Potty Trained

My daughter is closing in on three years old. For the last few months we have made strides and tons of effort to get her potty trained. Girls are reportedly easier to potty train then boys. Agreed. Started with Pull-Ups and went from there. It wasn’t long before she hated diapers and wouldn’t wear them. Then we moved to panties with timing. Meaning I set the timer and made her sit on the toilet every 20 minutes or so. We did that for a few hours a day and then would go back to the Pull-Ups. She slowly started to get the message. Fast forward. Many poops in the panties later, many pees in the panties later we are trained! Haha. Made that sound easy. Why should I give the more accurate, pull my hair out, cause me gray hair, exhausted exasperation picture? Here’s the truth. She did slowly potty train. Then she got the pee in the toilet thing down with an occassional dribble in the panties thing. I can handle that. What I hate it the poop in the pants because I don’t know why thing. It is frustrating and gross. It isn’t like a Pull-Up. You don’t throw away upteen pairs of underwears. I tried treats (M&Ms) and that didn’t work. I tried treats ($ store toys) and they collected dust. I tried applause and praise and that feel on non listening/caring ears. Finally, finally I tried Netflix. Yes, you read right. You see all of a sudden my daughter started to like Caillou. He’s education, non violent so I let her watch him on occasion. Then the lightbulb went on with me. I told her that if she poops in her panties she doesn’t get to watch Caillou. If she poops in her panties, Caillou is forfeited until said (next) poop takes place in the toilet. There were many tears shed and screaming and tempers flaring. After three days  of “accidents” she made a concerted effort to make it to the toilet. Back and forth for a while. Then backslide. Oh the frustration. There was a crap filled day around the holidays were there was crap (runny kind) on the carpet from one room to another, in the panties, down the legs, what the hell do I do with this day. Then I sat her down and said you are a big girl. Big girls poop in the toilet. You make mommy sad when you poop in your panties. I’m sad. You’re a bad Elisa. Good Elisa’s poop in the toilet. Don’t you want mommy to be happy? Don’t you want to watch Caillou? Be a big girl.

Case closed. Message received. Two accidents in two weeks and I am confident she is potty trained. It wasn’t easy and there isn’t any advice I have for everyone else but I will say, you must experiment until you find what works for you and your toddler.

• Posted in: Potty Training
• Tagged: parenting, Potty Training, potty training methods