Help me help her do #2 on the potty?

[WatchingThemGrow]

Please tell me how you got them to do it. DD started using the potty on vacation at my mom's house the day she turned 22 mos- about 3 weeks ago. I thought I still had some time to read up on all this. She never does anything "early." She's totally motivated and wants to use "foap" on her hands after every tinkle, but she hasn't pooped there yet. We've offered candy, but she's never really had any and has no idea what it is. We gave her an M&M to get a taste, and she knows where and what they are. I think that's a start.

DH wants to leave her in a diaper every day until she goes, but I don't think that will help the process. We're using Hanna training unders which are so nice, and 2x she's pooped in them instead of stripping down and running to the bathroom which she does the other 7-10x/day when she has to pee. Each time, we put the stuff in the toilet, flush and say bye-bye. Will she eventually just get the idea and try it there?

I remember reading about the 3-4 yr. old DC who ask for diapers so they can go, and I can't imagine having to deal with it for that long. I'm also nursing half the time she's "gotta go" so DS has his own bouncy seat near all the action. Please share your tricks...

[citymama]

My DD's big incentive is stickers - you can buy books of motivational stickers at Target for a few bucks. We made a home-made potty chart and posted it in the bathroom, and in the beginning, she got a sticker for just sitting on the potty. Now she gets a sticker for peeing and 2 for pooping!

Our strategy is to put her on the pot at the time we know she's likely to poop, thus giving her a good chance at success. For my 24 month old DD, it's within 15-30 minutes of dinner (and sometimes breakfast has that effect too!). The first time she was so stunned she hopped off the pot in the middle of pooping, but now she's getting more comfortable with the feeling, and extremely proud of herself when she poops! Our challenge is getting her to tell us when she needs to go - right now, we still have to do the guesswork based on time of day. HTH a little!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Cool, thanks! I read in your Flip N Flush post she had success. It is encouraging she's just a little older than my DD. Our DD used to be so regular, but now it can happen any time of day. Maybe we'll try out a sticker chart. As a former teacher and trained counselor, I've seen them work wonders with certain kids. Thanks!

[hbridge]

Congratulations on training so young! As for pooping, my first advice is to switch to pullups if you haven't already. Save the training pants for when your home. I just couldn't deal with poop accidents while traveling so we used pullup style "diapers" for a long time when we were out. They allow DD to still use the potty "independently" to pee, but there won't be a huge mess with poop. Oh, and Hanna Training pants wash beautifully!

As for pooping in the potty, we found that immediate "incentives" worked. For us it was chocolate when DD sat on the potty. Also, a poop chart that tracks when she pooped in the potty. She would sit in front of it and discuss her progress.

Good luck.

[eliasmom]

As sort of a side note, I have a friend who is a physical therapist specializing in pelvic, pee & poop issues (as she says). She told me to encourage pooping on the potty, I have to make sure DD's feet are supported so her target muscles are able to relax and to have her blow bubbles because it would help her poop (and she would think it was fun).

[WatchingThemGrow]

I know about that "make her feet stable" thing, but all 3 of our stools don't reach her on our tall comfort-height toilets. Her feet still dangle. She's big for her size, but she's still just 1 (for a little bit at least). She will not use the big Bjorn potty. That's for her dolls!!! I guess I'll start having her sit on the Bjorn potty in the afternoons and try the bubble thing and the sticker chart. Better go get set up! Thanks for your replies. Wish us luck!

[rbsmom]

Wow - she really is ahead of schedule! My 3 y.o. is FINALLY becoming potty trained (she was doing great before DD #2 showed up, and then I stopped since I was overwhelmed with the baby - BIG mistake). Anyway, what finally worked for her is I created a potty chart with for pee-pee & poop. There are (as many as you need) boxes going across. I bought foam star stickers, so each time she does her thing, she gets to put a sticker in the box. I took pictures of presents, and pasted the picture in the final box. When she fills up all the boxes for that line (pee or poop), she gets the present. When a section gets filled, just pull off the stars & paste a new present at the end. I also put a line through the pee boxes (doubling the #), so now she has to do double the # of pees before she gets a present.

She wasn't really into it until she got her first present. Now all of a sudden, she's starting to tell me when she needs to do it (she NEVER did before), and she hasn't had a single poop or pee accident since we started the chart. It's SO not me, but I was willing to try anything!!

You could give it a try to get her to poop...

[HIU8]

I am interested to know how to motivated DS to poop on the potty as well. He is fully potty trained when it comes to pee. He only wears underwear during the day and an overnight pull up at night. However, he does poop in his underwear and pull up. He flat out refuses to use the potty to poop. He went as far as to tell me that he would let me know when he is ready to poop on the potty. I asked him to let me know so we could put a pull up on him to poop (cleaning poopy underwear is getting old fast) but he refuses. we have tried candy, toys, stickers, a special day out alone with me or DH--nothing works. I figure he will just eventually feel more comfortable and start using the potty to poop--HE WILL BE 4 IN NOVEMBER--I hope he starts to fell comfortable soon.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Thanks for all your tips and encouragement. This week has been a crazy one with her doing #2 in her unders at the library and at the church nursery. Can't believe they didn't just page me to come clean it up - secretly thankful ;)

The chart has been up for a few days with my great "full potty = M&Ms" drawing. Candy and stickers were on the shelf waiting. She's babbled about the picture all week, not quite sure if the reward was apples or "nandy." I was willing to give her both. She even got desperate and ripped some eyeballs off a caterpillar she made at a party, popped them in her mouth and came running to me with the chart from the wall. "Nandy, Mommy, nandy!" EEk. After the mouth swipe to retrieve the stick on eyeballs, I realized she was motivated and understood the task.

After 2 days of holding it in, she announced she had poopy this morning, and calmly walked in there with DH. I was nursing, so he waited out the 21 minutes it took (great excuse to be late for work!), and rewarded her with 2 M&M's and a sticker on the chart. The baby and I ran down the hall when we could to congratulate her:cheerleader1: She's so proud. What a great day!

The book My Big Girl Potty by Joanna Cole has great pictures and nice explanatory text. I'm totally recommending that to others from now on. I think that helped her get the idea so early. Hope it sticks :yay: Thanks again for helping us, mamas!

ETA -smilies

[citymama]

That's so awesome that she's getting the hang of it! :bighand: I just saw your reply to my other post - I had not seen the subsequent replies to this thread, so thanks for the reminder. I wanted to say that re timing, I've heard that the 2 months before and after turning 2 are supposed to be the ideal window for PTing, so you've caught the right window. We started in earnest at around 24 months, and at 25 months, she is really getting the hang of it. And besides stickers, the idea of wearing underwear like the big girls at daycare is a huge motivator.

I have another question for you re training unders that I'll ask you in the other thread! Good luck and let's keep trading notes!