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View Full Version : Help! Preschool starts in less than 2 weeks and no potty for DD!



sophiesmom
09-02-2004, 11:35 PM
We have my daughter enrolled in a 3 year old class at a local preschool. The children must be potty trained. I really thought Sophia would get the whole potty training thing this summer, but she didn't (she turned 3 on 8/4) .

For a while she was sitting on the potty. She would pee a little, has never done a 'real' poopie on it. I tried an sticker chart and worked for a while but then stopped. One day i put her in panties. Once she sat on for me, once actually went herself!, but then had 2 a accidents which i didn't make a big deal of.

That was all about 2 mos ago. I do admit I'm kinda lazy w/ it, but chasing around DS has made it challenging. Now i know she knows when she has to pee, because she'll ask to get out of the tub, or if she is naked she'll ask for a diaper. But she always wants the diaper on to go. We just went to CA for 5 days (from PA), so prior to the trip and during I stopped asking her about the potty.

Her first class is to be 9/14. i don't want to force her to go potty because i know that wil lbe a disaster. I spoke w/ the director today and told her, she gave me some ideas. She also said she can wait til the second week to see if she is trained. (no diapers or pullups allowed).

Sooo.. my question, what should i do?! I tried today just not putting a diaper on her and not saying a word about it, she would go about 45 mins, know she had to pee, then ask for the diaper. Just looking for similar stories, ideas, or whatever!
thanks!]

Thatchermom
09-03-2004, 08:53 PM
No great ideas for you, but lots of empathy. We start in 6 days and I can't even get Thatch to put on a pull-up for me, he just cries and cries at it. His teacher has made an exception for him to come not potty-trained, but they do want him in a pull-up. She has been great about it, and as a fellow mom is even hoping that watching the other boys go will help jumpstart him for us. But no pullup, no preschool...I feel your stress!

sophiesmom
09-03-2004, 10:57 PM
oh that's great they will take him. i understand how they dont want to spend time changing diapers, but w/ having the cutoff date 8/31, they're going to have some young 3's.

she'll wear pullups but just keeps peeing in them. i'm thinking of, starting sun, just going diaperless as much as i can. going to try an incentive chart w/ a pic of roller skates she wants..????

i'm sure if she doesn't get trained, i'll pull her out, lose my spot, then the next week she'll start!!!

egoldber
09-03-2004, 11:34 PM
If I were you, I'd put her in underwear, without fail, for the next 2 weeks. If she is going to succeed with this in preschool, she needs to learn to wear undies all day, and the only way to do that is just do it, KWIM? By going back and forth with pull-ups, you are sending her mixed messages.

It will be a challenging 2 weeks, but if you think that she really does know when she has to go, then 2 weeks in underwear may be enough time. Do not despair after a day or 2 in undies with some accidents. That will happen.

Do you have super special underwear that she loves? For us, the trick from getting from pull-ups to undies, was getting her princess underwear just like the princess pull-ups. That made her very motivated to wear undies and stay dry.

Good luck!

redhookmom
09-04-2004, 12:08 AM
I followed my own version of "potty trained in less the a day" (or something like that.)

I put my ds in underware and said that for now on we were using the pooty. Every half hour or so I encouraged him to sit on the the potty to check to see if he had to go. If he had an accident we "practiced" going to the pooty. So I got him cleaned up and then he went to sit on the potty, then back to playing and then before it was necessary we "practiced" again. The idea behind it being that it would be annoying to him to interupt his play to practice... My ds had just turned 3 and it worked by the end of day 2.

In my mind what worked was a combination of him being ready and me being committed to making it work.

toomanystrollers
09-04-2004, 06:20 PM
ITA w/Beth and I've followed the same method with both kiddos. When Tess and Shea turned 3, no more diapers - straight to cotton Gerber training pants and underwear. They need to feel and get wet. Pull-ups and plastic training pants absorb too much!!

Shea's been out of diapers (daytime) for over a month. He still wears an overnight cloth diaper. He starts preschool next week and I'm just packing several additional outfits to keep at school.

ETA: The only time I remind Shea to use the potty is before we leave the house to go somewhere and before he goes to bed. That's it! :) IMO, they need to learn on their own without the constant reminders.

HTH

sophiesmom
09-04-2004, 10:33 PM
thanks for the ideas. i do think it takes mommy being comitted too which i really haven't been, then all of a sudden it's september. :-(

i'm going to try tomorrow staying home and getting the panties on her, but she's so adamant about wearing diapers now. she has princess panties... still no go... :-(

Melanie
09-06-2004, 02:29 AM
I understand, Ds was the same way. I strongly recommend not forcing if she doesn't want them. Do you have potty books or potty videos? If she has a favorite character maybe a book or video with that character might entice.

The world will not end if she doesn't get to go to preschool at 3. Plus, it sounds as if they are flexible, maybe you could enroll her in the middle of the year?

Remembering back to my preschool days, even at that age it can be really embarrassing to have accidents around your friends, so I wouldn't push her to go before you think she's really ready.

sophiesmom
09-06-2004, 12:09 PM
i know, you are right, she can go next year. i just got overly excited and i know she would enjoy it. there are other things she can do though. i do worry about her having accidents in front of the kids, she does embarrass easily.

we'll give it a try this week and next, then take it from there!
thanks!