How do I help her over the "hump?"

[phirey]

DD will be 2 1/2 tomorrow. She's been working on PT on and off since 18 mos, and for about six months has been going on the potty somewhat regularly. For maybe three months she's been telling us when she wants to go. If we let her run around the house with nothing on, she'll be accident-free and ask to go every time. In fact, she often doesn't even ask, she just goes -- climbs up, wipes, flushes, everything! But if she has anything on, it's a totally different story. She might ask to go, but then 10 minutes later she'll pee in her diaper! She sees no difference between diaper, pull-up or panties.

We've tried potty-training intensive weekends, potty parties, etc. Yesterday evening, after a totally accident-free day (naked), I put big girl panties on. Within a few minutes, she'd peed in them, and told me so! This morning we've been outside almost all morning with panties on. She was dry for over an hour or more. After I while I started asking if she wanted to go. She always said "no," but sure enough, a few minutes later she soaked her panties and her dress. She even denied having gone. I brought her inside, changed her dress and have nothing on below now. She's gone twice on the potty since then.

It seems to me she's ready if she can stay dry without anything on. How do I help her from dry naked to dry with panties?

[vikivoly]

How long of a period is she staying dry when naked? Has she ever had an accident-free day yet?

It sounds to me like she might not be ready yet. I might consider backing off from it all together and then trying again in a month or so. I'm wondering if she just doesn't "get" that she's not supposed to pee in her panties. When DD first starting peeing in the potty, she knew it was what she was supposed to do in the potty, but not necessarily that it was wrong to pee in her pants.

[phirey]

She can go for hours and hours naked. She's literally never had an accident naked. She goes up to an hour or two between potty trips. Our lives just aren't unscheduled enough that there are many days we can go the whole day naked.

[vikivoly]

>Our lives just aren't unscheduled enough that
>there are many days we can go the whole day naked.

Oh, to be so lucky. LOL! I thought that was pretty cute. ;)

I'm not sure what I would do, so I'm not much help. You would think that the air on her bottom would make her want to go. Does she gripe about pulling her pants up and down when she goes? Maybe it just takes too much time out of her busy life. Or what about wearing a dress w/o undies (at home only of course) to break her in slowly. Have you tried naked except for undies?

I thought maybe she didn't like the feel of pee running down her leg, but if she's never had an accident naked, then that's not the problem. Hmmmm...

[phirey]

I'm sorry, yeah, I guess that was a pretty funny statement!

I meant that she has either a dress or a long T-shirt on when we're "naked!" Not stark naked... We've tried it outside, too, but have a slight problem: Her favorite thing to do is to play "upside down," which is her attempt to learn a summersault. But she stalls out at the top and pretty much is doing a downward dog in yoga. Not a very pretty sight for the neighbors driving past.

No she doesn't really gripe about the undies. She just wets them randomly -- not on her way to the bathroom. I'm really stumped.

[vikivoly]

No need to apologize, I got a good chuckle. You gotta love life with a toddler. :)

DD has been into doing summersaults at a moments notice lately too, butt (lol) she hasn't tried the naked summersault yet. Since she's been potty trained she's been doing a lot more running around naked. Of course before she was trained, we couldn't do it because she ALWAYS peed when she was naked (except in the potty of course.)

Good luck. If she's this far, I'm sure she'll be coming around soon. Sorry I couldn't help. :(

[phirey]

I just wanted to thank you, Vicki, for your interest and support... Somehow I just needed to wait a few more days for the magic to happen.

We pushed the issue a little and just kept panties on her straight through. Two or three accidents in one day and she was finished. All day yesterday she was home with panties on and dry all day. DH was home with her and put her in a diaper for her nap and that was it. Today she went to daycare in panties and DH was suprised to see her in the same outfit and panties at the end of the day! Apparently they didn't even put a diaper on her for her nap, and she stayed dry!!!!!

Elmo called her this morning to offer words of encouragement and we went out for ice cream both last night and tonight.

Yay! Four and a half months of diaper freedom til I'm doing it again!!!!

[vikivoly]

YAY!! I'm happy to hear the great news! I felt bad that I didn't have any good advice for you. Toddlers are so fickle, aren't they?

Enjoy the 4 1/2 months of diaper freedom. I haven't had that for 2 1/2 years and counting!