through the same thing. At first they were really excited to sit on the potty, but now every time I mention it they start screaming and crying (No don’t make me!!!) because apparently it is so tortuous. What makes it even more frustrating is that they are the only two kids in their preschool class that are not potty trained!!!
All in good time everyone says, but I pray that the time is now!!! Hang in there we are all out here with you!!!
Try making it fun!!
Don’t ask me how….
A Jill of All Trades’s last blog post..Ah hem
I’m going through the same with my 3-year-old son. Last Saturday we did the no-pants-no-diaper thing, and while he did pee on the floor at least 4 times, he also went on the potty 5-6 times. Then, the next day, we went back to crying hysterically at the very sight of the bathroom. We even bought a different potty this weekend, just to see if this one would make him want to site on it, but no, he just wants to play with it.
At least I’m not the only one!!!!
Hi, I come by not too often, just once in a while so I never comment. Still, I wanted to share a “tip” about this, even though I have no kids of my own.
My cousin was about 3 or 4, and refused to go to the bathroom. He used diapper which his teacher had to change, one day she talked to his parents and explained she could no longer change his diapers (she had to leave the room and leave the rest of the class to do so). So, my aunt explained this to him and told him that if he went on his diapper at school he would remain unchanged until he got home.
His response: he stopped pooping while at school, he would wait until he got home and his mom could change him. REALLY tired of cleaning his poo, she told him that from then on she would change him just once a day -before bed time- and he would have to remain dirt for the entire day.
For two or three days he would poo and then tell his mother “Mom I pooed, you need to change me or I’ll get a diaper rash”. Then, he just started asking to go to the bathroom.
Son’t know, maybe it might help. Good luck!!
Speaking from the point of someone who is taking care of 2 1/2-3 something year olds, I know how difficult it is to train a child to potty! Also….human poop which is what I will now call it is absolutely GROSS to clean up and the worst part of your job…just wait til it’s diarehhea!!
I don’t know if this is helpful, but most of our kids at our preschool are potty trained at the age of 2. We have 2 three year olds who aren’t pottied trained. One just started. Some things that help avoiding accident is having your child go every 1-2 hours. (We are the older 2 year old class and we go every 2 hours where the younger 2 year old class goes every hour.) No child has a choice about going, but they must go. At that time we check diapers as well. If they have a wet diaper, they have to go “try” aka sit on the pot.
Another mother took a day off of work and just let her kid be naked for hours on end until they were potty trained. This happened over a weekend (3 days), but by the end the kid was pottied trained. ‘Course it was an agonizing 3 days but she said it was well worth it.
Good luck!!
I can’t believe you carried her around on your shoulders to reward her. Weren’t you worried? OK, couldn’t resist - had my shoulders peed on too many times! No helpful hints here. Tried all those you’ve tried as well. Out of 3 kids, I’m 2 down and 1 to go. Let’s hope the last one doesn’t go off to college in a Depends.
dto3’s last blog post..It Has Begun
Bub is only now (at age 4) starting to get the hang of potty training. We tried in the summer and didn’t get anywhere - not only would he pee on the floor, but he’d be proud of himself for it. “I did it!” he’d shout, expecting praise (not quite getting the concept). We tried again at Christmas and it’s going MUCH better now - we saw a difference immediately. I’d say just set it aside for a couple of months and try again. It’s probably easier to do that with a boy because people are more familiar with boys potty-training late.
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Hey, I would consider it a small victory in that she didn’t “human poo” on the floor! And that observation about baby poo vs human poo is so very astute. I think that’s nature’s way of motivating us to potty train.
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Been there.
And then mine decided on Saturday that it’s all about the crapper.
I wouldn’t have believed it was possible had I not seen it with my own two eyes.
I’m still waiting for it to go horribly wrong.
moosh in indy.’s last blog post..Cheapness doesn’t pay.
i’m taking care of my thee and a half year old sister. she’s totally potty trained but she keeps peeing on the floor! it’s so gross and she doesn’t tell me when she does it so i don’t notice until i’m wading in a puddle of it and it’s somehow managed to flood the entire hallway. she’s had accidents in her pants but what’s ridiculous is when it’s not in her pants. she actually pulled them down and pees on the floor. she’s driving me mad.
I feel your pain, although my boy is only 2 1/2. He is however completely capable of pottying and can go overnight and several days without pee accidents, but he insists on pooping on the floor. Lately, he now seems to be trying to get attention by removing his clothes and peeing somewhere he’s not supposed to. I feel like I have cat or dog problem? It’s not supposed to be like this with your kid I swear. But we’re going to try some of the techniques giving no emotional response and see how that goes. I think sibling rivalry is causing it.